The Republican-controlled South Carolina Senate bucked President Donald Trump and on May 26 rejected an effort to draw new congressional districts before the midterm elections.
Democrats' Palmetto State victory marked one of two small but needed wins on the same day for the national party, which has lost considerable ground over the last few weeks in the redistricting wars gripping the country ahead of November.
While congressional Democrats in Washington remain bullish that they'll take back the House of Representatives in the fall, a series of bruising court decisions has set them back considerably, preventing them from gerrymandering states in equal measure with Republicans.
Fueled by Trump and the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court, partisan map-drawing has spread like wildfire, with both parties in Congress aiming to grow and more deeply entrench their footholds in the House.