GA House Republicans approve new district map for 2020

Georgia House Republicans on Monday approved the new districts that state senators drew for themselves, completing redistricting for both chambers of the General Assembly, according to an Associated Press report.

However, 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.

The Georgia House of Representatives Redistricting Committee last week approved the House Republican Party’s proposed redistricting map for 2022 which moves Stephens County from District 28 to District 32 and moves Franklin and Hart counties out of District 32 into District 33.

On November 8, the Georgia Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee adopted a redrawn State Senate map.

Under the new State Senate map, District 50, which includes Stephens, Franklin, and Habersham counties, has gotten bigger.

Beginning in January, District 50 will include all of Towns, Rabun, Habersham, Stephens, Franklin, Banks, and part of White, Jackson, and Hall counties.

The General Assembly must redraw electoral districts at least once every decade to equalize populations after the U.S. census.

Georgia added more than a million people from 2010 to 2020, with urban districts generally growing and rural districts generally shrinking.