{"id":15773,"date":"2026-06-17T18:01:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=15773"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:01:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:01:39","slug":"georgia-republican-legislative-leaders-reject-governors-call-for-2028-redistricting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=15773","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Republican legislative leaders reject governor\u2019s call for 2028 redistricting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By BILL BARROW<\/strong><\/p>\n

ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Georgia\u2019s Republican legislative leaders on Wednesday rejected Gov. Brian Kemp\u2019s\u00a0call to redraw congressional and legislative districts\u00a0during a special session, citing concerns about moving too quickly after a\u00a0U.S. Supreme Court decision\u00a0weakened federal\u00a0Voting Rights Act protections\u00a0for minority voters.<\/p>\n

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House Speaker Jon Burns sent Kemp a letter hours before a special session was set to begin Wednesday, and he announced the decision as demonstrators filled the Georgia Capitol with chants of \u201cBlack voters matter!\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision marked a setback for both Kemp and President Donald Trump, who has urged Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts to their advantage. Ten states already have enacted new congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections. Georgia would have been the first to change districts for the 2028 elections.<\/p>\n

Burns said lawmakers want to take their time after the court\u2019s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down Louisiana\u2019s congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander and laid the groundwork for other Southern states to redraw their congressional districts. Burns said it was more important for lawmakers to focus on economic matters rather than \u201cpartisan games.\u201d He also cited pending litigation over existing Georgia districts and the need for the state to understand the full ramifications for how race can or cannot be used in redistricting.<\/p>\n

Republican legislative leaders did not rule out revisiting redistricting later this year.<\/p>\n

Minority voting rights are especially salient in Georgia, where the Capitol complex includes a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and sits blocks from where the slain civil rights icon lived, preached and led the movement that yielded the Voting Rights Act in 1965.<\/p>\n

Conservative justices gave the green light<\/h4>\n

Before Callais, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was understood to require maps \u2014 for Congress, state legislatures and local legislative bodies \u2014 that gave historically marginalized minorities a reasonable chance to select candidates of their choice. Nationally and in Georgia, those so-called \u201copportunity districts\u201d have disproportionately elected Black and other nonwhite representatives.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

For example, about a third of Georgia\u2019s 180 state representatives are Black. Latino, Asian and other minorities bring the total nonwhite share to about 40% \u2014 roughly reflecting the state\u2019s overall population. Georgia\u2019s U.S. House delegation has five districts out of 14 total where the electorate is majority or plurality nonwhite. All elected Black Democrats in 2024.<\/p>\n

With the Callais ruling, issued in April, a conservative majority of justices concluded that jurisdictions drawn with racial makeup in mind are discriminatory and violate the U.S. Constitution\u2019s equal protection clause. The justices declared that apportionment should be \u201crace neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their stated reasoning did not hinge on party interests, and federal courts have said partisan gerrymandering is constitutionally permissible. But in Southern states, especially, party loyalty dovetails considerably with race and ethnicity. So the decision has allowed Republicans \u2014 a party dominated by white people \u2014 to redraw maps to goose likely GOP districts by redistributing nonwhite voters who tend to support Democrats.<\/p>\n

That, many civil rights activists and experts argue, makes it impossible for Southern legislatures to be genuinely \u201crace neutral\u201d when drawing boundaries.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n

Emory University professor Carol Anderson compared Callais and the resulting redistricting push to poll taxes and literacy tests imposed by white Southern conservatives \u2014 and blessed by the Supreme Court \u2014 during the Jim Crow era.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey used racially neutral language for policies that were clearly racially targeted,\u201d said Anderson, who is also a board member of Fair Fight Action, a group organizing against the Georgia redistricting.<\/p>\n

There were risks for Kemp and Republicans<\/h4>\n

It\u2019s not guaranteed that Georgia Republicans can get what they want from new maps.<\/p>\n

Partisan gerrymandering involves redistributing voters \u2014 packing certain citizens into fewer districts or dividing them across more districts. Around metro Atlanta, spreading nonwhite, Democratic-leaning voters across more districts could make more seats seem to lean Republican. The risk, however, is that more battleground districts emerge because white metropolitan voters are trending less conservative, which could give Democratic candidates of any race or ethnicity more chances to win.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s perhaps not a major factor in the Georgia state Senate, which already is considered gerrymandered for Republicans. But it could be a consideration when drawing state House and U.S. House maps.<\/p>\n

Kemp was effectively asking Republicans, especially in metro Atlanta, to redraw their own boundaries and take on new, unfamiliar territory.<\/p>\n

Trump started the fight before the Supreme Court decision<\/h4>\n

Nationally, a\u00a0partisan redistricting battle\u00a0started last year when Trump urged Republican-controlled states to redraw congressional boundaries to shore up the GOP\u2019s narrow House majority in Washington this November. Texas answered the call first.<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats in Sacramento answered with their own gerrymander that voters later approved. A succession of states followed. The outcome would have been close to even had the Virginia Supreme Court, controlled by conservatives, not struck down new Democratic-drawn maps approved by the state\u2019s voters. All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 16 seats from their\u00a0redistricting efforts\u00a0while Democrats think they could gain six seats from new districts in California and Utah.<\/p>\n

That still may not be enough for the GOP to hold a congressional majority, given Trump\u2019s lagging approval ratings. But it could mitigate Democratic gains and set Republicans up well for 2028 and beyond.<\/p>\n

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Republican lawmakers in Georgia won\u2019t redraw congressional and state legislative districts for the 2028 elections during a special session called by GOP Gov. 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