Georgia advances congressional maps in favor of GOP despite concerns over law

Republican lawmakers in Georgia pushed forward Tuesday with a congressional map proposal that keeps a 9-5 Republican majority for House seats, which Democrats claim violates a federal court order.

The map, introduced Friday, will split Rep. Lucy McBath’s (D-Ga.) northeast Atlanta district and create a new west Atlanta district to follow a court order after a judge ruled the state’s congressional boundaries violated the Voting Rights Act.

The proposal passed the state Senate on Tuesday in a 32-22 vote and will now advance to further debate in the state House. New map proposals also change district boundaries for both bodies of the state Legislature.

Judge Steve Jones ruled in October that the state’s current congressional boundaries depress the voting power of Black voters, specifically in west Atlanta, and ordered a new map with a west Atlanta district. That sparked a Legislature special session on the new map proposals.

By moving McBath’s district toward more rural areas and changing the boundaries of other Atlanta districts, the state GOP is attempting to follow the judge’s order without giving up a House seat to Democrats.

Democrats and anti-gerrymandering activists argue that the new maps keep the systemic discriminatory representation of current district boundaries while solving only some of the issues pointed out in the federal court order.

McBath’s campaign denounced the proposed boundaries Friday.

“Georgia Republicans have yet again attempted to subvert voters by changing the rules. We will look to the ruling from Judge Jones in the coming weeks before announcing further plans,” McBath campaign manager Jake Orvis said in a statement. “Regardless, Congresswoman McBath refuses to let an extremist few in the state legislature determine when her time serving Georgians in Congress is done.”

Jones will review the congressional and state Legislature maps before they are implemented.

“This Republican map is unlawful,” State Rep. Sam Park (D) said on the Legislature floor Friday. “It is a map that Judge Jones can and should reject.”

“Unfortunately, it seems we are repeating the mistakes of our dark past under Republican control of the state of Georgia,” he continued. “Not only are these maps unlawful, they cling to power and maintain an unrepresentative majority that does not reflect our great state … To put it plainly, it seems Republicans are trying to remedy their racial discrimination with partisan gerrymandering.”