Atlanta – Today, on the first day of Georgia's special legislative session, Georgia House and Senate Republican leaders announced they will not proceed with redrawing new congressional, state legislative, and local district maps during the special session called by Governor Brian Kemp. The reversal follows mounting public pressure, including today’s rally where nearly 500 Georgians packed the State Capitol, alongside U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock and voting rights leaders to oppose Republicans’ map rigging push. Fair Fight Action CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo issued the following statement in response:

“Hundreds of Georgians came to the Capitol today to oppose Republicans’ special session to rig our state’s voting maps, and now Republican House and Senate leaders are suddenly afraid that a fight over racist voting maps just before the election could create major backlash with Georgians that could break their majority in November. Meanwhile Gov. Kemp and others want to proceed with rigging the maps to try and silence Black and Brown Georgians. They’re united by one thing: holding on to their own power and silencing ‘we the people’ – the disagreement is one of strategy, not of substance. Our voices and our votes have power, and when we show up and speak out, we make that power felt. This fight isn’t over yet.We need Georgians to keep calling Gov. Kemp at (404) 656-1776 and say: no racist maps.”

Background: Governor Brian Kemp, who is in the final months of his last term, called the special session in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Louisiana v. Callais decision gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Kemp issued a proclamation directing lawmakers to redraw Georgia's voting districts for the 2028 elections. Georgia is just the latest of Southern states led by Republican politicians who have moved to redraw maps after Callais, which Donald Trump set in motion when he pressured GOP-controlled states like Texas to redraw their congressional lines. 

Republicans convened the session without releasing any proposed maps and without explaining who was drawing them. Even House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, a senior Republican, acknowledged she did not know who was creating the new districts. Democrats and voting rights advocates condemned the secrecy, and organizers turned out to make their opposition impossible to ignore.

This push fits Governor Kemp's long record of using government power to attack Black and Brown Georgians' voting rights, from the mass voter purges he oversaw as Secretary of State to SB 202, the 2021 law that disproportionately suppresses Black voters. Georgia voters have seen this playbook before, and today they proved they will not let it go unanswered.

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