Carolyn Hugley responds to Georgia Republicans rejecting Kemp’s call to redistrict
State Rep. Carolyn Hugley (D-Columbus), the Georgia House minority leader, affirmed her goal of ending partisan gerrymandering in Georgia in a statement following House Republicans’ decision to reject Gov. Brian Kemp’s request to redraw voting districts in a special session.
Hugley said in an emai to the Ledger-Enquirer that the decision to backtrack was “a win for the people of Georgia.”
“Governor Kemp did not need to call a special session to pursue another round of gerrymandering ahead of the 2028 election cycle,” she said. “And that was made loud and clear to him today.”
Kemp called for the special session last month, asking Republicans to redraw congressional maps for the 2028 election. This comes after a U.S. Supreme Court decision gutted parts of the Voting Rights Act, paving the way for other Republican-led states to redraw maps and eliminate majority-Black districts.
There are a couple of ways to interpret this decision, Andra Gillespie, associate professor of political science at Emory University, told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Republicans could be feeling comfortable with their electoral standing at the end of this election cycle, based on internal data, Gillespie said, or they could be looking at the risk of Democrats using the issue to mobilize voters.
Members of the GOP worried redistricting efforts in Georgia would energize Democrats for the U.S. Senate and governor elections in November, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In the letter state House Speaker Jon Burns sent to Kemp, he said the decision to redistrict must be made when there is more opportunity “to gather the facts, provide input and engage with meaningful discussion.”
“Since this process has the potential to impact every voter,” the letter says, “it deserves the same responsible, fact-driven approach that guides every policy we consider as lawmakers, especially as we seek to understand the full implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais.”
Gillespie cautions Republicans that just because they decided not to address the issue this year, it does not erase it as a campaign issue for Democrats to mobilize voters.
There isn’t the same sense of urgency, she said, because elected officials like U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Albany) of Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District can’t say they have been drawn out of their district for 2028 during this election cycle.
“I think the threat is real,” Gillespie said. “Democrats are using voting rights as a campaign issue, and you could still campaign around voting rights and redistricting, saying, ‘Look, the next General Assembly is going to redraw lines.’”
This decision by Georgia Republicans to backtrack on redistricting for now is “100% deferring,” she said, and challenges to these maps based on race have become harder to prove.
“They’re not going to look at how this impacts Black voters,” Gillespie said. “They want very clear, smoking-gun evidence. You have to basically say, ‘See? They said, hey, we’re doing this to disenfranchise Black people,’ in order to be able to make a claim.”
Georgia residents need leaders focused on making their lives more affordable, Hugley said. House Democrats will be focused on issues like expanding Medicaid and ending tax breaks for data centers, she said.
“Georgians are not well served when politicians only care about protecting their own jobs rather than helping create more jobs for people across our state,” she said. “That’s why I hope my Republican colleagues will join our efforts to end partisan gerrymandering in Georgia by supporting a Constitutional Amendment to do so. We will continue to remain vigilant to ensure that Georgia’s voters, of all backgrounds and communities, retain the right to choose their own elected officials.”
