ATLANTA (AP) — On Wednesday, Georgia’s Republican legislative leaders dismissed Governor Brian Kemp’s proposal to convene a special session aimed at redrawing both congressional and state legislative districts. Their decision was influenced by apprehensions about the haste of such an action following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that diluted the federal Voting Rights Act’s safeguards for minority voters.
In a letter addressed to Governor Kemp just hours before the special session was scheduled, House Speaker Jon Burns communicated their refusal. This announcement coincided with the Georgia Capitol resonating with the chants of demonstrators proclaiming, “Black voters matter!”
This development represented a significant setback not only for Governor Kemp but also for former President Donald Trump, who has advocated for Republican-majority states to reconfigure congressional districts in their favor. While ten states have already revised their congressional boundaries ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, Georgia was poised to be the pioneer in altering districts for the 2028 elections and adjusting state legislative maps.
Burns emphasized the necessity for lawmakers to proceed cautiously in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which invalidated Louisiana’s congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The ruling set a precedent for Southern states to reconsider their district boundaries. Burns argued for prioritizing economic issues over “partisan games,” pointing out ongoing legal challenges to Georgia’s current districts and the importance of thoroughly understanding the implications of racial considerations in redistricting.
Behind closed doors, Republican officials voiced concerns that hastily crafted redistricting plans could undermine the political influence of Black and other minority voters, potentially sparking backlash. They also feared that such changes could inadvertently create more competitive districts around Atlanta, potentially favoring Democratic victories.
But Republican legislative leaders did not rule out revisiting redistricting later this year.
Civil rights activists opposed the special session
Minority voting rights are especially salient in Georgia, where the Capitol complex includes a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and sits blocks from where the assassinated civil rights icon lived, preached and led the movement that yielded the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
The pressure surrounding the session was on display Wednesday as civil rights leaders, progressive activists and citizens gathered at the Capitol. They criticized the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Callais that it was discriminatory to draw districts to allow minority voters a chance to elect their preferred representatives.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the first Black senator in Georgia’s history and the minister at the Atlanta church where King once preached, compared the possibility of eliminating some heavily minority districts to the long Jim Crow history of poll taxes and literacy tests. White conservatives in the South once called those policies “race neutral,” too, Warnock said, referencing a phrase Justice Samuel Alito used multiple times in his Callais majority opinion.
Speaking before Burns’ announcement, Warnock called the session opening “a dark day in Georgia history.” He lamented that some white Republicans who might consider redrawing district lines — or already have in other Southern states — also praise King on his federal holiday each year.
“If you want to redraw maps and you have the power to do it, I guess you can do it,” he said. “But keep Dr. King’s name out of your mouth.”
Conservative justices gave the green light
Before Callais, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was understood to require maps — for Congress, state legislatures and local legislative bodies — that gave historically marginalized minorities a reasonable chance to select candidates of their choice. Nationally and in Georgia, those so-called “opportunity districts” have disproportionately elected Black and other nonwhite representatives.
For example, about a third of Georgia’s 180 state representatives are Black. Latino, Asian and other minorities bring the total nonwhite share to about 40% — roughly reflecting the state’s overall population. Georgia’s U.S. House delegation has five districts out of 14 total where the electorate is majority or plurality nonwhite. All elected Black Democrats in 2024.
With the Callais ruling, issued in April, a conservative majority of justices concluded that jurisdictions drawn with racial makeup in mind are discriminatory and violate the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause. The justices declared that apportionment should be “race neutral.”
Their stated reasoning did not hinge on party interests, and federal courts have said partisan gerrymandering is constitutionally permissible. But in Southern states, party loyalty dovetails considerably with race and ethnicity. So the decision has allowed Republicans to redraw maps to boost GOP districts by redistributing nonwhite voters who tend to support Democrats.
Many civil rights activists argue that makes it impossible for Southern legislatures to be genuinely “race neutral” when drawing boundaries.
There were risks for Kemp and Republicans
It wasn’t guaranteed that Georgia Republicans could get what they want from new maps.
Around metro Atlanta, spreading nonwhite, Democratic-leaning voters across more districts could make more seats seem to lean Republican. The risk, however, is that more battleground districts emerge because white metropolitan voters are trending less conservative, which could give Democratic candidates of any race or ethnicity more chances to win.
That’s perhaps not a major factor in the Georgia state Senate, which already is considered gerrymandered for Republicans. But it could be a consideration when drawing state House and U.S. House maps.
Kemp was effectively asking Republicans, especially in metro Atlanta, to redraw their own boundaries and take on new, unfamiliar territory.
Trump started the fight before the Supreme Court decision
Nationally, a partisan redistricting battle started last year when Trump urged Republican-controlled states to redraw congressional boundaries to shore up the GOP’s narrow House majority in Washington this November. Texas answered the call first.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats in Sacramento answered with their own gerrymander that voters later approved. A succession of states followed. The outcome would have been close to even had the Virginia Supreme Court, controlled by conservatives, not struck down new Democratic-drawn maps approved by the state’s voters. All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 16 seats from their redistricting efforts while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.
That still may not be enough for the GOP to hold a congressional majority, given Trump’s lagging approval ratings. But it could mitigate Democratic gains and set Republicans up well for 2028 and beyond.