The Republican-dominated Georgia Senate Committee on redistricting passed their proposed Congressional Map along party lines 7-4 Monday morning. The vote did not occur without controversy because the Republicans created a new majority-Black district west of metro Atlanta, Georgia’s new Sixth Congressional District. The Republicans’ map would keep their majority in Congress with nine members while the Democrats have five.
However, the Republicans submitted a map that slices Gwinnett County into four separate districts which dilutes the voting strength of Georgia’s most ethnically diverse county.
“After drawing the new majority Black district required by the court order, we then followed our existing traditional redistricting principles to work on the remaining districts,” said State Senator Shelly Echols, a Republican from Gainesville. “Those principles include maintaining district populations, so they are exactly the same plus or minus one person, which is higher than what is allowed on legislative plans.”
Echols said during her opening statement, “the Voting Rights Act protects distinct minority groups, not coalitions.” Plus she added the 2021 congressional plan complied with the Voting Rights Act. The Republicans are currently pursuing an appeal of Judge Steven Jones’s order.
Echols added this configuration also keeps Conyers, Snellville and Lilburn whole, all of which are suburban cities with significant shared interests given their proximity to Atlanta. She said Georgia’s 13th Congressional District is majority Black with a voting population of 51.45%.
Additionally, the new district draws out Rep. Lucy McBath from Georgia’s current Seventh Congressional District. The proposed district would be tilted in favor of the Republicans because the Seventh Congressional District would stretch into Rabun County and the north Georgia mountains.
“We have eliminated a minority-opportunity district, which goes completely against the judge’s order,” Senate Minority Whip Harold Jones, a Democrat from Augusta, told committee members shortly before Monday’s vote.
State Senator Harold Jones also chided the Republicans because they labeled the plaintiffs as “democrat-led” groups with an activist agenda.
“I do want us to be careful in our language as far as saying different groups are bringing this suit. It’s not my fraternity, but Alpha Phi Alpha Incorporated is an African-American fraternity. It was the first African American fraternity founded in the United States. They are one of the plaintiffs in this particular case. They’re nonpartisan.
They do tremendous work in the African-American community and basically for the whole community. And I do want to be a little bit careful with our language to say that Democratic groups brought these particular cases and things of that nature, when you realize who some of these groups actually are, and the benefit that they’ve given to not only African-Americans, but to society in general.”
The map is expected to hit the Senate floor on Tuesday.
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