The Carolina Hurricanes won the NHL’s Stanley Cup for the first time in 20 years after beating the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 on Sunday in Las Vegas.
The Hurricanes wrapped up the best-of-seven series with a game to spare, winning 4-2 to secure their second crown.
Head coach Rod Brind’Amour, who lifted the Stanley Cup as Carolina’s captain in 2006, led the Hurricanes into the play-offs as the top seed in the Eastern Conference and only lost three matches as they saw off the Ottawa Senators, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Montreal Canadiens and the Golden Knights en route to the title.
“I think it was just our time. We weren’t going to be denied,” Brind’Amour said.
“It’s different, because as a player, I really wanted it for myself. Now, sitting back behind [the bench] watching, I really wanted it for these guys because there’s no harder-working group. It’s just like a proud dad watching his kids go to work.”
Taylor Hall opened the scoring for the Hurricanes after just three minutes and 47 seconds before Jackson Blake doubled their lead midway through the second period.
Nikolaj Ehlers wrapped up the win with 68 seconds remaining on the clock, scoring into an empty net after the Golden Knights had pulled netminder Carter Hart for an extra skater in the final three minutes as they searched for a route back into the match.
The Hurricanes’ rookie goaltender Brandon Bussi made 22 saves in his first career play-off shutout.
Carolina captain Jordan Staal, a two-time Stanley Cup champion after previously winning with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, became the oldest player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the play-offs. The 37-year-old scored eight goals and registered four assists in the Hurricanes’ championship run.
“It’s something I’ve been going after ever since I won the first one. You want to win it again and again and again,” said Staal, whose 17-year gap between titles in the longest in NHL history.
“It’s been such a grind. I just wanted to win so bad.”
LAS VEGAS — Carolina spent the first part of the Stanley Cup Final surviving, finding ways to overcome deficits and play a high-scoring game that didn’t fit the Hurricanes’ typical style.
But when it came down to doing what it takes to win the Cup, the Hurricanes’ defense put its stamp on this series, shutting down the Vegas Golden Knights and not letting up.
The Hurricanes held Vegas to five total goals in Games 4 and 5 and used a suffocating defense in a 3-0 shutout in Sunday night’s clinching Game 6 to win their first championship in 20 years.
“That’s a lot of years,” said Carolina center Jordan Staal, who received the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. “It’s amazing. This is something I’ve been going after ever since we got the first one. You want to win it again and again and again. What a feeling, what a battle. The boys were grinding today, my goodness. So many individual efforts just to keep the puck out of our net. It was an amazing ride. I’m just so proud of these guys.”
Carolina Hurricanes players celebrate after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup on Sunday.
(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
Brandon Bussi, whose entrance late into Game 3 helped turn around the series for Carolina, recorded his first career playoff shutout in stopping 22 shots. Jackson Blake had a goal and assist, and Taylor Hall scored just 3:47 into the game to set the tone. Nikolaj Ehlers added an empty-net goal.
“Your mind wanders the last couple of days and wonder what it may be like out here (on ice after winning) and it’s better than I could have expected,” Hall said. “My career has taken a lot of different turns, but to end up here with this group of guys and to do this is amazing.”
The Golden Knights, who made an unlikely run just to reach the final, struggled badly to muster any kind of offense in Game 6 and went 18:37 between shots on goal in the second and third periods. Playing in their third Cup final, this is the first time they have been shut out.
This clinching game was what many observers expected the series to be like between the defensive-minded teams, but each side watched leads of two-plus goals disappear in the first three games.
Now, the Cup belongs to the Hurricanes, led by coach Rod Brind’Amour, who also captained Carolina to its 2006 title.
This was the first game of the series that Vegas goalie Carter Hart didn’t allow four goals in a game. He finished with 20 saves.
Carolina Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers celebrates after scoring an empty-net goal in the third period against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
(John Locher / Associated Press)
The Hurricanes began to assume control of the series after falling behind by the score of 4-0 in Game 3. They came back force overtime, and though the Hurricanes lost, they outplayed the Golden Knights from there on out.
Reflecting the do-or-die situation for the Golden Knights, they made several lineup changes, with Brett Howden replacing the injured William Karlsson at second-line center. Mitch Marner could have moved there, but remained at right wing.
Original Golden Knight Reilly Smith made his Cup final debut at third-line right wing, and Braeden Bowman made his playoff debut at fourth-line right wing. Kaedan Korczak replaced Dylan Coghlan on the third defensive pairing.
This title is a testament to Carolina’s resilience as a franchise that kept coming close to winning the Eastern Conference, but couldn’t quite get through until now.
Brind’Amour made sure the Hurricanes kept getting back up after losing in the conference final twice in the past three years and three times in their current eight-year playoff run. The talent was clearly there, but there was always a stumbling block.
Not anymore.
After dispatching Montreal in five games to make the final, the Brind’Amour-led Hurricanes then faced perennial power Vegas and took care of business there too. Now, he will get his name on the Cup for the second time.
So will 37-year-old Staal, who also won the title in 2009 with Pittsburgh. He planted himself in front of Hart and dared the Golden Knights to knock him out of the way. Staal scored in each of the first five Cup final games, the first time that has happened.
The Hurricanes got off to a fast start with a goal just 25 seconds into Game 1, only to lose 5-4 on a late goal from Tomas Hertl. And the Golden Knights were on the verge of taking complete control as minutes ticked down in Game 2 while holding a 2-0 lead and appearing as if they would take a two-game advantage back home.
Then, it all changed. Carolina showed a fight that not only brought the Hurricanes back into the series by rallying to win 4-3 in overtime on Seth Jarvis’ one-timer, but would serve as their signature throughout the series.
That was especially true the following game when the Golden Knights took a 4-0 lead into the third period and the Hurricanes seemed to have no answers. Brind’Amour even appeared to wave the white flag by removing goalie Frederik Andersen and replacing him with Bussi.
Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour hugs Jordan Staal after the team’s Stanley Cup win on Sunday.
(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
But the Hurricanes weren’t simply trying to get to Game 4. They sent a message, going on a remarkable rally to force overtime. Though Carolina lost, it was inflection point, with Bussi backstopping a team that was only growing stronger. Carolina then went on to win the next two games and moved within a victory of the championship.
The Hurricanes got it done against the Golden Knights team that was on a heater after John Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy with eight games left in the regular season. Vegas then went from third in the Pacific Division to first, knocked off Utah and Anaheim in six games apiece in the playoffs and shockingly swept Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado to win the West.
Now, the Golden Knights have some notable questions to ask, including at the top of the list whether to make Tortorella a full-time coach. He didn’t have any guarantees of coaching in Vegas beyond this season, but getting to the Cup final is a good argument to run it back.
Golden Knights management will make the final call on that, and they don’t always follow league norms.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Andrei Svechnikov scored twice and Sebastian Aho added a second-period goal in a breakout game for Carolina’s top-line performers, helping the Hurricanes beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Thursday night to move one victory away from the Stanley Cup.
Captain Jordan Staal added his fifth goal in the series on a night when Carolina overcame multiple hiccups from these playoffs, from a shaky power play to being outplayed in the second period of this series.
And there had been the waiting game for Aho and Svechnikov — two roster mainstays in an eight-year postseason run — to find a better offensive groove.
It all came together in Game 5, with Svechnikov’s short putaway at the post on the power play giving Carolina a 4-1 lead midway through the third period. And unlike most multi-goal leads in what has been a wild and thrilling series, this one held up, with Brandon Bussi finishing with 22 saves in his second career postseason start.
That gave the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 6 is Sunday night in Las Vegas, with the Hurricanes playing for the chance to hoist the Stanley Cup for the first time since coach Rod Brind’Amour captained them to the title in 2006.
It has been a tough series for Vegas goaltender Carter Hart.
(Karl B DeBlaker / AP)
Pavel Dorofeyev scored twice for Vegas, finding the net for the first time since Game 1 of the Western Conference Final sweep of Presidents’ Trophy winner Colorado. Carter Hart entered this one as the first goaltender in Stanley Cup Final history to give up at least four goals in each of the first four games, then did it again to continue a difficult series while finishing with 20 saves.
Vegas had twice before been in a 2-2 series in these playoffs, in the first round against Utah and the second round against the Ducks. Both times, the Golden Knights won Game 5 and then closed out the series in Game 6.
This time, they’ll have to win on home ice to force the series back to Carolina for a Game 7 on Wednesday night. And they’ll have to take two in a row against a Hurricanes team that hasn’t suffered consecutive losses since mid-January.
Vegas played much of the night without center William Karlsson, who was being checked out on the bench for an apparent upper-body injury. Karlsson skated to the tunnel midway through the second period and didn’t return.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — After a decade of roiling South Carolina and national politics, Rep. Nancy Mace finished a distant fifth in her state’s Republican primary for governor, leaving an uncertain future for one of the nation’s unabashed politicians.
Her campaign mirrored her whipsaw career. Mace courted the support of President Trump after harshly criticizing him over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She emphasized her fights with other Republicans to release files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
In the final days before Tuesday’s primary, she called for a law to prevent anyone not born in the U.S. from holding political office or serving as a judge. She suggested that Rom Reddy, another candidate for governor, wasn’t qualified because he was a naturalized citizen whose mother was from India and father from Italy.
“I didn’t come out of a slum in India,” Mace said during an appearance in Greenville County this month. “I am born and made here in America.”
By the end of her campaign she was only making sporadic public appearances. She struggled to raise money and had no presence on television. Mace mostly communicated through social media — a place she has used to her advantage since first being elected to the South Carolina House in 2017.
In a lengthy statement posted after her loss, Mace recounted her achievements in the U.S. House, saying she had “taken on the rich and powerful in both parties” and “voted to release the Epstein files and lost some support for that.”
Four congressional Republicans were part of the initial group pushing for a discharge petition forcing the files’ release. Mace and Rep. Thomas Massie lost their races, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned in January.
Mace didn’t give an indication of her next plans in her concession speech Tuesday night. She is backing Alan Wilson in the runoff for governor, even though just last year she accused Wilson of protecting child sex abuse defendants.
“When children needed him to act, Wilson looked the other way,” she said.
Wilson will face Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in the runoff on June 23. Evette received Trump’s endorsement, spurring Mace to lash out on social media.
“Pamela Evette is NOT ENDORSED by DONALD TRUMP,” Mace wrote, incorrectly. “Do not believe her LIES.” Mace posted an AI-generated image of posing with Trump herself.
Mace dropped out of high school and worked as a server at the Waffle House before getting her diploma. She later attended The Citadel and became the first woman to graduate from the state’s military academy. And in recent years, she talked about the importance of defending victims of sexual assault and shared stories of being raped as a teen.
After her political career began in the South Carolina House, Mace got wide praise from Republicans in 2020 for winning back a U.S. House seat around Charleston that had flipped to Democrats for one term.
“For those folks that are out there today that maybe weren’t with us yesterday, I’m asking for a chance — a chance to prove to you that I will be a compassionate leader, a good listener, an independent thinker,” Mace said then.
Collins and Kinnard write for the Associated Press. Kinnard reported from Washington. AP writer Bill Barrow contributed from Atlanta.
LAS VEGAS — Jordan Staal scored his second goal of the game while stretched out on his stomach at 6:32 of the third period to put the Carolina Hurricanes ahead for good in their 5-3 victory on Tuesday night over the Vegas Golden Knights and even the Stanley Cup Final after four games.
Game 5 is Thursday night at Carolina, which will potentially have two games on home ice to win its first Cup in two decades. The Golden Knights are searching for their second in four years.
This was the first game not decided by one goal.
A two-goal lead has disappeared in all four games in what has been a remarkable series in which momentum often changes at a moment’s notice. Each team has led by at least that many twice.
Staal became the first player in 44 years to score at least one goal in each of the first four games of the final and the ninth overall. Mike Bossy in 1982 with the New York Islanders against the Vancouver Canucks was the last player to score in the first four games of a final.
Nikolaj Ehlers added an empty-net goal and two assists for the Hurricanes, Jackson Blake had a goal and an assist, and Logan Stankoven scored a goal.
Brandon Bussi started in place of Frederik Andersen in goal and made 18 saves. Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour told ABC that Andersen, who did not dress, needed the rest. Pyotr Kochetkov was the backup goalie with Andersen serving as the emergency goaltender.
“Let [Andersen] rest,” Brind’Amour said. “Give him as many days here as we can.”
Mark Stone, William Karlsson and Brett Howden scored goals for the Golden Knights, and Carter Hart made 23 saves. Karlsson also had an assist.
The Hurricanes outplayed the Golden Knights in the period, outshooting Vegas 14-6. But the Golden Knights, according to Natural Stat Trick, had four high-danger chances to three for Carolina.
The difference was the Hurricanes took advantage of their chances.
Brind’Amour replaced Andersen with Bussi trailing 4-0 after two periods in Game 2 on Saturday, and he saved the first 18 shots he faced as the Hurricanes mounted a furious rally. Bussi failed to save the 19th shot when Shea Theodore knocked the puck off the boards and it bounced off Bussi’s skate for a Golden Knights victory.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — USC’s 2026 baseball season will be defined by two words — progress and pain.
Just two outs away from reaching the College World Series for the first time since 2001, USC suffered a devastating 4-3 loss in game three of the Chapel Hill Super Regional, as North Carolina rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth and snatched the trip to Omaha away from the Trojans on Owen Hull’s walk-off RBI double into the left-center gap.
“I’m proud of our boys,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “I’m disappointed in the results, but I’m never disappointed in our guys. They did something pretty special this year.”
Andrew Johnson did everything possible and then some to get USC (48-18) across the finish line. After already throwing 3 ⅔ innings of shutout baseball to close Game 1, Johnson went a season-high 7 ⅔ innings with two earned runs surrendered to get the Trojans to the doorstep of victory. He glided through North Carolina’s lineup for most of the day, at one point retiring 15 out of 17 batters.
North Carolina’s Cooper Nicholson celebrates during his team’s ninth-inning rally to beat USC in their super regional finale Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C.
(Laura Wolff/For The Times)
He ended the super regional with 133 pitches thrown in a little over 48 hours, on top of the 145 pitches he threw across two appearances in the College Station Regional for a total of 278 tosses in 22 ⅓ innings with five earned runs given up in a heroic postseason stretch.
“The goal from the beginning of the season is Omaha,” Johnson said. “We’re definitely not just happy that we made it to supers and moved past the regional, but for it was a great season and we can be proud of what we accomplished.”
A first inning run off a Caden Glauber balk, plus Kevin Takeuchi and Andrew Lamb’s solo home runs accounted for all the offense on a day when the Tar Heels (50-12-1) had their own star pitcher going. Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year Caden Glauber held the Trojans at bay for most of the game, striking out a career high 11 batters in 7 ⅓ innings.
USC coach Andy Stankiewicz talks to his players after their season-ending loss to North Carolina.
(Laura Wolff / For The Times)
Glauber’s work was enough to hold his team in the game, but USC still had a 3-2 lead heading to the fateful bottom of the ninth. After closer Adam Troy retired the first batter, a long, loud foul ball seemed to spark North Carolina.
Third baseman Cooper Nicholson crushed a ball more than far enough for a home run, but just foul into the left field corner. But the near-miss seemed to rattle Troy, who walked Nicholson after getting ahead 0-2 in the count and fell behind 3-0 to nine-hole hitter Carter French.
Stankiewicz made a pitching change mid at-bat, going to Chase Herrell. French lined a 3-2 single through the right side, leadoff hitter Jake Schaffner tied the score on a sacrifice fly and Gavin Gallaher drew a walk, bringing Hull to the plate with the series’ winning run at second.
USC appeared to survive at least with extra innings when a Hull foul ball looked ticketed for the third out, but it dropped with three fielders in the area to give him an extra life. Hull pounded his fourth double of the game, prompting mass hysteria from the 3,913 Tar Heel fans and ultimate heartbreak in the other dugout.
Stankiewicz has built his program in stages, finally making the NCAA tournament last year and then going a step further this year.
But he also knows these opportunities are never guaranteed, and it will take a lot of work to return to the super regional stage.
“It’s a step,” he said. “Things take a moment. Sometimes we want things to happen overnight as humans I guess, but sometimes it takes a moment. We’ve been at this thing for awhile now, and we feel like we’re certainly building it and folks are taking notice. Now we just can’t go backwards. This thing’s got to continue moving forward.”
A positive season, but a nightmare ending sure to haunt the Trojans until they finally return to Omaha.
LAS VEGAS — Shea Theodore scored at 5:38 of the second overtime, avoiding what could have been a potentially devastating loss for the Golden Knights after they blew a four-goal lead, and Vegas beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 on Saturday night for a 2-1 series lead.
Theodore’s goal went in off goalie Brandon Bussi’s skate. It came long after teammate Mitch Marner had the fastest hat trick in Stanley Cup Final history.
The teams take two days off before meeting in Game 4 on Tuesday night in Las Vegas. Teams that take a 2-1 series lead in the final went on to win the Cup 46 of 57 times, or 80.7%.
Carolina had been 6-0 in overtime this postseason. The Hurricanes were trying to become the first team to win after trailing by at least four goals in the third period, but now clubs in that situation are 0-109.
“We just left our foot off the gas,” Theodore said on the ABC broadcast. “I think we have to be sharper in the third, but I liked the resiliency out of our group. I liked the way we started that second overtime, and I felt like we were more on our toes.”
This was the 10th time the first three games of a Cup Final were decided by a point. The last time was in 2016 between Pittsburgh and San Jose.
The Golden Knights seemed to have it in hand after scoring four times in the second, including a natural hat trick by Marner.
But Jordan Martinook, Taylor Hall and Jordan Staal scored goals for the Hurricanes. Their goals, occurring 39 seconds apart, are the fastest in a Cup Final game.
Andrei Svechnikov jammed in a puck on a six-on-four power play with 1:42 left to force overtime.
Marner’s scoring outburst came over a 6:10 stretch of the second period, and he had four points in the period. He had the secondary assist on Tomas Hertl’s goal midway through the period.
The last time a player had four points in a period of the Cup final was in 1919 when Frank Foyston of the Seattle Metropolitans pulled off that feat.
Marner nearly added to the total in the third period, but failed to capitalize on a breakaway and a penalty shot. Those missed chances came back to bite the Golden Knights.
The Hurricanes made the comeback after changing goalies to open the third, going with Bussi, who made 18 saves. Frederik Andersen had given up those four goals on 16 shots.
Carolina also rallied without forward and former Golden Knight William Carrier, who had an upper-body injury in the second period.
Vegas’ Carter Hart stopped 29 shots.
Vegas twice thought it took the lead early in the second period, but the Hurricanes successfully challenged both goals to keep the game scoreless.
Mark Stone’s goal from the slot 36 seconds into the period was overturned when Brett Howden was determined to be offside after a video review. Another review wiped off Jack Eichel’s rebound goal four minutes in when Rasmus Andersson was called for goalie interference.
It’s not the first time this series went against the Golden Knights.
An unsuccessful video challenge by Vegas coach John Tortorella in Game 2 on Thursday night led to a power-play goal by Staal, whose goal helped the Hurricanes rally to win 4-3 in overtime.
The Golden Knights received a major boost when defenseman Brayden McNabb took the ice. He took a puck in the face in the first period Thursday night at Carolina and didn’t return to the game. McNabb, who had on a cage to protect his face, is Vegas’ best defensive defenseman. He was on the first defensive pair with Theodore.
This series has been, if anything, unpredictable.
Each team blew two-goal leads in the first two games, with the Golden Knights rallying in the opener and Hurricanes responding with a Game 2 victory in overtime.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Dean Carpentier popped up with the biggest swing of his life, and the Trojans won their biggest game in more than two decades.
USC baseball stormed back to defeat No. 5 overall seed North Carolina 9-5 in Game 1 of the Chapel Hill Super Regional, a loud start to the program’s first appearance on this stage since 2005.
Carpentier smoked a go-ahead grand slam off North Carolina (48-12-1) reliever Walker McDuffie in the sixth inning, turning a 5-2 deficit into a 6-5 lead and shutting down a previously charged-up Boshamer Stadium. The swing was Carpentier’s first career grand slam and just his 10th home run in his 132-game collegiate career, the defining moment of the day as USC (48-16) tied its largest comeback victory of the season.
“I was sitting on a slider,” Carpentier said. “He’s a slider guy. I got a good pitch to hit, put a good swing on it and it found a way out of here.”
Ace Mason Edwards struggled through his shortest outing of the season, yielding three earned runs in just three innings with four walks. But the Trojan bullpen picked him up, and kept the game close enough for the offense to rally. Chase Herrell, Ben Cushnie and Andrew Johnson gave up just one run over six innings, with Johnson retiring the first eight batters he faced.
USC’s Adrian Lopez (5) celebrates during Game 1 of an NCAA super regional against North Carolina on Friday in Chapel Hill, N.C.
(Laura Wolff/For The Times)
“He’s done that now a couple of times with the bases loaded where he strikes out the side and gets out of it,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said of Edwards’ first inning. “It’s in there. That was huge. It was a big momentum swing to get out of that. Unfortunately it’s taxing though; it made him jump up in his pitch count a little bit.”
His successful but ultimately draining first inning led to UNC scoring four in the next two innings, knocking the Trojans into a huge hole and forcing its bullpen to stem the tide. But eventual winning pitcher Herrell picked up two innings with just one earned run given up. Cushnie retired the only batter he faced and the offense went to work from there.
“The job that Chase Herrell did, the job he did in College Station, it’s two back-to-back outings where he has been tremendous for us,” Stankiewicz said. “It’s always Mason and Grant [Govel] — which is great, they deserve all the recognition — but there’s more guys down there that are doing it.”
With the lead and all of the momentum after Carpentier’s grand slam, Stankiewicz pushed his chips to the middle of the table knowing the importance of winning the opener of a best-of-three series. He brought usual Game 3 starter Johnson in out of the bullpen, and he delivered a sensational performance.
Johnson retired the first eight batters he faced and ended up getting the final 11 outs of the game with just two singles allowed, slamming the door shut for his first save of the season.
“You saw the job that he did over in College Station,” Stankiewicz said of Johnson. “It was a big moment, and we needed that again today. He throws strikes, he’s unafraid, he attacks the strike zone and we felt like he was going to make the pitches.”
Johnson’s dominance meant the go-ahead grand slam would have been enough, but USC added three more runs in the seventh. Isaac Cadena drove one in with an RBI groundout, Jack Basseer plated one on on a fielder’s choice and Andrew Lamb — who started the scoring for USC with a solo home run off Ryan Lynch back in the third inning — tacked on one more with a perfectly executed squeeze bunt.
The Trojans have outscored opponents 64-19 during their five-game NCAA tournament winning streak. And are one win away from advancing to the College World Series for the first time since 2001. Game 2 is set for 11 a.m. PDT Saturday on ESPN.
Manaka Matsukubo finished with a goal and an assist to lead the North Carolina Courage to a 2-1 win over Angel City at BMO Stadium on Sunday.
Matsukubo slipped a ball through to Evelyn Ijeh, who calmly finished to give the Courage a 1-0 lead in the 48th minute. With the goal, Ijeh has landed on the scoresheet in three straight matches.
Three minutes later, Evelyn Shores’ pinpoint cross into the box found the head of Maiara Niehues for the equalizer.
North Carolina retook the lead for good in the 79th with Riley Jackson’s perfectly weighted pass to Matsukubo, who scored her fifth goal of the season.
May 26 (UPI) — South Carolina’s state Senate adjourned Tuesday without acting on a new congressional map that would have redrawn voting districts in favor of Republicans.
President Donald Trump has called on states to redraw their voting maps to favor Republicans, especially after a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that badly weakened a part of the landmark federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 that helped protect minority voting power.
However, as voters started heading to the polls Tuesday for the first in-person voting in primaries, state senators said it was just too late. If the state Senate pushed the map through Tuesday, the state would have had to throw out tens of thousands of ballots that had already been cast that day and schedule a new primary.
“Neither my conscience nor my common sense would allow me to stop an election that is already underway,” Republican state Sen. Richard Cash said during the vote, The BBC reported.
The new congressional map pitched for South Carolina would do away with the state’s only majority Black district, which is represented by Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat. Clyburn is seeking his 18th term in office this year.
Republicans have a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Trump and other conservatives are calling for district changes to hold on to that majority during the midterm elections in November. Other states, including Tennessee, have already redrawn and approved new maps eliminating majority Black districts.
CNN reported that Trump called Republican state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey at least twice about the plan, and the president has posted regularly on social media about the matter as well.
“South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!” the president wrote in a post earlier this month.
South Carolina state senators will likely pick up the matter again after the primary voting ends June 9. State Sen. Brad Hutto, a Democrat, said his party members worked all weekend to make voters headed out to the polls today, The New York Times reported.
“The people in South Carolina were sending us a message that their vote mattered,” he said. “It was important, and they didn’t want us to cancel their vote.”
Democrats had another win in the redistricting wars on Tuesday, with a federal court temporarily blocking Alabama from using its newly redrawn congressional map, which includes only one Black majority district out of seven. The population of Alabama is about 27% Black.
The South Carolina map in question, meanwhile, would have resulted in no Black majority districts out of the state’s seven. The state is about 26% Black, based on 2025 U.S. Census numbers.
No. 8 UCLA stuck with right-hander Taylor Tinsley throughout the Los Angeles Regional and that faith in the senior paid off.
During the Bruins’ NCAA tournament opener at Easton Stadium, Tinsley gave up 10 runs before her teammates rallied for a walk-off win. She returned less than 24 hours to pitch against South Carolina, giving up two earned runs in a victory. Tinsley was back in the circle Sunday afternoon, yielding one run in UCLA’s 15-1 victory over the Gamecocks to advance to the super regionals.
“I am proud of Taylor’s resiliency, the ability to do whatever she can to help this team,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “She got stronger through the weekend. I am proud of that.”
Tinsley and her teammates will host Central Florida in a super regional that begins Friday.
“I feel good,” Tinsley said after pitching three key games in three days. “I could have gone more innings if needed.”
South Carolina right-hander Jori Heard gave up only one hit through two innings, keeping UCLA’s potent bats relatively quiet. The Gamecocks had runners on first and second with two outs in the second, but Tinsley escaped the inning with a pop-up to left field.
The Bruins got on the board first with a two-run home run from left fielder Rylee Slimp in the third inning. The Bruins followed it up by loading the bases with no outs in the fifth for right fielder Megan Grant.
Grant cooked up a grand slam to make it 6-0. She has 40 home runs, extending her hold on the NCAA single-season home run record. Oklahoma freshman Kendall Wells trails Grant with 37 homers.
“Its just incredible because I am blessed to be able to say the number 40,” Grant said.
South Carolina broke through on an RBI single from left fielder Quincee Lilio to cut UCLA’s lead to 6-1 in the fifth inning after being held to just one hit since the first inning. The Gamecocks couldn’t cash in the rest of the way.
The Bruins resumed scoring in the sixth inning, with the bases loaded and Grant at bat again. Fans at Easton Stadium anticipated another grand slam, holding up their cellphones hoping to catch some magic. Grant served up a two-run RBI single to expand the lead 8-1.
Jordan Woolery added to the scoring with a two-run RBI double down the left-field line, and Kaniya Bragg hit a home run to left-center field. Soo-jin Berry put a bow on the win with one more home run.
May 12 (UPI) — The South Carolina Senate voted Tuesday against a measure to extend its legislative session to redraw the state’s congressional map. President Donald Trump has pressured lawmakers to move forward with redistricting to give Republicans an advantage.
Five Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the resolution, which would have extended the session by a week, NBC News reported. This would have given the Senate more time to vote on a plan that would break up the state’s only Black-majority district. The legislative session ends Thursday, and the state’s primaries are June 9.
The redistricting push by Trump comes after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in late April that badly weakened a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, one that had helped ensure minority groups could elect their choice of candidates.
State Sen. Shane Massey, a Republican and Senate majority leader, spoke out about the efforts before the vote, saying it’s a show of weakness to use redistricting to quash minority votes, Greenville News reported.
“My conscience is clear on this one,” Massey said. “I know what the right thing to do is.”
Massey said he’d received a call from Trump in recent days about pushing forward redistricting. On Monday night, Trump posted on social media that he was watching the vote closely.
“South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!” he wrote.
Last Thursday, the Tennessee state legislature passed a redistricting map that eliminated the state’s last Democrat-leaning, Black-majority district. Other Southern states have also been moving in this direction.
Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto said the vote sends a message that the state rejects a White House power grab, Greenville News reported.
“The people of this state expect us to focus on real issues affecting their daily lives, not carry out an outside political agenda,” he said.
Later Tuesday, Republican candidates for governor in South Carolina criticized the members of their party who voted against the resolution.
Rep. Nancy Mace, who’s been endorsed by Trump for the governor position, posted on social media that the state needs “a Governor who the statehouse will fear and listen to.”
“You know I’d whip every single ‘NO’ vote into shape if I was Governor,” she posted.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — An election-year redistricting movement has spread to South Carolina as Republicans attempt to redraw majority-Black congressional districts that have suddenly become susceptible because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upending protections for minority voters.
Urged on by President Trump, South Carolina Republicans are attempting to redraw a district long held by a Black Democratic lawmaker in their quest for a clean sweep of the state’s seven congressional seats.
Lawmakers already are meeting in special sessions in Alabama and Tennessee in a bid to change their U.S. House districts. And Louisiana lawmakers are making plans for new congressional districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state’s current map.
The stakes are high for minority voters who stand to lose their preferred representatives and for any Republican lawmakers reluctant to follow Trump’s wishes. In Republican primary elections Tuesday, Trump-endorsed challengers defeated at least five of the seven Indiana state lawmakers targeted by Trump’s allies for refusing to support a congressional redistricting effort last year.
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling significantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.
The ruling revved up an already intense national redistricting battle ahead of a November midterm election that will determine control of the closely divided House.
Since Trump prodded Texas to redraw its U.S. House districts last year, a total of eight states have adopted new congressional districts. From that, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats while Democrats think they could gain up to 10 seats. But some of the new districts could be competitive in November, meaning the parties may not get all they sought.
South Carolina to test its will for redistricting
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn has represented South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District since it was redrawn to favor minority voters in 1992. He’s running for an 18th term. But it could get harder for him to win reelection if Republicans redraw his district.
Leaders in the state House and Senate said a redistricting effort needs to start with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. The issue could come up as soon as Wednesday. But if only a few Republicans aren’t on board, it can’t succeed.
Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey has warned that redistricting could backfire because of thin political margins, resulting in a second Democrat in the U.S. House. Massey told reporters Tuesday that he had a cordial conversation with Trump about redistricting, each laying out their concerns.
The state’s primaries are June 9 and early voting starts in three weeks.
Alabama looks at setting a new primary
The state House on Wednesday could debate legislation that would allow Alabama to hold a special congressional primary, if the Supreme Court clears the way for the state to change its U.S. House districts.
In light of the court’s ruling on Louisiana’s districts, Alabama officials have asked courts to set aside a judicial order to use a U.S. House map that includes two districts with a substantial number of Black voters. Republicans instead want to use a map passed in 2023 by the Legislature that could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats currently held by Democrats.
Alabama’s primaries are scheduled for May 19. If the Supreme Court grants the state’s request after or too close to the primary, the legislation under consideration would ignore the results of that primary and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.
Democrats denounced the legislation as a Republican power grab that harkens back to the state’s shameful history of denying Black residents equal rights and representation.
Republicans are “working to secure an electoral victory by taking Alabama back to the Jim Crow era, and we won’t go back,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell told a crowd gathered outside the Alabama Statehouse.
Tennessee plan targets Memphis district
Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan urged by Trump that could break up the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis. Republicans didn’t say much about the plan Tuesday.
But as the state Senate began work Tuesday, shouts of “shame, shame, shame” could be heard inside the chamber from protesters gathered in the hallways. On the chamber floor, state Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Black Democrat from Memphis, called the redistricting “an act of hate.”
Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee legislative leaders expressing “grave concern” about the plan to divide Memphis, saying the move could undermine the work for voting rights carried out by his father, Martin Luther King Jr.
The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6.
Thousands had already voted in Louisiana
After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Republican Gov. Mike Landry postponed the state’s May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts. State Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican, said a redistricting committee he leads plans to hold a public hearing Friday.
Louisiana voters had already sent in more than 41,000 absentee ballots by last Thursday, when Landry suspended the House primaries, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. That’s about a third of all the absentee ballots sent out to voters. Around 19,000 were from registered Democrats, 17,000 from registered Republicans and the remainder belonged to neither party.
Democrats and civil rights groups have filed several lawsuits challenging the suspension of Louisiana’s congressional primary.
Collins, Loller, Chandler and Lieb write for the Associated Press. Chandler reported from Montgomery, Ala., Loller from Nashville and Lieb from Jefferson City, Mo. AP writer Jack Brook contributed to this report from New Orleans.
April 20 (UPI) — Two people were killed Monday in a shooting near a North Carolina middle school where two children agreed to meet for a fight, police said.
Law enforcement officials were alerted to a fight at Leinbach Park on Robinhood Road near Jefferson Middle School in Winston-Salem, N.C., at 9:52 a.m. EST. As officers were on the way to the scene, the call was upgraded to a shooting.
The Winston-Salem Police Department posted on Facebook that “two young individuals” met at Leinbach Park for a “planned fight.” When those individuals arrived, “the situation escalated significantly, leading to multiple people exchanging gunfire.”
The police department didn’t say how many people were injured in the shooting, but used a hashtag for “mass shooting” in its post on X.
“Several individuals — both victims and suspects — have been identified and located,” the Winston-Salem Police Department posted on social media. “Due to the number of people involved, efforts are ongoing to account for everyone. At this time, some of those involved in the incident are juveniles.”
Police advised that nearby schools were operating on a normal schedule, but community members were urged to avoid the area to allow emergency responders to operate safely at the scene. The park and two nearby roads were closed as officers processed the scene.
“This is an isolated incident and remains under active investigation,” the police department said.
