‘CRAFTINESS’

New Georgia Congressional Map Maintaining GOP Majority Is Approved

The map tears down a district where most voters are people of color to form a court-mandated Black majority district.

Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature approved a new congressional redistricting map for the 2024 election on Thursday that tears down Rep. Lucy McBath’s (D-GA) district, where most voters are people of color, to form a court-mandated Black majority district. The plan keeps the political balance the same, likely electing nine Republicans and five Democrats to the U.S. House and, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will send the state back to court if a federal judge rejects it. Republicans argued that they respected U.S. District Judge Steven Jones’ ruling by adding a fourth majority-Black district, with House Redistricting Chairman Rob Leverett saying the demand to preserve minority districts only applied to Black voters, not coalitions of Black, Asian, and Hispanic citizens. But Democratic state Rep. Billy Mitchell asserted that the map “should reflect the will of the people and not the craftiness of map makers.”