ATLANTA — Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has signed new maps for Georgia’s congressional delegation, state Senate and state House into law.
The governor's move on Thursday resulted in at least one immediate lawsuit challenging the maps even as candidates gear up to run under the new lines.
The new districts are designed to increase the number of Republicans in Georgia’s 14-member congressional delegation from eight to nine.
The state Senate map is projected to keep 33 of the Senate's 56 seats in GOP hands. Meanwhile, the House map is projected to keep 98 of 180 in Republican control. Democrats say the new lines grab too much power for Republicans.
The new district will draw less from Atlanta's nearer northern suburbs and extend farther north through Dawson County, making it likelier a Republican will win the seat when it is up for grabs in next year's November mid-terms -- most notably realigning the 6th District seat in metro Atlanta currently held by Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath.
In addition to the significant change to the 6th District, 11Alive's Doug Richards previously reported on the change will bring majority-Black Austell in southwest Cobb County out of Democratic Rep. David Scott's 13th District and into the deeply conservative Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene's 14th District.
"(Austell) is heavily Black and Brown," resident Valerie Testaman told Georgia Senate committee members on Thursday. "And I am totally confused as to how it is proposed to be part of District 14 with Marjorie Taylor Greene."