Georgia cityhood push divides: White flight or self-rule?

Election 2022 Georgia New Cities
A sign in the ground outside a home in Cobb County on Feb. 14, 2022 encourages residents to vote in favor of creating the city of East Cobb. It's one of three cityhood referendums coming up in May in Cobb County that follow the election of three Black women to the county commission in the 2020 election, giving Democrats a majority on the commission for the first time in decades. (AP Photo/Sudhin S. Thanawala)

In the 2020 election, Jerica Richardson and two other Black women gave Democrats control of the commission overseeing this affluent suburban Atlanta county for the first time in decades.

Now, the Republican-controlled state Legislature has passed bills that would give three largely white parts of the county a chance to form their own governments during Georgia’s primary elections ahead of the midterms.

The new cities would take over key parts of the county’s decision-making power. Two of them would be in Richardson’s district, which GOP lawmakers have also reconfigured in a way that draws her out of her seat.