ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia is the next Southern state where Republicans are convening to redraw voting districts in ways that could diminish the political power of Black and other nonwhite voters after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted Voting Rights Act provisions that helped shape existing boundaries in racially diverse states. The General Assembly convenes Wednesday in a special session called by outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp in response to the court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision, which struck down Louisiana’s congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander.Kemp, who is in the final months of his second term, deviated from other governors who fast-tracked new congressional maps for the November midterms partly in response to President Donald Trump’s pleas to shore up the party’s chances at maintaining control of Congress. Kemp instead wants Georgia lawmakers to draw districts for the 2028 elections. Yet the governor moved ahead of his Southern counterparts by asking the Republican-controlled Assembly to redraw its own boundaries, as well.
That would make Georgia the first state to apply Callais to its legislature and demonstrate the cascading effect of the high court’s decision across Southern states that have the nation’s highest proportion of Black voters and Black lawmakers.
