Georgia General Assembly Approves New Legislative and Congressional Maps
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Georgia General Assembly completed redistricting after the state House of Representatives approved the state’s new congressional map. Finalization of congressional districts comes after the General Assembly finished legislative redistricting last week. All three maps now await the signature of Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who is expected to sign them into law.
All three maps attempt to mitigate the rapidly changing demographic and political landscape in Georgia after President Biden won the state in 2020 and Democrats won both Senate seats earlier this year. The approved congressional plan targets Rep. Lucy McBath (D) by adding heavily Republican counties to her suburban district while also lowering the Black voting population of Rep. Sanford Bishop’s (D) district from 51% to 49%. The state House and Senate maps, meanwhile, were criticized by Democrats for cementing a Republican advantage in the General Assembly and failing to account for the growth of Georgia’s minority population. “Georgia grew by 1 million people in the last decade, and 100% of that growth came from communities of color,” Sen. Elena Parent (D) said. “We would expect to see maps that more properly and appropriately reflect the increase in the populations of communities of color.”