House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was asked Sunday by Fox News’ Shannon Bream whether he had a message for Black voters in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last month and subsequent GOP gerrymandering blitz – which has disproportionately impacted Black Americans – and his answer left onlookers dumbfounded.
In late April, the Supreme Court effectively gutted a provision in the Voting Rights Act that was designed to prohibit racially discriminatory voting policies – namely, the drawing of congressional district maps. In the weeks since, Republican-led states have raced to redraw their own maps ahead of the midterm elections in such a manner as to benefit the GOP – and in most cases, at the expense of Black voters.
“The Supreme Court issued a long-awaited opinion and they stated the obvious: that drawing congressional lines must be fair, you cannot draw lines on the basis of race,” Johnson told Bream.
“That’s what was done in Louisiana, so they declared it to be an unconstitutional gerrymander, and it was! This brings back fairness and certainty to the system, and I think a lot of states are looking to make sure that their maps are not unconstitutional like Louisiana's was.”
Johnson’s message to Black voters – that a gerrymandering blitz critics have called "Black political extermination" would restore "fairness" – left many observers stunned.
“Incredible,” noted The Tennessee Holler, a progressive news outlet founded by former congressional candidate and television star Justin Kanew.
“WOW,” wrote political writer Mona Burns in a social media post on X to her nearly 17,000 followers.
And Brandon Wolf, a civil rights advocate and survivor of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, took note of Johnson’s choice of words, particularly his use of the word “certainty.”
“Certainty is their goal,” Wolf wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 55,000 followers. “They want to be certain that Black and brown voters don’t ever have the final say on who represents them.”
Certainty is their goal. They want to be certain that Black and brown voters don’t ever have the final say on who represents them. https://t.co/F267nzTGBD
— Brandon Wolf (@bjoewolf) May 17, 2026