One author wonders if the decision will have short term benefits but long term harms for the Republican Party. The benefits come from Republican dominated legislatures now being free to pass whatever electoral rules they choose without having to worry about pre-clearance, but the harm being that these legislatures are primarily in the south and will further define the party as white and conservative. It may make it easier for the party to hold onto the House due to gerrymandering, but more difficult to broaden its coalition in order to win the White House.
Here's a related argument in the NYT. The decision may eventually make the party less competitive in the South as well due to the rise of the Latino population.
. . . those who have studied the region closely say that a more unstoppable force is approaching that will alter the power structure throughout the South and upend the understanding of politics there: demographic change.
The states with the highest growth in the Latino population over the last decade are in the South, which is also absorbing an influx of people of all races moving in from other parts of the country.While most experts expect battles over voting restrictions in the coming years, they say that ultimately those efforts cannot hold back the wave of change that will bring about a multiethnic South.“All the voter suppression measures in the world aren’t going to be enough to eventually stem this rising tide,” said Representative David E. Price, a veteran North Carolina Democrat and a political scientist by training.As the region continues to change, Republicans who control legislatures in the South will confront a basic question: how to retain political power when the demographics are no longer on your side.The temptation in the short term, now that the Supreme Court has significantly relaxed federal oversight, may be to pass laws and gerrymander districts to protect Republican political power and limit the influence of the new more diverse population.But that could be devastating to the party’s long-term prospects, especially if it is seen as discriminating against the groups that will make up an ever larger share of the future electorate.
