Map to victory: How Georgia GOP hopes to hold on to majority

Republicans in the Georgia Senate are looking to negate any advantages Democrats could receive from court-ordered redistricting for the state legislature‘s upper chamber.

The Peach State legislature is convening for a special session on Wednesday to redraw congressional and state legislative maps after a federal court struck down the current ones. A proposal by the Georgia Senate GOP would likely serve to maintain its 33-23 majority by swapping two Democratic-held white-majority Senate seats with two black-majority Senate seats.

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The new map would reshape two Atlanta-area districts to be the additional two black-majority districts that U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ordered the map to comply with as part of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The 17th state Senate District and the 28th state Senate District would be made the new black-majority districts under this plan, with Democratic state Sens. Jason Esteves and Elena Parent being placed into those districts after previously representing white-majority districts. Under this plan, no senator would be forced out of their seat; the lines would just be changed for the areas Esteves and Parent represent.

Democrats in the upper chamber also released their proposal for the state Senate maps, but with the current Republican trifecta in the state, that proposal is unlikely to succeed.

The legislature will also redraw the congressional and state House maps during the session to comply with the district court decision. For the congressional map, lawmakers will need to add one additional black-majority district, while for the state House map, five additional black-majority seats will need to be created.

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Georgia Republicans currently have a 9-5 advantage in the U.S. House and a 102-78 majority in the state House of Representatives. While the GOP will look to minimize losing any seats in those new maps, Democrats’ historical dominance with black voters makes it a difficult task.

The legislature will convene for its second session of the year on Wednesday, with the current suspension of the state gas tax among the various items placed on the agenda by Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA).