Georgia House OKs Senate districts; Congress map to come

November 15th, 2021

Georgia House redistricting chair Bonnie Rich, R- Suwanee, speaks, Tuesday, June 15, 2021, at the first of a series of redistricting hearings as Senate Majority Leader John Kennedy, R-Macon, looks on at the state Capitol in Atlanta. Georgia lawmakers are starting work on the once-a-decade process of redrawing electoral district lines.

AP Photo/Jeff Amy

Georgia House Republicans on Monday rubber-stamped the new districts that state senators drew for themselves, completing redistricting for both chambers of the General Assembly.

Lawmakers must still tackle district lines for the state’s 14 congressional seats. Senators have proposed a plan, but the House Republican majority has yet to release a proposed map. While the House and Senate deferred to each other on redistricting for their respective chambers, they must agree on a congressional map.

The House voted 96-70, mostly along party lines, to approve Senate Bill 1EX, which draws lines for the 56 Senate districts. The map is projected to keep 59%, or 33, of the Senate’s 56 seats in GOP hands. That’s down from 34 right now. Democrats said again Monday that’s too many, considering President Joe Biden carried Georgia with a narrow majority last year and nonwhite people make up most of the new Georgians added in the past decade.