When Georgia senators and representatives return to the state Capitol to fight over redistricting next week, some of the fiercest battles will be over their own seats.
Lawmakers must create seven new majority-Black districts in the Georgia General Assembly — five in the House and two in the Senate — a change that could narrow the state’s partisan divide.
Creating the new districts might pinch the state’s 57% Republican legislative majority, changes ordered by a federal judge who ruled that the districts they drew two years ago illegally weakened Black voting power.
Redistricting of the state Senate and House will occur alongside a remap of Georgia’s congressional districts to ensure one additional district with a Black majority. Republicans currently hold nine of Georgia’s 14 congressional seats.
The most contentious state legislative battlegrounds are rapidly growing districts south of Atlanta, where Black populations boomed in Republican-held areas over the last decade. Black voters overwhelmingly support Democrats, while most white Georgia voters tend to back Republicans.