Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp approved redrawn political maps that reconfigure the state’s congressional districts and state legislative seats ahead of the 2024 elections after a federal judge found the previous map by Republicans disenfranchised Black voters under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The three new maps, which include a focus on redistricting in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, passed 98-to-72 in the Georgia Assembly on Thursday in a vote that was mostly along party lines.
A Dec. 20 court hearing is scheduled for U.S. District Judge Steve Jones to review the new maps and potentially issue a ruling on their constitutionality.
This week, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, filed a request asking Jones to appoint a special master to reset the maps by Jan. 16 if the court determines the district lines do not comply with the initial order to redraw them.
Carr also emphasized the importance of nailing down the congressional maps in time for the 2024 election cycle, which kicks off with a presidential primary on March 12, followed by a general election primary on May 21.
Most notably, the newly crafted maps appear designed to ensure that Republicans maintain their 9-5 majority in the state’s U.S. House delegation while also keeping the GOP firmly in control of the state General Assembly.
In Georgia, where Black voters historically align with Democrats, the new maps indicated only modest gains for the party in the House and no advances in the Senate, which could potentially raise the ire of the judge as he considers whether to approve the maps.
By signing the three revised maps into law last Friday, Gov. Kemp met a critical deadline set forth by Jones when he struck down the first round of maps in October because, he said, they watered down Black voting power across the state while weakening Black representation on Capitol Hill.
In the ruling, Jones determined Georgia’s newly drawn district lines did not correctly reflect the growth of the Black population.
The controversy spread nationwide as states were forced to redraw their congressional districts to reflect population changes that emerged as a result of the 2020 Census.
In Georgia’s case, Jones found that although the minority population had fueled the state’s growth over the past decade, the state didn’t create any new Black majority districts in Congress or the state legislature.
As a result, he ordered lawmakers to create a new majority-Black congressional district and an additional seven majority-Black state legislative districts.
At the same time, critics accuse Georgia Republicans of trying to mimic an effort by Alabama lawmakers who unsuccessfully resisted a court order to create a new congressional district where the majority of people are Black.
A Supreme Court ruling in June determined Alabama violated the Voting Rights Act by shutting out Black voters from the redistricting process.
Then, in September, the federal judge overseeing the Alabama case ordered the appointment of a special master to redraw the congressional map after state lawmakers submitted a second redrawn map that didn’t comply with the Supreme Court order to strengthen the state’s Black and minority voter pool.
Following Thursday’s vote in the Georgia Assembly, Democratic State Rep. Gregg Kennard of Lawrenceville, where the district lines were redrawn in Gwinnett County, referred to Georgia as “a purple state.”
“Fair maps should reflect that 50-50 political landscape,” he said. “How can you, with a straight face, draw a 9-5 congressional map?”
Despite Kemp signing off on the new maps in time, the documents were reportedly hurried through the House during a contentious special session that concluded the day before the deadline to submit the maps to the court for Jones to review.
Before passage, a fierce debate erupted on the state House floor on Thursday over how GOP lawmakers handled the creation of new Black majority districts in west metro Atlanta, as mandated by the court.
Georgia Democrats argue the new plan creates more districts where Black voters have a majority but do this by playing a “shell game” that reduces the influence of other districts where non-white residents are the majority.
Democratic Rep. Sam Park, also of Lawrenceville, accused Republicans of trying to undermine racial diversity in Georgia’s congressional districts.
“This open defiance of a federal court order is alarming, he said. “It is reminiscent of the refusal to accept the outcome of the 2020 presidential election that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection.”
During the debate, Democrats also called attention to a provision in the judge’s order that stated the state could not remedy the violations by eliminating minority opportunity districts elsewhere.
Republicans claim the new congressional maps do follow the judge’s order to create a new majority Black district, but Democrats have blasted the proposal because it stands to upend the 7th District in the north Atlanta suburbs, currently led by Rep. Lucy McBath, a Black Democrat.
The culturally diverse district touts a diverse majority of the voting-age population, with 66 percent of residents who are Black, Latino, or Asian. However, under the newly proposed map, this majority would shift to about 66 percent white residents in the district.
McBath once represented the 6th District, but the map changed in 2021 to favor Republicans, so she ran in the 7th District, where she was forced to challenge another Democrat. The move helped Republicans win a Georgia congressional seat in the 2022 midterm election while giving the GOP a 9-5 majority in the state’s House delegation.
“So you put Blacks into the 6th District, but are you diluting the vote strength of Asian-American and Latino voters in Gwinnett County, which is also kind of an important thing?” said Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie, who spoke to the Georgia Recorder. “So are you, for all intents and purposes, fixing one problem but then creating another problem?”
The Georgia case comes as several Republican-led states face legal challenges and increased scrutiny from advocacy groups that allege the GOP was carrying out racial discrimination through gerrymandering with the intent of excluding Black voters.
