Georgia redistricting: Proposed U.S. House maps give Republicans an edge in 2022 midterms
The Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly on Nov. 17 released their proposal for the last step of the redistricting special session: redrawing the state’s congressional districts.
The proposed map increases the odds of Georgia Republicans increasing their current 8-6 majority in the U.S. House, despite the Democratic flip the state saw in the 2020 presidential race.
The most impactful changes were to a pair of Atlanta-area districts and are expected to make the 6th District lean Republican. The 6th is currently represented by Democrat Lucy McBath. The district, which currently encompasses parts of Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb counties, will include conservative Forsyth, Cherokee and Dawson counties should the new map become law..
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Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) said the maps reflect "the will of the people of Georgia" in a press release.
“Today, we have released a proposed map that reflects Georgia’s growing, diverse population, respects jurisdictional lines and communities of interest, and conforms to applicable legal standards including the Voting Rights Act. This map will now go through the legislative process in both the House and the Senate which will include public testimony and debate in both chambers,” Ralston’s statement read in part.
In the 1st District, the new map shows the coastal constituency gaining all of Appling County, and losing the whole of Echols and Clinch counties. Lowndes County, a slice of which has been part of the 1st District since 2011, would also move into a neighboring district.
Effingham County, which was only partially within the 1st District for the last decade, has slipped slightly farther into it — the boundary was moved more north, to now include pockets of southern Springfield, but not the entire city. Pembroke now sits entirely within the 1st District.
The new map is likely good news for Rep. Buddy Carter, in that the split between Republicans and Democrats is still hovering comfortably right-of-center, despite the loss of inland Republican strongholds.
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If Carter’s 2020 re-election is used as a metric, Clinch and Echols don't move the needle much, but were a reliable area for Carter. He picked up 2,060 votes in Clinch County, 77% of the vote. In Echols, He got 1,229 votes, or 89%. And in the section cut out of Lowndes County, he got 1,133 votes, 61% of the total.
Some of those votes will be made up in Effingham County. Carter took home 14,529 votes, or 76% of the total, in Effingham in 2020. With more of the county now in the 1st District, Carter's share promises to be even bigger - the entire county went 74% for President Donald Trump, a Republican, in 2020, a total of over 23,000 votes.
The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which gives out grades on their Redistricting Report Card system, gives the Republican congressional map an overall grade of a C, noting the lines as drawn would give Republicans an advantage.
The report found the vote share for the 1st District is fairly similar to Carter’s results in 2020. The Democratic share of the vote is around 43.17%, and the Republican share is 56.83%.
Last year, Carter beat Democratic challenger Joyce Marie Griggs with a vote split of 58.3% to 41.7%.
Since Republicans control both the Georgia House and Georgia Senate, Democrats have little influence in the redistricting process, resulting in new boundaries meant to secure easier conservative victories for the next decade.
Will Peebles is the enterprise reporter for Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at wpeebles@gannett.com and @willpeeblessmn on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia congressional map makes it easier for Republicans to win seats
