CNN One Thing

This is One Thing, I'm David Rind, and members of Congress are used to getting tough questions, but not like this.

One in particular was a lady in Shreveport who stood up and said, look, why should I vote? You know, my vote really doesn't count. Stick around.

Mr. Clerk, please take the vote.

That's how it sounded on Thursday afternoon in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

House Bill 7003, having received the Constitution's majority, I hereby declare it passed without objection to motion to reset or stable.

The reason it sounded more like a cattle auction than a legislative session is because of what they were voting on, a new congressional map.

Tennesseans don't want this, we're better than this. Across the state, this was unpopular. They're not even bringing it back, they're enhancing what is left of Jim Crow.

Republicans approved a new map that splits up the only district held by a Democrat in the entire state. This district encompasses the majority black city of Memphis. Redrawing the voter map essentially makes Democratic and minority influence insignificant. Protesters and Democratic lawmakers were outraged. They said their voices were being silenced.

Today, you'll take the only majority black district from us, but I want you to know, and I want my nephews, sons, and the future to know. No matter what you do, no matter how much you try and break us and make us bend and make us quit, we will still be here.

This vote didn't just happen out of nowhere, though. It came just over a week after the Supreme Court handed down a major decision that critics say guts the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and will make it harder for voters of color to challenge redistricting plans on the basis of racial discrimination.

The Supreme Court was tossing out Louisiana's congressional map that added a second majority black district in a state where a third of the population is black. It is an epic nationwide battle that this is a part of between Republicans and Democrats over redistricting, not in the normal time frame, redistricting in the middle of a decade, and it could determine who wins the midterms.

'This decision set off a wave of action in Republican-led statehouses across the South. South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, they are all considering drawing new maps with a serious push being applied by President Donald Trump to help Republicans boost a razor thin majority in the House. And then there's Louisiana, home to the majority minority district that sparked this Supreme Court case in the first place. After this decision, the state's governor took the drastic step of delaying U.S. House primary elections so that Republicans could enact the new maps. That process will continue this week, but what happens here will reverberate well beyond Louisiana. So I want to dig into this today with Democratic Congressman Cleo Fields. He knows these gerrymandering battles well. The House district he represented in the early 1990s was struck down by the courts, but he later returned to Congress in 2024, only to see his district once again come under legal scrutiny. Congressman, thank you so much for being here. It's good to be with you and thanks for having me. So your district, Louisiana 6th Congressional District, was really at the heart of this major Supreme Court case last month. Can you just take us back and explain how it was drawn the way that it was?

Well, I mean, I was chairman of the committee, so I wanted to make absolutely certain that the Senate and the House complied with all previous rulings of the Supreme Court. This was not my favorite plan. It was not the favorite plan of the Legislative Black Caucus either. But the author of the plan, and the plan that eventually passed, the plan under which I serve today. Uh... Basically created uh... To majority minority districts and one of the questions we had for the author of the bill is you know why you run in the district from baton Rouge to shreveport uh... And the answer was because i need to protect the only female member of congress from louisiana and according to previous You know rules of the court that was totally permissible and any other reasons he said i want to protect the speaker of the house and i want protect the majority of leader you know previous rules of the court basically said that's you know political gerrymandering was totally legal as they stated in this case and we made sure you know when he was being questioned by the committee. You know was race your. You know was that the predominant factor in in you draw in this district the way it looks and he'd made it very clear no race was not the predominate factor i told you the problem in fact there was politics and so i've always said i mean obviously the supreme court well you know i certainly have respect for all the justices that do not accept six of their opinions but the record is clear Race was not the predominant factor in the creation. Of the sixth congressional district, it was sheer politics.

As I understand it now, with this ruling, somebody would have to prove that there is intentional discrimination at play with a map to win some kind of challenge rather than just the effect to be discrimination, is that?

Yeah, they change the rules. I hate when people change the rules once the game starts. That really upsets me and that's why Congress needs to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and they need to pass it to the next Congress. It has always been the effect. The courts basically have said in the past, forget about the intent of the legislature. We're not here to try to get in the legislature's heads. You know, if the effect is discriminatory, then the plan shall fail. You know, now the courts have changed the test. They basically say, and we don't care about the effect of what you do. We care about rather not you intended to do it. You know? Well, I mean, how do you improve the intent of the legislature?

Right, would there have to be like an email chain or text messages with someone saying, I want to discriminate against black people, we're going to draw the map this way so that it happens.

It's a terrible decision, you know, let's let's make no bones about it is a terrible decision. It basically guts the Voting Rights Act. You know, there there is no case you will be able to bring to prove intentional discrimination.

Also, you and I are talking Thursday afternoon. The state house is set to start discussing these new maps starting tomorrow, Friday. Do you know if your district will be drawn out?

I mean, obviously, um, I plan to go to the legislature to testify. We all know what the Supreme court has said, but let me tell you what the Supreme Court did not say. The Supreme court did not see, uh, that the elections in Louisiana should halt and throw away people's voting ballots. It did not, say there's anything wrong with the second congressional district in Louisiana. And it did not say you can't draw other majority. Yes, sir And David it did, not say anything about not drawing a second majority black district So yes, I will continue to fight because I just think it's the right thing to do and I tell people the issues Not really not I serve another second in Congress The real issue is really not a person who looks like me have the opportunity to serve in Congress

Well, so you say you're going to go testify, but, you know, to be frank, it's kind of out of your hands at this point, right? So what happens if it does get redrawn into a more Republican favoring district? Will you run in that district?

I'll never say never never say forever first of all it it uh... I would not say is is not in in this in the people's hand because the people house uh... Will vote for against a plan that's going to be discussed by this legislature and that's why i tell people show up and let your voice be heard in which you face be seen uh... Republicans control

legislature though, and President Trump is saying he wants this done.

'Yeah. And, and the same Republican legislature that passed a plan with two majority black districts in the past. I understand the politics of it all. I understand that the only thing different from then and now is you got Trump as president, you know, what president picks up the phone and call a governor, governor of Texas, for example, and say, I need five more Republican seats, this is all unconscionable. Not to mention un-American, this is a race to the bottom.

I was going to say Democrats are doing the same thing in response to what happened in Texas, you know, in California and Virginia, they put that up to the people to, you know, start the process of redrawing maps. I mean, if Democrats were in control of the Louisiana State House, wouldn't they be doing the Same thing here.

First of all, Democrats, I've never heard of a Democratic president calling a governor saying, let's do some decade redistricting. This is all on President Trump's watch. But if you expect Democrats to sit back and just take it, that ain't going to happen and it shouldn't happen. You know, we didn't start this fight. But Democrats should sit idly by and let the democracy just unravel right before eyes and do nothing about it. And I'm not going to be critical of them for doing something. We didn't start this fight. You know, we all know what the purpose of redistricting was for. I mean, it was for, you know, counting, you know, through the census, getting a number and dividing the country up into 435 pieces based on the census. Some states lost members of Congress, some states gained members of Congress. Never did we envision to have decade redistricting. And when will it stop? And it probably won't. It's gonna go on and on and one, but it's the president who started this, you know, and this Supreme Court. And we shouldn't just shut up and take it.

Gotta take a break. When we come back, forget which maps are in effect. Some Louisianans are wondering if the votes they've already cast are going to be used. Stick around. Congressman, you mentioned the primaries, and I actually want to ask about that because Louisiana's governor postponed primaries for US House races only, including your own, so that there would be more time to draw up these new maps. But absentee ballots had already gone out, votes that had already been cast. So I'm wondering, do you know if those are gonna count? Well, we fighting in court right now.

To make sure that they count. You know, we had 100,000 ballots in Louisiana sent to people overseas and in the state. 100,00. Over 40,000 of those ballots had already been cast. So we're going to tell people in the military overseas, thanks for your ballot, but I'm sorry it won't count. We're going tell an elderly woman who took the time to fill out. An absentee ballot and sent it back to the Secretary of State going to say it doesn't count. It doesn't make sense what the state is doing right now, and that's why there's so much voter confusion. I want every single person in here to go and vote, and I want you to vote the entire ballot. That's why I'm holding so many town hall meetings across the district, to give people some sense of, uh, of comfort in knowing that you got to vote.

I mean, yeah, I wanted to ask about that. You've been out and about talking to constituents, trying to set the record straight about what's been going on here. Has there been one particular interaction or statement you've heard from somebody that has really stood out to you over the course of all this?

Yes, ma'am.

Hi, I am Shirley.

Yeah, most, a lot of them do, but one in particular was a lady in Shreveport who stood up and said, look, why should I vote?

And if we vote, will that vote  count?

My vote really doesn't count. They're going to do what they want to do anyway. And that, and, and I said to, I think it was in Shreveport, I said, if you do that, you know, how are you helping the process? How are you making things better? If you don't vote, then you, they definitely going to do what want to to do. But if you vote, you have a chance to change it. And she left with a different attitude.

Don't lose your spirit. Keep your spirit, and things will get better. We've been in doing just for the night. Joy don't come at a point.

But that's the challenge we have today. You know, we've been through horrible decisions from the Supreme Court before. Plessy beat Ferguson's, for example, where this Supreme Court, not the same members, but the same court, said it was okay. Uh... To have segregation in america that was their decision but we didn't give up we kept fighting it's a constant battle this decision since sends us back you know over sixty years and is is terrible uh... Particularly for people who live in the southern part of our country you know louisiana mississippi and alabama in particular

I mean, I got to be honest, Congressman, when I hear the terms gerrymandering, redistricting, they can sound really wonky. I don't necessarily blame somebody for glazing over when they hear about this stuff, but you're painting a really dire picture. You're framing this like within the arc of history and how it could set Americans back. Do you think the average voter is grasping the magnitude as you describe it?

Yeah, but that's why I'm having town hall meetings and that's why I've been spending so much time talking to voters. Cause I remember as a little boy, you know, uh, you, when they were dealing with the voting rights act, I said to my sister, why, why we need a voting rights Act? Cause you know you really, you pass the 15th amendment. You think you got the right to vote, you know, women, the 19th amendment, they got the right to votes. So why we needed a voting right sack. And it wasn't until my sister actually explained it to me. And she said, although people of color and minorities had the right to vote through the constitution, the state still regulated voter registration. So they had all kinds of barriers put before, you know, blacks, you had to have literacy tests, you know, how many bubbles are in a bar, so insulting things. Then they had poll taxes. And so then when you say that, You know, people say, wow, there was a time I really didn't have the right to vote. But this new generation, they've never been faced with not even having a right to vote. I say to people all the time, you know, Justice Alito, in particular, when he says, you know we live in a colorblind society, you know, we have, you now, we're better than that now, that's the past. Come live in Louisiana, walk in my shoes, just for a day. What he failed to look at is the evidence. There's no evidence that a black person in Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama has been elected to Congress from a majority white district. There is no evidence of that.

Well, that's what I wanted to ask, because obviously, the horse seems to be out of the barn with this redistricting thing. Like you said, it's clear it's just going to keep going and going. So how do Democrats go forward here? Will they have to adjust their messaging at all, especially in the South, to appeal to more conservative white voters if they don't have these majority minority districts to rely on?

'Well, first of all, outside of the South, I mean, African-Americans are elected to Congress and elected to other high offices, statewide offices, and not be in the majority. And that's a good thing, and I'm happy for that. What will our focus be in the future and how do we address the issue in terms of You know, do we become more conservative? I don't think that's the answer. I just think people just need to do the right thing. You know? And I just we need to keep fighting until they do the the right things. Diversity, equity, and inclusion is a great thing. You know when our military became diverse, it did become weaker. It became stronger. It became the most fierce fighting machine in the world. And I just think it takes more people, black and white, speaking to how together make us better, doesn't make us weaker. But when you got this guy in the White House, all he talks about is we don't need diversity, we don't need inclusion.

'I mean, there's certainly an argument for diversity writ large and a functioning society. But when we're talking about these congressional maps specifically, I mean is there a point where Democrats might have to draw themselves more district even if they make minority districts more white? Is that a trade-off to gain more seats in Congress that the party is willing to make? Like, how do you think about that?

'Yeah, look, I'm really not opposed to that. Look, cracking and packing is bad on both sides. I don't think we should have packed Democratic seats. I am certainly not opposed to having more seats that would elect more Democrats. That may be a trade-off to some degree.

I'm wondering how it feels for you to be at the center of such a huge case, you know, your seat to be kind of the focal point, and if you have any advice for other politicians who might have to be dealing with this kind of stuff in the future.

'You know i've never taken uh... Any of this personal uh... And it's tough i mean it's top i mean i've ever served a second in congress and not had a supreme court case pending it's not tough you know uh... To be from a state that's over a third african-american uh... An have six members of congress and the The two times you've created a second seat is already always been challenged. It's tough. I can tell you that, but I would say to members, look, you got to be strong. Dr. King said it best. The measure of a great man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he's stands in moment of controversy and chaos. And I would to those members across the country, particularly in the southern part of our country, you know, stay focused and I would say, stay on your message and stay on you mission. I was kicked out, what, 32 years ago, 33 years now, and had to sit on the sideline for 28 years. I had no idea I would return to Congress, but I knew that the time will change, you know, and the time did change, not have changed back. But don't be weary, just believe and keep fighting.

'Congressman Fields, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Thank you, sir. As Louisiana lawmakers continue to work on new maps, it appears Republicans have pulled ahead in the nationwide redistricting wars. In Virginia on Friday, the State Supreme Court blocked the Democratic plan to redraw congressional maps in the state. A referendum that passed earlier this year would have given the party the chance to win as many as four seats in the upcoming midterms, but the court ruled that the process of creating the referendum violated the state's constitution. And as President Trump continues to push Republican state houses across the South to redraw maps. We're seeing just how strong his grip on the party still is. After Indiana Republicans voted down a plan to redrew maps to Trump's liking last year, at least five of the seven state senators who broke with the president lost their primaries on Tuesday to Trump-backed challengers. That's all we've got for today. Thank you very much for listening. We'll be back with another episode on Wednesday. I'll talk to you then.