Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) called for lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional and legislative maps for 2028, adding Georgia to the growing list of southern states poised to wipe out majority-Black districts before the next presidential election.
Kemp signed a proclamation Wednesday convening a special session next month where lawmakers are expected to consider new district lines for the U.S. House, state Senate, state House and other district-based offices.
The maps would not affect this year’s midterm elections, with Georgia’s primaries already underway.
The move comes just weeks after the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down Louisiana’s congressional map with two majority-Black districts and sharply narrowed how states can use the federal Voting Rights Act to protect minority voters from having their political power diluted.
Georgia Republicans are now moving quickly to reopen the state’s maps.
“It’s clear that Callais requires Georgia to adopt new electoral maps before the 2028 election cycle,” Kemp said. “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.”
Kemp is term-limited as governor, acting now could help Georgia Republicans avoid the possibility that a Democratic governor elected this fall could veto new maps next year.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) quickly condemned the move.
“We just learned that Georgia is moving forward with gerrymandering for 2028,” Warnock wrote. “There is an extreme movement in this country that will stop at nothing to hold on to power, even if it means stripping representation away from millions.I will fight this with everything I have.”
Georgia’s 2021 congressional and legislative maps were struck down after a federal judge found they violated the Voting Rights Act then. Lawmakers later redrew the maps under court order, adding Black opportunity districts — where Black voters have a meaningful chance to elect candidates of their choice.
But after Callais, Republicans have a new opening to argue those districts relied too heavily on race. That argument could give them legal cover to weaken or eliminate districts that currently help Black voters elect candidates, including in Congress and the state Legislature.
Five of Georgia’s 14 U.S. House members are Black, all of them Democrats.
The special session also comes as other Republican-led states move to take advantage of Callais.
Louisiana Republicans are advancing a plan to eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black congressional districts before the 2026 midterms. While Tennessee and Alabama have also moved ahead with new maps that could help Republicans gain seats at the expense of Black voters. South Carolina is also poised to rejoin the GOP’s scramble after initially resisting pressure from President Donald Trump.
Georgia’s special session will also address a separate election issue involving a 2024 law that requires the state to stop using QR codes to count votes. But the political center of gravity of the session remains redistricting — and how Georgia Republicans will use Callais to further weaken Black political power ahead of the next presidential cycle
