Firstly, one of the stringent election bills in the country was passed. Then, there were attempts to reduce the number of elected posts in one of Georgia’s most populous counties.
Republicans are on the move
Conservatives have taken a further step toward disassembling the Atlanta-area machine that propelled President Biden to victory in 2020 and flipped control of the Senate to Democrats with the impending passage of a new congressional map.
The GOP-controlled assembly has gone to great efforts to restructure election management, alter election rules, and redefine political borders in the fast-growing metropolitan area.
It is rapidly transforming state politics, just as Georgia has emerged as a critical swing state.
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The revisions have the potential to reverse or reduce many of the Democrat Party’s recent achievements. With a high-stakes Senate election, a governor’s contest, and numerous difficult House races on the horizon in 2022, they might have far-reaching consequences.
Dontaye Carter, a previous speaker for the Fulton County prosecutor and a city councilman in Sandy Springs, said, “We’re getting pounded from every side. We’re putting up a fight against it.”
“Yet, the reality is we simply lack the political capital and resources to make a significant difference.”
The districts are being redrawn
In recent times, changing demographics and legendary black turnout in Metro Atlanta’s big four counties — Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, as well as DeKalb — sent ripples through Georgia public life.
They switched two Senate seats to liberals in the last two election years, sending Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to Congress in January. Demographic changes also made Biden the first Democrat candidate for president to win the state in a quarter-century.
County boards that certify elections in Georgia are purging black Democrats & replacing them with “Stop the Steal” Republicans. Another part of GA voter suppression law allows unlimited challenges to voter eligibility that goes before same election boards. Recipe for disaster https://t.co/q5lAe4ZXnc
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) December 9, 2021
Republicans were able to divide the county’s leftist votes and compel Democrat Reps. Carolyn Bordeaux, as well as Lucy McBath, to run against each other.
This happened by the GOP slicing Cobb County (a once Republican bastion that has gravitated to the Democrats in recent years) into four congressional seats.
“‘One man, one vote’ is being eroded. The manner in which [Republicans] have fractured this chart is with laser accuracy,” said state Rep. Erick Allen, who is vying for lieutenant governor and leads the Cobb County representation in the statehouse.
“I mean, they’ve shattered the voices of communities and greatly diluted their voice in politics.”
In Gwinnett, one of the state’s fastest-growing districts, people of color are on course to become the majority of the public in the near future. It, like Cobb County, shifted left as the population has grown more diverse.
Democrats won a majority of Gwinnett County positions last year, including the county commissioner and school board, as well as the sheriff’s department and district attorney offices.
Black lawmakers currently hold every leadership position in those offices and boards.
