Georgia legislature approves new congressional maps and sends them to Brian Kemp

The Georgia House of Representatives approved a Republican-backed congressional redistricting plan Thursday, sending it to Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) to be signed into law.

The map maintains the current partisan split of nine Republican and five Democratic seats while creating a court-ordered additional black-majority district. It passed in the state House by a 98-71 vote along party lines after passing in the state Senate by a 32-22 vote earlier this week.

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The new map redraws the sixth and seventh Congressional Districts, dividing Rep. Lucy McBath’s (D-GA) suburban Atlanta district in the process. All other incumbents will not see drastic changes to their districts under the new map.

The modified congressional map will go to Kemp’s desk for final approval, but Democrats contend the governor’s approval will not be the end of the road in the redistricting fight. They have argued the new map does not comply with U.S. District Judge Steve Jones’s October order because it takes a district that has no racial majority to make the mandated black-majority district.

Jones’s order had stipulated that the new district could not be made by “eliminating minority opportunity districts elsewhere,” but Peach State Republicans argue that minority opportunity districts are not districts where there is no racial majority.

“This plan adds the required district; it complies with Judge Jones’ order,” Republican state Rep. Rob Leverett, chairman of the state House Redistricting and Reapportionment Committee, told the Associated Press. “It fulfills our obligation as a General Assembly with respect to congressional districts.”

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The court had set a deadline of Friday for lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly to pass new congressional and legislative maps to comply with the Voting Rights Act.

Georgia is one of several states that will have different congressional maps heading into the 2024 elections with control of the House of Representatives up for grabs. North Carolina and Louisiana are among the other states that will have differently drawn districts from the 2022 election.