Georgia Republicans add majority-black congressional district at McBath’s expense

Georgia Republicans have proposed new congressional maps that would create an additional black majority district in the state while focusing on a Democratic congresswoman.

Rep. Lucy McBath, whose seventh congressional district includes much of Gwinnett and Fulton counties in Atlanta’s northeastern suburbs, would see her home district written under the new maps in heavily Republican territory far north of the capital, effectively putting her would be pulled from a congressional seat. . Republicans would maintain their four-seat majority in the state’s congressional delegation, and no Republican representatives would be in danger of losing their seats.

The maps, made public Friday, were redrawn during a special legislative session after Judge Steve C. Jones of the Northern District of Georgia ruled that the state’s congressional maps diluted the power of black voters. He directed state lawmakers to draw new district maps in time for the 2024 elections.

Black, Latino and Asian communities make up the majority of the congressman’s current district, but no racial group is predominant — a dynamic that creates black or minority “opportunity districts” where voters of color can form a largely uniform bloc rather than one only racial. group. In Georgia, voters of color tend to favor Democrats.

If the proposed map passes, as is widely expected in the Republican-led Statehouse, it would usher in a debate over whether majority-minority districts like Ms. McBath’s receive the same protections against racial discrimination under the Voting Rights Act enjoy as districts consisting largely of one minority group.

However, the inclusion of an additional Black-majority district is consistent with Judge Jones’ order to strengthen the voting power of Black voters in the state. The new district will be located west of Atlanta, per Judge Jones’ order.

Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia who studies redistricting, said the state’s Republican lawmakers “followed the rules on the first part and then ignored the second part. The second part is not destroying pre-existing or pre-existing Black opportunity districts.

Other U.S. representatives from Georgia would see their districts radically changed even as they remain partisan. Representative David Scott, a Democrat whose 13th Congressional District stretched along Atlanta’s southwestern metro area, would now represent territory southeast of the city — suburbs that once made up parts of Ms. McBath’s district. Rep. Rich McCormick, a Republican who has amassed a handful of Democratic challengers seeking to flip his Sixth Congressional District north of Atlanta, saw his district stretched further into deep-red northern Georgia and shielded from Democratic encroachment.

In a statementGeorgia House Speaker Jon Burns defended the proposed map, saying it “delivers on the promise we made when this process began: it fully complies with the judge’s order, while also following Georgia’s traditional redistricting principles .” He added: “We look forward to passing this fair redistribution plan.”

Ms. McBath, a former flight attendant and gun control activist who rose to prominence after the 2012 shooting death of her son Jordan Davis, has long been considered a rising Democratic star. Her defeat of Republican incumbent Karen Handel in 2018 made her a symbol of how changing demographics in Atlanta’s suburbs gave way to Georgia’s political shift to the left. Her name has been mentioned among possible candidates for governor in 2026.

This is the second time Republican-drawn congressional maps have been created at Ms. McBath’s expense. In 2022, after her district was redrawn to favor Republicans, she ran against and defeated a fellow Democrat, Carolyn Bourdeaux, in a neighboring district to remain in Congress. As in the previous maps, none of the newly drawn congressional districts are likely to create competitive races.

Ms. McBath has not yet publicly indicated whether she will run for office in another congressional district or face an all-but-assured defeat in her district under the proposed maps, should Judge Jones accept them.

“Georgia Republicans have once again tried to undermine voters by changing the rules. We will look at Judge Jones’ ruling in the coming weeks before announcing any further plans,” Jake Orvis, Ms. McBath’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “Regardless, Congresswoman McBath refuses to let a few extremists in the state legislature decide when her time serving Georgians in Congress is over.”