A Republican effort to effectively weaken Black voting power in Georgia has Democratic state lawmakers worried about the future of Black representation in the General Assembly.
Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday made Georgia the latest Republican-led state to announce it will redraw its political maps in response to the April 29 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
That ruling determined that political maps that create majority-Black voting districts to ensure African-Americans have fair legislative representation at state and federal levels are unconstitutional. It effectively nullified a Section 2 amendment to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, motivating President Donald Trump and his GOP allies to call for redistricting efforts that eliminate majority-Black districts across the country.
The federal Congressional Black Caucus has estimated its ranks will be reduced by as much as one-third as a result of Republican redistricting. But it’s not just federal lawmakers like U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop of Georgia who may be impacted. Black members of the state General Assembly expect their numbers to be reduced as well.
Kemp issued a proclamation Wednesday for a special session to take place on June 17. His decree said the new maps won’t take effect until the 2028 election cycle.
Leaders of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus said Thursday that they aren’t sure which of their members will be targeted by Republicans looking to eliminate majority-Black districts.
There are 68 GLBC members listed on the group’s website. Some were elected by majority-Black districts, but others, including state Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn, come from districts that are majority white.
“We don’t know [because] we haven’t seen a map,” GLBC Chair Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson, told Capital B Atlanta during the Liberty Plaza press conference outside the Gold Dome in Atlanta.
“But we can just say this,” Merritt continued. “We already know Black electives are being targeted. Point blank.”
In 2024, the state legislature created two additional majority-Black state Senate districts and four majority-Black state House districts, two of which are in metro Atlanta. Their creation came in response to an October 2023 federal ruling that determined Georgia’s 2021 district maps violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
That ruling determined the new majority-Black districts were needed to ensure fair representation for the influx of Black residents who had moved to Georgia in recent years.
State Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta, said there’s no guarantee Republicans will target those majority-Black districts for elimination. He pointed to redistricting efforts in Tennessee that divided the majority-Black population of Memphis as a blueprint for what could happen to major Black population centers in Georgia, including metro Atlanta.
“They just went in Memphis and split it up by thirds,” Jones said of Tennesee Republicans. “That’s why I say everybody’s on the chopping block.”
GLBC Vice Chair Doreen Carter, D-Lithonia, was one of several Black lawmakers who denounced the court’s view that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act discriminates based on race. She noted that the landmark law was created to ensure Black people aren’t denied equal representation based on their own race after decades of Jim Crow-era tactics used to mute their voice in the legislature.
“Let that sink in,” Carter said. “The tool used to remedy discrimination has been declared discriminatory.”
Some questioned why Kemp decided to do a special redistricting session in June instead of waiting until next year’s legislative session, which begins in January.
Merritt noted that polls show Republicans are projected to lose control of the House of Representatives in November and could lose state legislative and statewide office races in Georgia as a result of voters’ concerns on a range of issues, including the rising cost of living.
“They’re losing,” Merrit said. “I think a poll went out and they saw that there was going to be a shift in power. Maybe this is a reaction to that.”
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