What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State

On Dec. 30, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed Georgia’s new congressional map into law, more than a month after the state legislature passed it. The Republican-drawn map gives the GOP a strong chance of capturing at least one Democratic-held seat in the state. Georgia’s current congressional delegation has eight Republicans and six Democrats, but the plan shifts Georgia’s 6th District from a competitive D+1 seat to a R+24 district, making it almost certain to fall into Republican hands.

The new map has five districts in which white voters are a minority of the voting-age population, unchanged from the current lines despite the fact that much of Georgia's population growth since 2010 has been driven by people of color. As a result, multiple federal lawsuits claim the map dilutes the political power of Black voters, in violation of the Voting Rights Act and/or the U.S. Constitution. However, the delay in making the maps official meant the lawsuits were filed too close to the May 24 primary, and on Feb. 28 a judge cited that fact in allowing the maps to stand, at least for the 2022 election.

From an electoral standpoint, the map most clearly impacts the futures of Democratic Reps. Carolyn Bourdeaux and Lucy McBath. McBath now has little hope of winning reelection in the new 6th District, so she has decided to run next door in the new 7th District against Bourdeaux. Under the Republican plan, the 7th District becomes a clearly Democratic-leaning seat, moving from R+4 to D+16, so the winner of the Bourdeaux-McBath primary appears likely to hold onto the seat in the 2022 general election.

Outside the Atlanta area, the Republican map leaves the 2nd District in southwest Georgia as the state’s only competitive seat in a general election, moving it slightly to the right, from D+6 to D+4. This could imperil longtime Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop in the 2022 midterm election, but the plurality-Black district’s high degree of racially polarized voting — Black voters vote mostly Democratic, white voters mostly Republican — may help Bishop survive. Moreover, he’s won over a meaningful number of rural white voters over the years.