For Georgia’s congressional delegation, redistricting is a waiting game

“My influence is minimal,” he said about the upcoming special session.

The Democrat whose seat is most likely to change is U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, who represents nearly 30 counties in southwest Georgia. The district is majority Democrat by just a few percentage points and 49% Black.

Republicans are expected to add voters to make the district slightly GOP-leaning in hopes that it will reduce Bishop’s chances of winning in 2028 when any new maps go into effect. He is the longest-serving current member of Georgia’s congressional delegation, having taken office in 1993.

Bishop says pushing a senior House member out of office is bad for the state. He points to his position as a top Democrat on the appropriations committee and years of success bringing federal resources to Georgia’s farmers and military bases.

“It doesn’t matter what your ethnicity may be or your background,” he said. “What matters is the kind of service that you have rendered.”

Messing with the partisan mix in Bishop’s district doesn’t just impact him. It also could affect Scott, whose district is to the east, and U.S. Rep. Brian Jack, the neighbor to the north. Jack’s district is about one-third Democratic presently.

The Peachtree City Republican is in his first term in Congress, but he has deep ties in the Republican Party under President Donald Trump. Yet he plans to be hands-off during the special session.

“I haven’t had conversations with members of the General Assembly, mostly because I want to be very deferential to their role. It’s their right to draw the maps as they deem fit, if that’s something that they do next week,” Jack said.

Georgia has 14 of 435 seats in the U.S. House, and under the current map, nine seats are considered safe for Republicans and five for Democrats. All four Democrats currently representing Georgia are Black. The fifth seat is vacant, having been held by late Congressman David Scott, who also was Black. Scott died in office in April.

Any effort in Georgia to reduce Democratic-held seats will, in effect, decrease Black representation in Congress. And that leaves U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, angry about the whole process.

She has been targeted by redistricting efforts in the past and switched to a safer Democratic seat in 2022 after initially ousting a Republican incumbent in 2018 in what was then a toss-up district in metro Atlanta.

“It’s just the overall assault on our ability to be able to have our voters choose their elected officials, and not the other way around,” she said. “It is the assault on Black voices.”

The four metro Atlanta districts represented by U.S. Reps. Nikema Williams, Hank Johnson, McBath and previously by Scott are all drawn to be heavily Democrat.

There is speculation that state lawmakers in the Republican-dominated General Assembly will find a way to carve out another new Republican district to further pack Democrats into just three seats. No draft maps have been publicized.

U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick was elected to Congress in 2022 after running in a seat newly drawn to make it safer for Republicans. He said there is concern that GOP lawmakers overreach and end up creating districts that are more competitive and not as safe for Republican candidates.

“We can maybe eke another seat or two out,” he said, “but we better be very careful how we do that.”