Georgia Republicans abruptly changed course on redistricting Wednesday, retreating from their plans to redraw congressional and state district lines for the 2028 election less than an hour before lawmakers gaveled in for the special session.

In a joint press conference Wednesday, House Speaker Jon Burns, a Newington Republican, and Senate President Pro Tem Larry Walker III, a Perry Republican, told a boisterous crowd that they planned to focus on securing property tax relief and ratifying last month’s gas tax suspension rather than redistricting. Lawmakers must also address a July 1 deadline for QR codes to be removed from Georgia’s ballots.

“As we convene today, the Georgia House Republicans are focused on Georgia’s future and the issues that really matter to our neighbors across this state, not partisan gain,” Burns said.

Both lawmakers added that they were waiting to see how pending legal cases played out.

“We believe it would be wise to allow the judicial process to further develop in other states and evaluate how courts rule on newly-adopted district maps elsewhere,” Walker said. “With this guidance, we are confident that Georgia’s new districts will ultimately withstand legal scrutiny.”

The legal dispute over Georgia’s current political maps is still pending. A federal judge ordered lawmakers to draw new maps in 2023 to create an additional majority Black congressional district in west metro Atlanta and seven additional majority Black legislative districts.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who added redistricting to the agenda when he convened the special session, said he believed that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that diluted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act made Georgia’s current maps unconstitutional. But Kemp, who is term-limited and serving his final year in office, acknowledged that he did not have the authority to force lawmakers to draw new maps.

“I do not believe there is reason to delay the apportionment process, especially with the Legislature already convening,” Kemp said in a statement. “Legislative districting, however, is the responsibility of the General Assembly, and it is within their discretion to defer the issue until a later date.”

Earlier this year, Kemp broke with many other Republican-led states in the South when he announced that the state would not pursue redistricting ahead of the 2026 general election. States like Alabama and Tennessee have rushed to break up Black-majority districts since the Supreme Court ruling. In neighboring South Carolina, lawmakers contemplated redistricting but ultimately chose not to pursue it.

Some Republicans, including Sen. Greg Dolezal of Cumming, who is the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, expressed disapproval about legislative leaders’ decision to pause the redistricting process.

“I’ve always been of the opinion we should do it as soon as possible,” Dolezal said. “So, if the legal mechanics put us in the position where we couldn’t do it, I understand that. My preference, though, is we go as fast as we can.”

Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones, an Augusta Democrat, argued the widespread pushback from Georgia residents ultimately led Republican lawmakers to abandon their redistricting plans. 

“Make no mistake, it was the people of Georgia who put pressure on the General Assembly and let them know they did not appreciate the attempt to steal these elections,” Jones said.

“Throughout this process the people have really been galvanized and energized, and so those who wanted to actually restrict African Americans’ voting power, they saw that, and they decided today it was not in their best interest to go forward.” 

State Rep. Jasmine Clark, a Lilburn Democrat and the Democratic nominee for Congressional District 13, echoed Jones’ sentiment. The district, which includes Rockdale County and parts of Clayton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry and Newton counties, is majority-Black and was among the districts that advocates worried could have been targeted by Republicans during the redistricting process.

“This was a massive victory for the people, who organized and protested these maps because they knew the stakes,” Clark said in a statement. “This fight is not over, but I am happy that residents of Georgia’s 13th Congressional District will continue to have the power to elect their representatives.”

Though Democrats celebrated the move, they also urged Georgians to stay vigilant in case of future redistricting efforts. Former Democratic state Sen. Jason Esteves said the unforeseen can still happen and that Georgians need to keep showing up at the Capitol to “make sure that legislators see that we are holding them accountable.”

Rep. Michelle Au, a Johns Creek Democrat, urged constituents to show up to a redistricting-themed town hall Thursday in spite of the news, warning that Republican leaders could return for another special session on redistricting after the November election.

“Don’t get comfortable,” she said.

Activists mount pressure on lawmakers

Before Georgia Republicans publicly nixed their redistricting plans, demonstrators packed the Capitol to speak out against the plan to redraw district lines. Roughly 200 people attended a Wednesday morning march through downtown Atlanta, with protestors calling for lawmakers to preserve Black voters’ electoral power rather than reducing it.

During a gathering at Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Atlanta ahead of the march, voting rights advocates and faith leaders framed the redistricting push as a resurgence of decades-old efforts to suppress Black voting power across the South.

“These maneuvers designed to make it hard for ordinary people to participate in the democratic process are not original, they are not innovative, they are not creative,” said Michael L. Mitchell, who serves as the bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s 6th District. “They are tired reruns of a stale and desperate playbook written in the 1950s and the 1960s.”

The timing of the event may have also favored voting rights activists: Atlanta is hosting eight FIFA World Cup matches throughout June and July, giving protestors the potential to garner international attention.

During the event, activists urged attendees to stay engaged and to help turn out as many voters as possible during the midterms.

“Democracy was never meant to be something that happens to us,” said Jackie Killings, the president of the League of Women Voters of Georgia. “Democracy is what we do. It runs on ordinary people, like each one of you here today, who decide that they would not sit down, they would not be quiet, and we would not wait to be seen and not wait to be heard.”

Lawmakers’ holiday headache

Lawmakers are convening for the special session ahead of a weekend when Black Georgians will be celebrating Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of the last enslaved Black Americans. 

Despite Republicans opting not to hold session on Friday, the official Juneteenth holiday, Democratic state Rep. David Wilkerson from Powder Springs noted that many people in Cobb County celebrate Juneteenth on Saturday.

Republicans scheduled session days only until Monday, although lawmakers could continue to meet beyond then. That led Lithonia Democratic state Rep. Doreen Carter to press House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration about “the significance of not coming Tuesday versus coming on Saturday.”

“It’s extremely disrespectful of the Black community and Father’s Day weekend that you all are going to have us here,” Carter said.

Efstration said it was a “very difficult balance to find” where lawmakers had to consider prior obligations, like funerals and vacations, holidays and “a desire by many members to try to finish as quickly as possible.”

Georgia Recorder intern Ellie Fivas contributed to this report.