Jennifer Berry Hawes

🧵 As hurricane season approaches, I want to tell you why I spent the past 4 months reporting this new story about Hurricane Helene. In 1999, I spent 13 hours in a car on a gridlocked interstate with my 3-week-old baby during the disastrous mass evacuation from Hurricane Floyd.

The judges ruled Alabama cannot use the map the Legislature approved in the August 11 special primary.

@IAmNickReynolds At Mount Pleasant’s Wando library, the line was around the building at 8:40 am.

Here's one I was sent from the Lowcountry... What are you all seeing? (By the way these were NOT made with AI, the website keeps auto-tagging it that way and I'm not sure why.)

Got here a little late but there is a decent line still outside of the early voting center on USC's campus.

ProPublica obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing. (Pub. 2021) propublica.org/article/the-se…

Some very important points from Republican Senator @SenTomDavisSC email tonight regarding redistricting:

This is astoundingly embarrassing. . nytimes.com/interactive/20…

“People said my car stank, but I couldn’t smell it,” one rescuer said. “That scared me. I don’t smell the bodies anymore.” Incredible visuals by @TylerHicksPhoto nytimes.com/2026/05/25/wor… via @NYTimes

The Department of Justice is acknowledging it has removed from its website news releases about criminal cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, calling the information about the prosecutions "partisan propaganda." abcnews.link/xhDmW3O

What this means: Tuesday will be incredibly long, but this accelerates the inevitable: people will have voted in-person under the existing maps at this point, heightening the risk of being thrown out in court. Now it's a matter of talking Republicans down, say Dems.

Election officials warn of “monumental” strain and voter confusion amid South Carolina’s redistricting fight. On "This Week in South Carolina," Gavin Jackson and the Statehouse press corps recap the legislative session. Watch or stream on-demand here: scetv.org/watch/this-wee…

Ken Paxton once urged SCOTUS to crack down on lawyers seeking favorable courts, saying it “has the pernicious effect of reducing confidence in the fairness and neutrality of our Nation’s justice system.” Now he’s forum shopping in Texas, experts say. propublica.org/article/texas-…

DOJ publicly acknowledges it is deleting press releases about Jan. 6 from its website ⬇️

Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would be called into special session over Memorial Day weekend and have to argue that military members and their spouses deserve to have their votes counted after they already cast their ballots. But here we are. South Carolina is trying to rush through new congressional maps while the election process is already underway. Military and overseas voters followed the rules. They requested their ballots. They voted. They sent them back. Now, because politicians want to change the maps at the last minute, those voters could have their ballots thrown out through no fault of their own. That is unacceptable. I have an amendment that says if the congressional primaries are moved to August, those military and overseas voters should automatically receive a new ballot for the new primary. That should not be controversial. But apparently, some folks are fighting me on it. Some days it feels like I am living in the upside down. It is Memorial Day weekend, and I am having to fight to protect the voting rights of the very people serving our country. If we say we support our veterans, our military members, and their families, then we should start by making sure their votes count. Standing strong. Holding the line.

Before adjourning, there was a second vote to suspend the rules. It received 26 of the needed 31 votes. Had it passed, they could have reported out the redistricting bill today. Now, it’s very unlikely it could be done before early voting begins.

Senate vote shows a new SC congressional map can’t become law before early voting starts scdailygazette.com/2026/05/22/sen… by @jmholdman

SC Senate Vote to suspend rules and invoke cloture needed 31 yes votes on redistricting bill. It only got 25 yes votes. 15 no votes. Motion fails This move was needed to accelerate the debate to allow redistricting finish before in-person early voting.

Breaking: Ex-Miami Beach mayor and Florida gubernatorial candidate accused by Epstein assistant of sexual assault. (gift article) miamiherald.com/news/local/com…

And with a price tag of $6 million (at least) postandcourier.com/opinion/editor…

The IRS has agreed to not audit Trump's taxes. In 2024, we found the IRS concluded in a long-running audit that Trump effectively claimed the same massive write-off twice on a failed Chicago tower. That audit could have cost him more than $100 million. propublica.org/article/trump-…

Inside the child sex abuse case that resulted in Ken Paxton’s office offering a plea deal of just one day in jail bit.ly/4nNym8X

NEW: Records released tonight show that Reynolds, makers of Vuse vapes, gave $5 Million to MAGA Inc. days before the FDA wrote a policy that could allow them to make millions selling flavored vapes. Via @kenvogel nytimes.com/2026/05/20/us/…