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Tahrohon Wayne (T.W.) Shannon, who was Oklahoma’s first African American speaker of the House, is pushing back on President Barack Obama’s pessimistic outlook for minority voters following the Supreme Court’s Wednesday ruling reshaping the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Where Obama saw the court “abandoning” principles of equal participation, Shannon believes the ruling further pushes race out of American politics, highlighting his own story as evidence that minorities don’t need special treatment to win office.
“This idea that you must have a racially drawn district in order to win and compete is just nonsense,” Shannon, who is currently running for lieutenant governor, said.
In its 6-3 decision delivered along ideological lines on Wednesday, the court struck down Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, which was redrawn in 2024 to have a predominantly black electorate. The court also ruled that states may not use race to either draw districts that disenfranchise voters or help minority communities support their preferred candidates.
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T.W. Shannon, former speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, left, pictured alongside former President Barack Obama, right. (T.W. Shannon, Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Obama, reacting to the decision on X, called the ruling disastrous for minorities.
“It serves as just one more example of how a majority of the current Court seems intent on abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach,” Obama wrote.
Shannon disagreed fiercely, arguing that the former president’s framing would only inflame “racial division.”
“What the Supreme Court really did is say that you can’t fix discrimination by discriminating against people. Race should not be a deciding factor…
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