Rep. Lucy McBath to switch districts over Georgia redistricting

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) announced Thursday that she will pursue election in Georgia’s 6th District in 2024 after a federal judge approved a GOP-led redistricting plan, which changed her current 7th District seat to favor Republicans.

The Atlanta congresswoman promised to continue a legal fight against the new district maps, but vowed to run in the 6th District if the current maps stand.

“I refuse to allow an extremist few Republicans decide when my work in Congress is finished,” she said in a statement. “I hope that the judicial system will not allow the state legislature to suppress the will of Georgia voters.” 

“However, if the maps passed by the state legislature stand for the 2024 election cycle, I will be running for re-election to Congress in GA-06 because too much is at stake to stand down,” she added.

The new district maps were ordered after a judge ruled the current division discriminates against Black voters, specifically in west Atlanta. The new map creates a new majority-Black district in west Atlanta, but also splits McBath’s east Atlanta district among neighboring GOP-leaning seats.

It’s the second time redistricting has targeted McBath, a prominent gun control activist who was elected to the 6th District in 2018. Redistricting in 2021 made that district uncompetitively conservative, so McBath primaried and defeated an incumbent Democrat in the 7th District to stay in Congress.

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) currently represents the 6th District, though he also is expected to also change seats under the new map.

The new congressional map is not expected to change party control of the state’s seats, which stands at nine Republicans to five Democrats.

Judge Steve Jones also approved new maps for the state legislature, which Democrats also claimed were gerrymandered. Democrats said the new congressional and state legislature maps fix representation problems ordered by the courts, but create new ones in their place.

“Unfortunately, it seems we are repeating the mistakes of our dark past under Republican control of the state of Georgia,” State Rep. Sam Park (D) said on the Legislature floor when the maps were proposed.

“Not only are these maps unlawful, they cling to power and maintain an unrepresentative majority that does not reflect our great state,” he continued. “To put it plainly, it seems Republicans are trying to remedy their racial discrimination with partisan gerrymandering.”