Kemp says Voting Rights ruling won’t affect 2026 maps, signals 2028 changes

Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday that the recent U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act will not impact the upcoming midterm elections, but Georgians can expect a change in district maps ahead of the 2028 elections.

In the case, the court ruled that Section 2 of the law required evidence of intentional discrimination, which would require a stricter burden of proof for voting rights cases.

Following the ruling, some Georgia Republicans called on Kemp to convene a special session to allow the state legislature to change the maps before November’s midterm elections.

State Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming and candidate for lieutenant governor, said in a Facebook video that Georgia needs to remove what he called “racial gerrymandered maps.”

“The last thing Republicans need to do is be weak-kneed in this moment. This is a time to be bold. This is a time to be aggressive. In Georgia, that means calling a special session and redrawing our maps,” Dolezal said.

Kemp praised the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday saying that it “restores fairness to our redistricting process and allows states to pass electoral maps that reflect the will of the voters, not the will of federal judges.”

Although Kemp said changes to the maps would not occur within the next few weeks or months considering early voting is already underway for the primaries, he did not give a timeline for when the legislature will begin work on redrawing the district maps.

“If indeed the legislature were to take this ruling and decided to redraw a district which is currently a Democratic district, it would probably, by removing say some of the Black population from that district, result in that district becoming more Republican,” Charles Bullock, a UGA professor of political science, told CBS News.