State Watch

Kemp calls for redistricting special session to redraw 2028 maps in Georgia

Comments:

by Ryan Mancini - 05/13/26 6:30 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Ryan Mancini - 05/13/26 6:30 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Wednesday called for a special legislative session for lawmakers to redraw the state’s maps ahead of the 2028 elections.

Kemp’s proclamation called on lawmakers to reconvene on June 17 to “consider enacting, revising, repealing, or amending general law for the division of the State into appropriate districts” following the Supreme Court’s notable ruling on Louisiana’s congressional map last month.

The conservative-majority court’s ruling found that the map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. But the decision also weakened core provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that discriminate based on race, color or minority-group membership.

Kemp told The Atlanta Journal Constitution earlier this month that the court’s decision “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.”

But he added that it was too late for Georgia to draw up new maps ahead of the May 19 primary, saying that the high court’s decision “requires Georgia to adopt new electoral maps before the 2028 election cycle.”

Republican lawmakers would have to ensure any new redistricting measure could also be approved under a GOP governor, with Kemp set to leave office in January.

New maps would likely target the 2nd Congressional District seated by 17-term Rep. Sanford Bishop’s (D-Ga.). But other states in the South are seeking to redraw their maps, with Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina having already done so before the Supreme Court’s decision.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) called off his state’s special session scheduled for next week that would have redrawn the state’s Supreme Court voting districts. The high court’s ruling in Louisiana meant there was “no longer any reason for the legislature to come in next Wednesday for judicial redistricting.”

He added, however, that Mississippi Republicans must come up with a strategy to eventually unseat Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state’s only Democratic representative out of its four-member delegation.

GOP-friendly efforts to redistrict states’ congressional maps could push out 19 of 62 Black Senate and House members, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday, a move she said would be “devastating.”

Thompson and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) warned that the ruling will disenfranchise Black voters, with Warnock comparing the ruling to “Jim Crow in new clothes.” Thompson said Democrats “have a fight ahead” of them.

“Given an opportunity left to themselves without any guardrails, white Republican elected officials would wipe out every opportunity for Black people to be elected,” Thompson told CNN earlier this month. “And so this Supreme Court issue that was decided in favor of the Black community is now being challenged by the governor with a new redistricting plan.”

Add as preferred source on Google