This November is set to be an interesting one. And there is no telling what could happen.
Now Democrats are watching their midterm hopes fall apart before their eyes.
A Supreme Court Ruling Changes Everything
The redistricting wave sweeping Republican-controlled state legislatures this spring has now swept into Georgia and South Carolina, with both states moving toward special legislative sessions following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Louisiana v. Callais — a decision that significantly curtailed the use of race as a predominant factor in the drawing of congressional and legislative maps.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed an executive order Wednesday calling the state’s General Assembly back to Atlanta beginning June 17 — the day after the state’s primary runoffs — to redraw Georgia’s congressional, state Senate, and state House districts. Kemp was characteristically measured in his framing, having previously declined to pursue redistricting ahead of the 2026 general election on the grounds that early voting was already underway. But he left no ambiguity about the larger picture: the ruling requires Georgia to adopt new maps before the 2028 election cycle, and he intends to act while a Republican governor can sign them.
“Voting is already underway for the 2026 elections, but it’s clear that Callais requires Georgia to adopt new electoral maps before the 2028 election cycle,” Kemp said in a statement. Any maps produced by the June special session will take effect starting in 2028.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster moved on a faster timeline. After the state Senate declined to advance a new map, McMaster announced a special session to force the issue — a necessary step in a state where Republicans have been watching the Callais ruling as an opening to strengthen already favorable congressional boundaries ahead of the next decade of elections.
The Callais Effect — And Why It Matters Nationally
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais has rapidly become the most consequential redistricting decision since the Shelby County ruling of 2013. By limiting the circumstances under which courts can require the drawing of majority-minority districts as a condition of Voting Rights Act compliance, the decision gave Republican-controlled legislatures across the South latitude to draw maps that prioritize political competitiveness, compactness, or simple partisan advantage over the preservation of race-based district configurations that courts had previously mandated.
The immediate practical effect in Georgia is the potential targeting of Rep. Sanford Bishop’s district — a majority-Black district in southwest Georgia that Republicans have long viewed as one of their best pickup opportunities in the state. The Callais ruling removed a significant legal barrier to restructuring that district. GOP strategists are also eyeing metro Atlanta’s boundaries for potential alterations, though party leaders are urging caution about maps that dilute Republican voting strength while overreaching for Democratic seats.
The special session is also being used to address a separate but pressing issue: a state law passed in 2024 prohibiting the use of QR codes in the official ballot count takes effect July 1, and Georgia’s election infrastructure requires a legislative fix before that deadline. Kemp combined both issues into a single special session call — a practical efficiency move that also ensures redistricting happens under a Republican governor rather than being left to a potentially changed political landscape after November.
Republicans Move, Democrats Fume
The broader national redistricting picture is not going Democrats’ way in 2026. While the party spent the early part of the year celebrating the Virginia Supreme Court’s striking down of a Democratic gerrymander and attempting to use the federal courts to revive it, Republican-controlled states from Alabama to Tennessee to South Carolina to Georgia are now systematically exploiting the Callais ruling to reshape maps that will govern congressional elections through at least 2032.
President Trump has been an active participant in encouraging this process, urging Republicans to “BE BOLD” on redistricting in a Truth Social post and signaling that aggressive map-drawing carries White House support. For a party that lost the House narrowly in 2022 and held it narrowly in 2024, the opportunity to build durable structural advantages in southern and midwestern states through post-Callais redistricting is one that Republican strategists are determined not to waste.
