ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� Georgia鈥檚 Republican legislative leaders on Wednesday rejected Gov. Brian Kemp鈥檚 during a special session, citing concerns about moving too quickly after a weakened federal for minority voters.
The aborted effort to reduce nonwhite voters’ representation contrasts with other Southern states where Republican majorities moved quickly to redraw congressional boundaries ahead of the November midterms, partly in response to President Donald Trump’s pleas to shore up the GOP’s fragile House majority.
Civil rights activists and Democrats, especially Black and other nonwhite lawmakers, celebrated the development and claimed victory after exerting weeks of pressure and gathering hundreds of citizens at the Georgia Capitol on Wednesday ahead of the session.
鈥淭oday showed that ordinary people don’t need to wait until November to make their voices heard and protect our democracy,鈥� said U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the state’s first Black senator who returned to Atlanta from Washington to be at the Capitol. 鈥淲e can stand up and speak right now.鈥�
Kemp had not asked his fellow Republicans to reopen Georgia districts ahead of November. Instead, he wanted them to redraw congressional boundaries for the 2028 election. But the governor, in the final months of his second term, also called on lawmakers to redraw their own districts 鈥� a move that would have made Georgia the first state to apply the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision to its legislature.
State House Speaker Jon Burns sent Kemp a letter hours before Wednesday’s special session was set to begin, informing him that legislators would not consider redistricting at all during the session. He announced the decision publicly shortly after, as demonstrators filled the Capitol with chants of 鈥淏lack voters matter!鈥�
Kemp said he believes Georgia’s current districts are unconstitutional, and he sees no reason to delay redistricting.
鈥淟egislative districting, however, is the responsibility of the General Assembly, and it is within their discretion to defer the issue until a later date,鈥� Kemp said in a statement.
Burns said lawmakers want to take their time after the Callais decision, which struck down Louisiana鈥檚 congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander and laid the groundwork for legislatures to reduce the number of districts where Black and other nonwhite voters hold most sway.
The speaker said it was more important for lawmakers to focus on economic matters rather than 鈥減artisan games.鈥� He also cited pending litigation over existing Georgia districts and the need to understand the full ramifications for how race can or cannot be used in redistricting.
Privately, Republicans had expressed concerns that a rushed process that diminished Black and other minority voters鈥� political power could cause a backlash. And they worried that redrawn districts could unintentionally create more competitive jurisdictions that Democrats could win, especially around Atlanta.
Still, Georgia Republicans did not rule out revisiting redistricting later this year.
Conservative justices gave the green light
Before Callais, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was understood to require maps 鈥� for Congress, state legislatures and local legislative bodies 鈥� that gave historically marginalized minorities a reasonable chance to select candidates of their choice. Nationally, those so-called 鈥渙pportunity districts鈥� have disproportionately elected Black and other nonwhite representatives.
About one-third of Georgia鈥檚 180 state representatives are Black. Latino, Asian and other minorities bring the total nonwhite share to about 40% 鈥� roughly reflecting the state鈥檚 overall population. Georgia鈥檚 U.S. House delegation has five districts out of 14 total where the electorate is majority or plurality nonwhite. All elected Black Democrats in 2024.
With the Callais ruling, a conservative majority of justices concluded that jurisdictions drawn with racial makeup in mind violate the U.S. Constitution鈥檚 equal protection clause. Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion declared that apportionment should be 鈥渞ace neutral.鈥�
Alito’s stated reasoning did not hinge on party interests, and federal courts have said partisan gerrymandering is constitutionally permissible. But in Southern states, party loyalty dovetails considerably with race and ethnicity. So the decision has allowed Republicans to redraw maps to boost GOP districts by redistributing nonwhite voters who tend to support Democrats.
Many civil rights activists argue that makes it impossible for Southern legislatures to be genuinely 鈥渞ace neutral鈥� when drawing boundaries.
Democrats and activists opposed the special session
Minority voting rights are especially salient in Georgia, where the Capitol complex includes a statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and sits blocks from where the assassinated civil rights icon lived, preached and led the movement that yielded the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
Warnock, who is also minister at the Atlanta church where King once preached, invoked the civil rights icon as he led demonstrators who criticized the Supreme Court鈥檚 reasoning in Callais that it was discriminatory to draw districts to allow minority voters a chance to elect their preferred representatives.
The senator compared the possibility of scaling back nonwhite representation to the long Jim Crow history of poll taxes and literacy tests. White conservatives in the South once called those policies 鈥渞ace neutral,鈥� too, Warnock noted.
Speaking before Burns鈥� announcement, Warnock lamented that some white Republicans who might consider redrawing district lines 鈥� or already have in other states 鈥� also praise King on his federal holiday each year.
鈥淚f you want to redraw maps and you have the power to do it, I guess you can do it,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut keep Dr. King鈥檚 name out of your mouth.鈥�
Trump started the fight before the Supreme Court decision
Nationally, a started last year when Trump urged Republican-controlled states to gerrymander their congressional maps. Texas answered the call first.
California Gov. Gavin 太子探花om and Democrats in Sacramento answered with their own gerrymander that voters later approved. A succession of states followed. The outcome would have been close to even had the Virginia Supreme Court, controlled by conservatives, not struck down new Democratic-drawn maps approved voters. All told, Republicans think they could notch a net gain of 10 seats across the multiple states.
That still may not be enough for the GOP to hold a congressional majority, given Trump’s lagging approval ratings. But it could mitigate Democratic gains and set Republicans up well for 2028 and beyond.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
