Georgia Legislative Black Caucus slams Kemp’s redistricting decision

(GPB News) – Gov. Brian Kemp is calling the Legislature back in June to redraw Georgia’s congressional and state legislative maps. The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus says they will fight any maps that dilute Black voting power.

State Sen. Nikki Merritt, the caucus chair, said the decision to redraw the state’s political maps following the Louisiana v. Callais U.S. Supreme Court decision weakening the Voting Rights Act is an attempt to silence Black voters.

“This is an attack on metro Atlanta; this is a attack on Black political power,” she said at a news conference outside the state Capitol on Thursday. “This is an attack on the growing coalition of voters reshaping Georgia’s future.”

The Legislature will meet on June 17 to start the process of approving new maps ahead of the 2028 election cycle. So far, no proposed maps have been made public.

Kemp said that after the Supreme Court decision, it was a matter of when, not if the state redistricted, adding that Democrats shouldn’t criticize the maps before they see them.

“They haven’t seen the maps yet,” he said on Wednesday. “So they might want to wait and see what the Legislature does.”

After the Callais decision, legal challenges to new voting maps could face an uphill battle. So Merritt said the resistance effort will focus on getting people out to vote instead.

“I know people think it does not matter, but what we need right now are numbers, you guys,” she said Thursday. “We need the type of leadership that will not pass a map to dilute Black vote.”

Georgia is the latest state planning to redraw voting maps amid a national trend of creating districts to favor one party. President Donald Trump asked Republican states to redistrict to help him before the midterm elections, although Georgia’s maps won’t take effect until 2028.

The special session will also deal with a looming July 1 deadline to related to QR codes printed on ballots. A law passed in 2024 requires that the codes not be used to count votes after July.

“We can’t wait on the elections bill,” Kemp said. “We’ve got to fix that before the special election in [U.S. Rep.] David Scott’s seat.”

Lawmakers had advanced a bill that would have kicked that July 1 deadline to next year during the regular legislative session, but it did not pass before the Legislature adjourned in April. The April 22 death of Scott and special election to fill his seat July 28 added pressure to figure out a concrete solution by the deadline.