Georgia House advances congressional maps Democrats say violate court order

Republicans in the Georgia House approved a new congressional map Thursday, which is set to keep the GOP’s 9-5 majority in state representation, one Democrats claim doesn’t follow the court order which forced lawmakers to make new maps in the first place.

The new maps split Rep. Lucy McBath’s (D-Ga.) northeast Atlanta district between neighboring representatives and move it to a more rural area, where it will likely fall to a Republican. It also creates a new west Atlanta district.

The west Atlanta district was at the center of a federal court order from Judge Steve Jones, who ruled in October that the current congressional makeup dilutes the voting power of Black Georgians, violating the Voting Rights Act.

While the new maps follow Jones’ direction and create a west Atlanta district, Democrats say the maps still violate the order by creating new discriminatory representation in splitting up McBath’s district.

It’s the second time state Republicans have targeted McBath in boundary changes. She was forced to primary an incumbent Democrat last year, after her previous district redrawn to favor Republicans.

“The Georgia Legislature this week approved draft congressional maps with one goal: removing Rep. Lucy McBath from Congress,” McBath’s campaign said in a statement Thursday.

“I will not let an extremist portion of the state legislature decide when my time serving the people of Georgia is through,” McBath said. “I will come back to Washington.”

The party-line vote in the state House on Thursday followed a similar state Senate vote Tuesday. Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) is expected to sign the new congressional maps into law, before they will be sent to Jones for final approval.

Democrats have urged Jones to shoot down the new maps and order a special master to draw non-partisan district boundaries. The case would likely be appealed to the 11th Circuit and the Supreme Court.

“It’s self-evident that the Republican Party’s primary goal is to maintain political power at all costs — even to the detriment of Georgia voters’ freedoms, our representative Democracy, and the rule of law,” state Rep. Sam Park (D) argued on the statehouse floor Thursday.

“Unfortunately this Republican effort to dismantle the Voting Rights Act, to divide voters by race and dilute their political power, to foster division by pitting communities against one another, is designed to only make us weaker,” he continued.

The Georgia redistricting comes just after a federal court ordered new congressional maps in neighboring Alabama. A similar fight over the Voting Rights Act resulted in a court-drawn map for the 2024 election, which is likely to result in the election of an additional Democrat from the state.