Kevin McCarthy should ‘chip in’ on Alabama’s legal fees if he influenced congressional map: Chris England

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., should “chip in” and help pay Alabama’s legal fees if the congressional map passed Friday by state legislators was at his urging,

“If my GOP colleagues passed this map because of [McCarthy], I hope they asked him to chip in for the attorney’s fees we’ll pay when we lose defending this map in court,” England tweeted Friday night. “Because we will lose. And it won’t be cheap—we’re talking Lunsford money, not pocket change.”

England was responding to state Sen. Steve Livingston. R-Scottsboro, telling reporters he spoke with McCarthy before the vote, and that the U.S. House speaker told him, “I’m interested in keeping my majority.”

Th new congressional district map that passed Friday was a compromise version approved by Republicans on a conference committee.

Like earlier versions of maps supported by the Republican majority in the State House, it does not add a second majority Black district.

Friday was the deadline set by a federal court for the Legislature to approve a new map.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a three-judge district court ruling that Alabama’s current map likely violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting the Black vote.

One-fourth of the state’s residents are Black, but only one of the seven Congressional districts has a majority Black population. The district court said that to fix the violation, Alabama needed a second majority Black district “or something quite close to it,” a district where Black voters would have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

The map approved by the conference committee Friday leaves District 7 as the lone majority Black district, barely, at 51% in Black voting age population, down from 56% on the current map. It would increase the Black voting age population in District 2, which covers southeast Alabama, from 30% to 40%.

Livingston said the intent is for District 2 to be the second “opportunity” district for Black voters.

England said earlier Friday he believed the plan does not comply with the court’s order.

“This is the quintessential definition of noncompliance and I believe it will be rejected,” he said.

The three-judge district court tentatively scheduled an Aug. 14 hearing to consider challenges to the map.

McCarthy was not the only federal lawmaker to weigh in on Alabama’s congressional map, according to NBC News.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville called Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, on Thursday morning, and Republican members of Alabama’s congressional delegation also reached out to state lawmakers, the outlet reported.

But Ledbetter told reporters Friday that Tuberville did not discuss the congressional map “in depth or in detail.”

“Coach Tuberville and I talk on a regular basis and he just basically said, ‘How’s it going.’ And that was about it. So it wasn’t really anything in depth or in detail about the reapportionment,” Ledbetter said.

AL.com reporter Mike Cason contributed reporting.