After SCOTUS Decision, Burt Jones and Rick Jackson Push to Redraw Maps to End Fair and Equal Representation for Black Georgians

After SCOTUS Decision, Burt Jones and Rick Jackson Push to Redraw Maps to End Fair and Equal Representation for Black Georgians

The New Republic: “The Georgia gubernatorial race (has) suddenly taken on new importance”

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to gut the Voting Rights Act, Georgia’s leading Republican gubernatorial candidates Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and health care executive Rick Jackson immediately called on the legislature to redraw maps and effectively end fair and equal representation and “erase” the political power of Black Georgians.

Jones applauded the decision, saying “the Supreme Court made the right decision today” and called for the state to redraw its congressional and legislative maps. Not to be outdone, Jackson quickly called for a special session, arguing that “redrawing the maps must be added to the agenda,” with “no time to waste.”

Read more about what Georgians are reading about Jones’ and Jackson’s push to eliminate fair representation in Georgia below:

The New Republic: Trump Has No Clue What His Supreme Court Has Just Unleashed

• Meanwhile, contests like the Georgia gubernatorial race have suddenly taken on new importance. Republicans control the state legislature there, and they’re already threatening a gerrymander next year, but a Democratic governor could thwart it.

Georgia Recorder: Supreme Court decision weakening Voting Rights Act could impact future political maps in Georgia

• Some prominent Republicans started calling for Georgia lawmakers to redraw the state’s political maps hours after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that dilutes a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

• Democrats have roundly condemned the decision, which they say risks fair representation for minority voters across the country, and urged Georgia residents to make their voices heard at the polls during this year’s midterm elections.
• “The Supreme Court made the right decision today,” Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican, said in a statement. “I support Georgia moving forward with new fair congressional maps that do not take race into account when drawing our districts.”

• Wealthy healthcare executive Rick Jackson, who is running for governor and competing with Jones for front-runner status in the Republican primary, urged the Legislature to take up the issue during a special session later this year.

• “The legislature already needed a special session because Burt Jones put future Georgia elections at risk and failed to make our elections more secure,” Jackson said in a statement. “In light of today’s Supreme Court ruling, redrawing the maps must be added to the agenda.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Supreme Court voting decision may not alter Georgia midterms. But 2028?

• Prominent Republicans immediately celebrated the ruling as an opening. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire Rick Jackson, leading contenders for governor, were among those who swiftly called for a special session to overhaul the lines.
• Rahul Garabadu, who helped litigate a challenge to Georgia’s 2021 election overhaul, said the ruling means state lawmakers are “now free to draw maps that erase the electoral power of racial minorities.
• Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said for decades Georgia’s elected offices, from the local level to Congress, have been shaped by Section 2. She warned Georgia could be on the brink of “backpedaling all the way back to pre-Voting Rights Act-era of representation at all levels of government.”

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