Georgia Gov Calls Special Session to Address Redistricting

Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a proclamation convening the Georgia General Assembly for a special session on June 17 to address redistricting in the Peach State. The move comes barely two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais ruled that race-based majority-Black congressional districting is unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.

Kemp had praised the SCOTUS decision, saying it “restores fairness to our redistricting process and allows states to pass electoral maps that reflect the will of the voters, not the will of federal judges.”

The special session will consider “enacting, revising, repealing or amending state law for the division of Georgia into appropriate districts for the State Senate, State House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives, or any other state office elected by district.”

Kemp says any redrawn maps to come out of the special session will be for the 2028 election cycle, as primary voting is already underway for the 2026 election. Currently, Democrats hold five of the state’s 14 congressional seats. As Politico reported, it is unclear at this point how many of those five seats will be targeted.

Georgia Democrats are blasting the governor’s move to redistrict. Charlie Bailey, chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, calls it a “brazen attempt to take away the voting power of Black Georgians” and a Republican attempt to “strip Georgians of their access to fair representation.”

Not a single Black voter would lose his or her ability to vote, nor is it valid to assume Black voters would vote in unison. And as a new Politico poll indicates, the issue is Democratic Party power.

The poll of voters who supported Kamala Harris reveals Democrats are more interested in gaining power over GOP than in protecting majority-minority districts—and thus Black-held seats. As a general proposition, the Democrats polled said they want to keep majority-minority districts “even if it means Democrats draw fewer seats.”

However, according to Politico’s Erin Doherty, Andrew Howard, and Riley Rogerson, “that number changes significantly when the question is asked in the context of the Supreme Court ruling and Republican gerrymandering—and a 45 percent plurality instead say that Democrats must counter GOP efforts, ‘even if it means reducing the number of majority-minority districts.’”

As the Politico headline summarizes: “Democrats would give up Black voting power to beat the GOP.”

But still, the Democrats play the race card, Brianna Lyman at The Federalist wrote in response to the poll. “The difference is that rather than openly admit the fight is about partisan advantage, Democrat leaders are framing Republican redistricting efforts as racist in hopes of guilt-tripping squishy Republicans into backing down.”

Thus far, it looks like a number of red states are not backing down.

The South Moves to Act on SCOTUS Ruling

Georgia is among several states in the South that have moved to redistrict in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. Both Florida and Tennessee have already approved redrawn congressional maps. On Wednesday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster also called for a special legislative session that, if Republicans have their way, will eliminate the sole Democrat district in the state.

Louisiana’s Legislature has advanced pro-Republican redistricting. The state delayed the start of House primaries and is moving to redraw its map after the high court ruled the state’s addition of a second majority-Black congressional district is unconstitutional.