On Wednesday's Chris Jansing Reports on MS NOW, fill-in host Erielle Reshef presided over a segment to fret over moves by Louisiana Republicans to eliminate a racially gerrymandered Democrat-leaning congressional district even though doing so is in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision.
The recent high court decision found that the district was improperly gerrymandered in 2024 after a lower court pressured the legislature to draw a second black-majority district.
As reporter Will McDuffie recounted that the Louisiana legislature heard from citizens speaking out on the issue, he showed a couple of provocative clips of liberals lambasting Republicans:
MS NOW Flips Out Over Redistricting by Louisiana GOP pic.twitter.com/Qm1J4lbucx
— Brad Wilmouth (@bradwilmouth) May 14, 2026
WILL McDUFFIE: Let's take a listen to some of that passionate testimony from folks last night.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: This issue clearly affects black people more than anyone else, but I want everyone to understand that no one is safe when the end goal is a white Christian nationalist nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: The MAGA party is the last breath of the Confederacy, and I'll be happy to see millennials and Gen Z buried up. There will be no more of your party. The midterms are going to come, y'all going to get wiped out, Trump going to get dragged out of the White House, and I'm going to love every second of it, because y'all love every second of the suffering that he causes everybody in this country.
The MS NOW reporter ended up lamenting that the Republican legislature would "rubber stamp" the plan passed by the state Senate committee:
RESHEF: So, Will, now, this map heads to the full state Senate for approval on Thursday. What should we expect there?
McDUFFIE: Well, we should expect them to essentially rubber stamp this map. I don't see any way in which they wouldn't pass this through. Republicans hold a large majority in both chambers here in Baton Rouge. I expect probably some protests here as well over the coming days as they make that decision.
Reshef went to liberal Republican ex-Congressman Charlie Dent and liberal ex-Hakeem Jeffries aide Michael Hardaway for response.
Even though it is appropriate for the Louisiana legislature to react in a timely manner to the Supreme Court ruling, Dent -- who used to be a CNN contributor -- began his analysis by proclaiming that redistricting should only be allowed once every 10 years: "Well, first, let me just say Congress needs to pass a law to ban mid-decade redistricting once and for all. This is terrible for the country, whether Republicans are gerrymandering or the Democrats."
After arguing that Republicans may not win some of the newly drawn districts they are aiming for, he lamented the changing districts in the "Deep South." When Hardaway had his turn to speak, he went straight for the Jim Crow stuff: "I think this is obviously some shameful Jim Crow era stuff that is un-American."
Toward the end of the segment, after Reshef played a clip of a South Carolina Republican legislator speaking out against eliminating Congressman Jim Clyburn's seat in his state, she posed: "Michael, when you listen to a Republican leader give that kind of a speech, pushback, it seems, on the President's agenda, does that give you any hope that not all of these Republican-led states will cave to the pressure from the President on redistricting?"
Hardaway soon declared that he has some "bipartisan agreement" with his fellow guest. Even though it is very common for liberal Republicans who appear on MS NOW to agree with Democrats, Reshef concluded by gushing: "And don't we love a rare glimmer of bipartisan agreement, former Congressman Charlie Dent and Michael Hardaway, thank you both for bringing that to us."
It is noteworthy that the liberal media frequently push for Democrats to be handed a minimum number of seats in red states, even if it takes gerrymandering to do it, but all nine of the congressional districts in Massachusetts lean toward Democrats and have done so for decades. The last two Republicans were defeated in 1996 when the state had a total of 10 districts.
Connecticut, which has five Democrat-leaning districts, has not been represented by any Republicans since 2009.
Transcript follows:
MS NOW's Ana Cabrera Reports
May 13, 2026
11:28 a.m. Eastern
ERIELLE RESHEF: We are following big developments in the redistricting fight that could help decide control of the House in November. After a marathon debate into the wee hours of the night this morning -- I should say the night and this morning -- a Louisiana state senate committee voted to advance a new congressional map that could net Republicans another seat in the House. The move comes after a Supreme Court decision earlier this month that struck down Louisiana's previous map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Let's bring in MS NOW reporter Will McDuffie, live from Baton Rouge; former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent; and former communications director and spokesman for minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and publisher of Hardaway Wire, Michael Hardaway. Will, you attended a public hearing there in Louisiana before the vote was held early this morning. What did you hear from voters?
WILL McDUFFIE: Well, Erielle, the reason it went so late into the night and the wee hours of the morning is because so many people came out to testify in front of that committee in opposition to their efforts to redraw congressional lines after that Supreme Court decision. Now, it obviously wasn't enough to prevent that key senate committee from voting to push through a new map that, like you said, would likely eliminate one of the two Democratic held congressional districts here in Louisiana and possibly help Republicans potentially retake the House, or at least get close to it. Let's take a listen to some of that passionate testimony from folks last night.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: This issue clearly affects black people more than anyone else, but I want everyone to understand that no one is safe when the end goal is a white Christian nationalist nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: The MAGA party is the last breath of the confederacy, and I'll be happy to see millennials and gen Z buried up. There will be no more of your party. The midterms are going to come, y'all going to get wiped out, Trump going to get dragged out of the White House, and I'm going to love every second of it, because y'all love every second of the suffering that he causes everybody in this country.
McDUFFIE: Now, Erielle, there was another map on the table that would have eliminated both Democratic held and majority black districts here. This senate committee did not take that map up -- they did advance the one that would remove one of those districts. But no consolation to the folks who were here testifying last night.
RESHEF: So, Will, now, this map heads to the full state senate for approval on Thursday. What should we expect there?
McDUFFIE: Well, we should expect them to essentially rubber stamp this map. I don't see any way in which they wouldn't pass this through. Republicans hold a large majority in both chambers here in Baton Rouge. I expect probably some protests here as well over the coming days as they make that decision. Erielle.
RESHEF: Will McDuffie, thank you so much for being there in Baton Rouge. And, Congressman, what do you make of this move by Republicans?
EX-CONGRESSMAN CHARLIE DENT (R-PA): Well, first, let me just say Congress needs to pass a law to ban mid-decade redistricting once and for all. This is terrible for the country, whether Republicans are gerrymandering or the Democrats. But I should also point out, I don't like what Louisiana is doing, but a lot of people -- analysts are making assumptions, unrealistic assumptions about these seats.
Take Texas, for example. People are saying Republicans are going to pick up five seats there. Yeah, they drew a map for five seats. They'll be lucky to win three of them. But everybody's already counted five seats for the Republicans. Bad assumption. Florida is about to redistrict, too. They say they're going to pick up four seats again. Bad assumption. I don't think that's going to happen.
The people in South Carolina, Republican members of the state senate, understand this. If they were to collapse or get rid of Jim Clyburn's district, there's no guarantee that they would win the seat because they're going to have to dilute Republican seats, and they may make some of those other seats more competitive. The Democrats could win. I agree this is bad for African American representation in the Deep South. But let's be clear about what's happening here that Republicans are not going to pick up the number of seats that many pundits are predicting right now.
RESHEF: So the congressman alluding to the fact that this may be overly optimistic on the part of Republicans. But, Michael, this is another tough blow for Democrats hoping to regain control of the House in November. What's your reaction to what's going on in Louisiana?
MICHAEL HARDAWAY, HARDAWAY WIRE: Look, I think this is obviously some shameful Jim Crow era stuff that is un-American. I'll also say there's an irony here. What's interesting is that Republicans in the legislature in Louisiana have made this decision. It's also the case that Louisiana relies the most of any state in America on federal government assistance. And so one third of its budget comes from Medicaid. Republicans voted last year in a tax bill to gut Medicaid. And so what's interesting about all of this is that Louisiana may lose upwards of a third of its budget directly because of Republicans, who they just voted to give these additional seats to.
And so I think for the Congressional Black Caucus and for black voters and for Americans, this is problematic if we're saying that the will of the people doesn't matter. And we're saying that we shouldn't have representation that is proper. I think that is an American. I think that we all should be concerned, no matter what party or background we come from.
(...)
RESHEF: Michael, when you listen to a Republican leader give that kind of a speech, pushback, it seems, on the President's agenda, does that give you any hope that not all of these Republican-led states will cave to the pressure from the President on redistricting?
HARDAWAY: It does. I mean, I think that many Republicans used to be that way. The John McCain's of the world had this idea that, yes, we disagree on certain things as it relates to policy, but everyone should have the ability to vote, everyone should be equal. And so I think that does give me optimism. I'd also say that the congressman and I have a moment of bipartisan agreement because we should ban this sort of mid level redistricting.
And Democrats have introduced a bill both in the House and the Senate to do that. And so this should only happen once every 10 years after the census. And so I think that is something that perhaps in a bipartisan way, people can come together, hopefully in Washington and come to that agreement.
RESHEF: And don't we love a rare glimmer of bipartisan agreement, former Congressman Charlie Dent and Michael Hardaway, thank you both for bringing that to us. We appreciate it.
