Georgia Republicans have proposed new congressional maps that would create an additional majority-Black district in the state while targeting a Democratic congresswoman.
Representative Lucy McBath, whose Seventh Congressional District encompasses a large swath of Gwinnett and Fulton Counties in Atlanta’s northeastern suburbs, would see her home district written into heavily Republican territory well north of the capital under the new maps, effectively drawing her out of 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, which were made public on 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 ordered state legislators to draw new district maps in time for the 2024 elections.
Black, Latino and Asian communities make up the majority of the congresswoman’s current district, but no single racial group is predominant — a dynamic that creates Black or minority “opportunity districts” for voters of color to form a largely uniform bloc instead of a single racial group. In Georgia, voters of color tend to favor Democrats.
If the proposed map passes, as it is widely expected to in the Republican-led Statehouse, it would usher in a debate over whether majority-minority districts like Ms. McBath’s have the same protections against racial discrimination under the Voting Rights Act as districts largely made up of one minority group.
The inclusion of an additional majority-Black district, however, is in keeping with Judge Jones’s order to strengthen Black voters’ voting power in the state. The new district will be located west of Atlanta, per Judge Jones’s order.
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