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Congressional districts
Three sets of maps are on the table for the June 17, 2026 special session: the 14 US congressional districts, the 56 state Senate districts, and the 180 state House districts. Pick a chamber to see its map, its at-risk districts, and what is actually at stake.
The congressional map in effect today, redrawn in 2023 after the Allen v. Milligan ruling. Click any district to see who represents it, the partisan lean, and how vulnerable it is to a redraw.
The 2023 map after Allen v. Milligan, drawn under the assumption that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act still required majority-Black districts.
The June 17 special session may revisit these lines. See potential scenarios.
District boundaries: US Census TIGERweb. Representatives and CPVI: Georgia's congressional districts, Cook Political Report.
Two seats are the most likely targets of a post-Callais congressional redraw.
The congressional map controls who Georgia sends to Washington. A redraw of one or two seats can shift the entire US House majority, which determines national policy on health care, immigration, voting rights, and federal spending in Georgia.
A new congressional map changes who Georgia sends to Washington. State legislative maps change who runs Georgia day to day. The June 17 special session opens both.
Most states use commissions, citizen panels, or courts. Georgia is one of a shrinking number where the state legislature itself draws the maps that elect the legislature. Here is the actual process, step by step.
House: Rep. Rob Leverett chairs the House Reapportionment Committee.
Senate: Sen. Shelly Echols chairs the Senate Reapportionment Committee.
Both committees are majority-Republican, reflecting the legislature's makeup.
The only formal opportunities are (1) submitting a written comment to the committees, (2) signing up to testify at a hearing if one is announced, and (3) the public hearing on the floor when a bill is debated.
There is no Georgia equivalent of California's Citizens Redistricting Commission. Voters do not get a direct vote on the maps.
Process source: Georgia General Assembly Reapportionment, House and Senate Reapportionment rules, Ballotpedia: Redistricting in Georgia.
After the Callais decision, the US Supreme Court left states more room to revisit majority-minority districts. These are the four most plausible paths the General Assembly could take when it convenes on June 17, 2026.
The General Assembly does nothing on congressional or state legislative maps and uses the special session to address only the SB 189 voting system fix.
This would leave the 2023 map (with GA-2 and GA-13 as majority-Black districts) intact through the 2028 election.
Why it could happen: Strong public pressure, fear of lawsuits, federal litigation still pending. Some leadership voices have said off the record they would rather not reopen the maps.
Why it might not: The Callais opening is too tempting to ignore for some members, and outside groups are actively pushing for a redraw.
The General Assembly redraws one or two congressional districts. The most likely targets are GA-2 (Bishop, D, majority-Black, rural southwest) and GA-6 (McBath, D, plurality-Black, suburban Atlanta).
A redraw of GA-2 would crack the Black Belt corridor and likely flip the seat from D to R. A redraw of GA-6 would unwind the 2023 court-ordered map.
Why it could happen: This is the smallest move that delivers a concrete partisan gain (one or two US House seats). Callais provides legal cover.
Why it might not: Triggers immediate federal VRA litigation. Public visibility is high.
The General Assembly reopens all 14 congressional districts plus the 180 House and 56 Senate districts. This is what some hard-line members have publicly called for.
This is the most aggressive option. It would maximize partisan gain across all three maps but at the cost of statewide disruption and a near-certain wave of lawsuits.
Why it could happen: Some members want to entrench a working majority through 2030 in case of a Democratic wave. Callais gives more permission than any moment since 1995.
Why it might not: Logistical strain (236 districts to redraw in days), risk of judicial pushback even from state courts, and the political cost of being seen as overreaching.
The General Assembly does a targeted redraw and simultaneously passes legislation altering future redistricting rules. Possibilities include locking in a 2030 sunset clause, formalizing a hearing requirement, or creating a (likely toothless) advisory commission.
This would be the most politically sophisticated path, combining a short-term gain with a long-term shield.
Why it could happen: Provides cover that the process was "reformed" while still delivering map changes.
Why it might not: Few members are willing to give up future map-drawing power, even rhetorically.
Scenario analysis: Common Cause Georgia internal analysis (May 2026). Callais context: Center for American Progress, Brennan Center for Justice.
The Senate map adopted in December 2023 after the court order in Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger. The court found ten districts violated the Voting Rights Act. Click any district to see what the court said and whether it could be redrawn again.
The Senate map enacted in SB 1EX (2023) after a federal court ordered new majority-Black districts.
The court found ten districts violated Section 2 of the VRA: SD-10, 16, 17, 25, 28, 30, 34, 35, 43, and 44. These are the immediate targets of any post-Callais redraw.
District boundaries: US Census TIGERweb. Court findings: Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger order (Oct. 26, 2023). Composition: Ballotpedia.
The federal court in Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger ordered Georgia to create two additional majority-Black state Senate districts in south-metro Atlanta. The current Senate map (SB 1EX, December 2023) is the result. Callais v. Landry now gives the General Assembly an opening to argue some of those districts no longer have to exist.
A redraw of the Senate map would directly affect:
The Senate confirms the maps that govern every other body. The chair of Senate Reapportionment (Sen. Shelly Echols, R) sets the schedule for what gets heard. The Senate Minority Leader (Sen. Harold Jones II, D, SD-22 Augusta) sits on the committee but cannot stop a majority vote.
Changing 4 to 7 Senate seats can flip whether bills like SB 189 or HB 369 pass, whether Medicaid expansion gets a hearing, and whether the legislature uses its power to redraw local boards (see the targeting section).
They also lose their seat on the Local Legislative Delegation, the body that draws the lines for every city and county in their district.
This is the part of redistricting most people do not see. The Georgia General Assembly does not just draw its own districts. It also draws the lines for county commissions, school boards, water authorities, and city councils. When the legislature is one party and a city is the other, that power becomes a tool for removing specific local officials. Here is the documented record from Athens, Augusta, and Macon.
Reps. Houston Gaines and Marcus Wiedower authored House Bill 890. The bill redrew Athens-Clarke County Commission district lines and renumbered them. The renumbering, by itself, made three of the most liberal commissioners (Melissa Link, Tim Denson, Russell Edwards) ineligible to finish their terms or run for re-election in their seats.
The bill was authored by two Republican state legislators who represent parts of Athens-Clarke County while living in (or being elected from) more conservative neighboring counties. A majority of the Athens-Clarke County Commission opposed the map. It passed the General Assembly along party lines anyway.
In the same cycle, the state legislative maps for the area were redrawn so Athens (population 129,000, the most Democratic-leaning city east of Atlanta) was split into 4 state House districts and 2 state Senate districts, up from 3 House and 2 Senate. The only Democrat representing Athens, Rep. Spencer Frye, was confined to one district covering only the northern part of the unified city.
Source: Flagpole Magazine: Why Athens Republican Representatives Don't Really Represent Athens, AJC: Athens voters wanted more unified maps. Instead, they are more divided.
Augusta-Richmond is a consolidated city-county government with 8 single-member commission districts and 2 super-districts. Like every Georgia city, its district lines are set by an ad hoc redistricting committee that includes the Local Legislative Delegation, meaning the state legislators who represent the area sit on the body that draws the local lines.
In a Republican-controlled General Assembly, that gives the minority party representing a majority-Black city limited leverage. Sen. Harold Jones II (D, Senate Minority Leader) represents Augusta in SD-22 and sits on the state Senate Reapportionment Committee, but the maps are passed by majority vote.
Augusta has been flagged by the ACLU and the federal court in Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger as one of the regions where the state legislature drew lines that diluted Black voting strength rather than reflecting growth. The next redraw could reopen the SD-23 boundary that was ordered created in 2023.
Source: Augusta-Richmond County government on the 2021 process, ACLU on Georgia's diluted maps.
State Sen. David Lucas filed Senate Bill 337 in the 2025-2026 session. The bill would give taxing powers to the Macon Water Authority, redraw its districts, reduce the number of mayor- and county-commission-appointed seats from two to one, increase board pay, and remove term limits for current commissioners.
This is a different flavor of the same pattern: a state legislator using a local bill to restructure a local public authority, including who appoints its members and what districts they run in. The Macon-Bibb Commission and the mayor did not author the bill.
Local bills like SB 337 face almost no resistance under Georgia's tradition of "local courtesy," where the General Assembly defers to the bill's local sponsor. That means a single state senator can effectively rewrite a local government structure.
Source: Macon Melody: Charter changes, taxes and more, SB 337 bill text, Georgia General Assembly.
When the legislature redraws state House and Senate maps, it is also restructuring its own bench of local-bill sponsors. The state legislators who represent a city are the same people who sit on the local delegation that draws the city's lines, files the local bills, and approves changes to the city charter. Targeting a state House district in Athens does not just change who represents Athens at the Gold Dome. It changes who has the authority to redraw the Athens-Clarke County Commission five years later.
This is why the question "what happens to the state legislative map" is not separate from the question "what happens to local officials." They are the same fight, on different time horizons.
Short answer: less than most people assume. Georgia has one of the thinner statutory frameworks for redistricting in the country. Here is what is required, and what is conspicuously not.
Congressional districts must have nearly equal population (within roughly 1%). State legislative districts can vary up to about 10%. Both rules come from federal law, not state law.
Maps cannot dilute the votes of racial minorities under Section 2 of the VRA. This is the rule the US Supreme Court partially narrowed in Callais v. Landry, and the immediate reason the June 17 special session is happening.
Every district must be one connected piece. You cannot have an island of a district separated from the rest. Georgia code requires this for both state legislative and congressional maps.
The legislature, not a commission or a court, draws the lines. The Governor signs them. This is the structural choice that puts everything else downstream of partisan control.
State law does not set a floor for how many public hearings must be held, where they must happen, or how much notice the public must get. Each redistricting cycle, the chambers set their own schedule.
Georgia has no redistricting commission. Lines are drawn by the same legislators who run in those lines. This is the structural conflict of interest that voter advocates have asked the legislature to fix since the 1990s.
Most modern redistricting standards include a duty to keep neighborhoods, school districts, or cultural communities together. Georgia does not.
Georgia law does not prohibit drawing maps to advantage one political party. The US Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) that federal courts will not hear partisan gerrymandering claims. State courts can in theory, but Georgia courts have not done so.
Source: Georgia House and Senate Reapportionment Rules, Ballotpedia, NCSL: Redistricting Criteria, Brennan Center.
The House map adopted in December 2023 after the court order in Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger. The court found eleven districts violated the Voting Rights Act. Click any district to see what the court said and whether it could be redrawn again.
The House map enacted in HB 1EX (2023) after a federal court ordered new majority-Black districts.
The court found eleven districts violated Section 2 of the VRA: HD-61, 64, 74, 78, 117, 133, 142, 143, 145, 147, and 149.
District boundaries: US Census TIGERweb. Court findings: Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger order (Oct. 26, 2023). Athens split: AJC analysis.
The federal court in Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger ordered Georgia to create five additional majority-Black state House districts: two in south-metro Atlanta and three more in regions where the court found vote dilution. The current House map (HB 1EX, December 2023) is the result.
A redraw of the House map would directly affect:
The House is where most local legislation moves first. The chair of House Reapportionment (Rep. Rob Leverett, R) decides which maps and which local bills get heard. House members are also the ones who file the city-charter and county-commission redistricting bills that target local officials (see the targeting section).
Athens is the clearest documented case: the 2022 redraw split Georgia's most Democratic-leaning city east of Atlanta into 4 House districts so that only Rep. Spencer Frye (D) survived. The Callais opening gives the General Assembly room to deepen those splits.
They also lose their seat on the Local Legislative Delegation, the body that draws the lines for every city and county in their district.
This is the part of redistricting most people do not see. The Georgia General Assembly does not just draw its own districts. It also draws the lines for county commissions, school boards, water authorities, and city councils. When the legislature is one party and a city is the other, that power becomes a tool for removing specific local officials. Here is the documented record from Athens, Augusta, and Macon.
Reps. Houston Gaines and Marcus Wiedower authored House Bill 890. The bill redrew Athens-Clarke County Commission district lines and renumbered them. The renumbering, by itself, made three of the most liberal commissioners (Melissa Link, Tim Denson, Russell Edwards) ineligible to finish their terms or run for re-election in their seats.
The bill was authored by two Republican state legislators who represent parts of Athens-Clarke County while living in (or being elected from) more conservative neighboring counties. A majority of the Athens-Clarke County Commission opposed the map. It passed the General Assembly along party lines anyway.
In the same cycle, the state legislative maps for the area were redrawn so Athens (population 129,000, the most Democratic-leaning city east of Atlanta) was split into 4 state House districts and 2 state Senate districts, up from 3 House and 2 Senate. The only Democrat representing Athens, Rep. Spencer Frye, was confined to one district covering only the northern part of the unified city.
Source: Flagpole Magazine: Why Athens Republican Representatives Don't Really Represent Athens, AJC: Athens voters wanted more unified maps. Instead, they are more divided.
Augusta-Richmond is a consolidated city-county government with 8 single-member commission districts and 2 super-districts. Like every Georgia city, its district lines are set by an ad hoc redistricting committee that includes the Local Legislative Delegation, meaning the state legislators who represent the area sit on the body that draws the local lines.
In a Republican-controlled General Assembly, that gives the minority party representing a majority-Black city limited leverage. Sen. Harold Jones II (D, Senate Minority Leader) represents Augusta in SD-22 and sits on the state Senate Reapportionment Committee, but the maps are passed by majority vote.
Augusta has been flagged by the ACLU and the federal court in Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger as one of the regions where the state legislature drew lines that diluted Black voting strength rather than reflecting growth. The next redraw could reopen the SD-23 boundary that was ordered created in 2023.
Source: Augusta-Richmond County government on the 2021 process, ACLU on Georgia's diluted maps.
State Sen. David Lucas filed Senate Bill 337 in the 2025-2026 session. The bill would give taxing powers to the Macon Water Authority, redraw its districts, reduce the number of mayor- and county-commission-appointed seats from two to one, increase board pay, and remove term limits for current commissioners.
This is a different flavor of the same pattern: a state legislator using a local bill to restructure a local public authority, including who appoints its members and what districts they run in. The Macon-Bibb Commission and the mayor did not author the bill.
Local bills like SB 337 face almost no resistance under Georgia's tradition of "local courtesy," where the General Assembly defers to the bill's local sponsor. That means a single state senator can effectively rewrite a local government structure.
Source: Macon Melody: Charter changes, taxes and more, SB 337 bill text, Georgia General Assembly.
When the legislature redraws state House and Senate maps, it is also restructuring its own bench of local-bill sponsors. The state legislators who represent a city are the same people who sit on the local delegation that draws the city's lines, files the local bills, and approves changes to the city charter. Targeting a state House district in Athens does not just change who represents Athens at the Gold Dome. It changes who has the authority to redraw the Athens-Clarke County Commission five years later.
This is why the question "what happens to the state legislative map" is not separate from the question "what happens to local officials." They are the same fight, on different time horizons.
Short answer: less than most people assume. Georgia has one of the thinner statutory frameworks for redistricting in the country. Here is what is required, and what is conspicuously not.
Congressional districts must have nearly equal population (within roughly 1%). State legislative districts can vary up to about 10%. Both rules come from federal law, not state law.
Maps cannot dilute the votes of racial minorities under Section 2 of the VRA. This is the rule the US Supreme Court partially narrowed in Callais v. Landry, and the immediate reason the June 17 special session is happening.
Every district must be one connected piece. You cannot have an island of a district separated from the rest. Georgia code requires this for both state legislative and congressional maps.
The legislature, not a commission or a court, draws the lines. The Governor signs them. This is the structural choice that puts everything else downstream of partisan control.
State law does not set a floor for how many public hearings must be held, where they must happen, or how much notice the public must get. Each redistricting cycle, the chambers set their own schedule.
Georgia has no redistricting commission. Lines are drawn by the same legislators who run in those lines. This is the structural conflict of interest that voter advocates have asked the legislature to fix since the 1990s.
Most modern redistricting standards include a duty to keep neighborhoods, school districts, or cultural communities together. Georgia does not.
Georgia law does not prohibit drawing maps to advantage one political party. The US Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) that federal courts will not hear partisan gerrymandering claims. State courts can in theory, but Georgia courts have not done so.
Source: Georgia House and Senate Reapportionment Rules, Ballotpedia, NCSL: Redistricting Criteria, Brennan Center.
This is what the courts look at when they ask whether a redistricting plan dilutes Black voting power. Any Part Black Voting Age Population from the Decennial Census. The same measure used in Allen v. Milligan and in the federal order against Georgia's prior maps.
Why this matters. Federal courts evaluating a Section 2 Voting Rights Act claim ask whether a politically cohesive minority group is sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in a single district. The measure of "sufficiently large" is Any Part Black VAP. If the General Assembly's new maps reduce the number of districts where Black voters can elect their candidate of choice below what this population supports, that is the legal injury.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 and 2010 Decennial Census, P.L. 94-171 Redistricting Data Summary File, Table P3. Methodology: Any Part Black VAP is the sum of persons age 18+ who reported Black or African American alone or in combination with any other race(s). State and county totals reconcile to the published Census files. County centroids: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Gazetteer.
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