PHOTO: Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute Inc in Montgomery, Alabama, on May 17, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. 5/17/2026. (Credit: photojones.co)
We’ve been saying it for months: the South is America’s new political battleground. Now Fair Fight is backing the candidates who can win it.
After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais, Republicans in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee rushed to redraw their maps and break up Black communities. Voters fought back. In the primaries that followed, turnout in majority-Black counties across four Southern states ran six points above the statewide average. Each of these candidates was in that fight, and each is running to finish it.
Angie Nixon, U.S. Senate, Florida: When the DeSantis administration rammed through a gerrymander that voting rights groups say violates Florida's constitution, Nixon didn't take it sitting down. Well, she did: she staged a sit-in at the governor's office and got arrested for it. Florida's map was the first enacted after Callais and could add up to four Republican seats. The union organizer and Jacksonville state representative is now running against Sen. Ashley Moody.
Scott Colom, U.S. Senate, Mississippi Colom already knows what it's like to have Cindy Hyde-Smith stand in his way. The district attorney for Mississippi's 16th Judicial District was nominated to the federal bench, and Hyde-Smith blocked his confirmation vote. Now he's running to replace her. He's called Callais a threat to democracy the country hasn't seen in decades, and he's been on the road urging Black Mississippians to turn out in November as state leaders gear up for a Republican redraw. A win would make him Mississippi's first Black senator since Reconstruction.
Jamie Davis, U.S. Senate, Louisiana: Callais started in Louisiana. The day after the ruling, Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the state's U.S. House primaries, with ballots already mailed and some votes already cast, so lawmakers could redraw the map. Davis is a third-generation row-crop farmer and former parish official from rural northeast Louisiana running on affordability and working families. He's taking on Rep. Julia Letlow, and a win would make him the first Louisiana Democrat in 18 years to take a Senate race.
Justin J. Pearson, Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District Tennessee: Republicans called a special session to crack Shelby County and dilute the power of Black voters in the 9th District. Pearson marched with protesters in Nashville before the vote. Now he’s running for the seat they tried to take away, and says he’s been to all 15 counties in the redrawn district to meet voters face to face. The DCCC has put his race on its Red-to-Blue list.
Rep. Shomari Figures, Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District: Figures won in 2024 because VRA litigation forced Alabama to draw a second district where Black voters could elect a candidate of their choice. After Callais, with absentee ballots already in the mail, Alabama postponed his primary so Republicans could switch to a new map that cuts the district’s Black population from about half to roughly 40%. He’s running for a second term anyway. Before Congress, as Senate counsel, he drafted legislation to stop states from purging voters for skipping elections.
Cliff Johnson, Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District: As director of the MacArthur Justice Center at Ole Miss, Johnson fought to shut down Mississippi’s debtor’s prisons and testified against the state’s DEI ban. He’s challenging Rep. Trent Kelly with voting rights on his platform, and the fight is headed his way: Mississippi lawmakers have started a process that could redraw the state’s legislative, congressional and judicial districts after Callais.
The post-Callais fight started in these states, and the next attacks on voting are already taking shape here. Electing these candidates is how we build a Democratic Congress that restores voting rights protections and bans partisan gerrymandering. Fair Fight is proud to stand with them.
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