Overview
- Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday that he will not call the Georgia General Assembly back to strip executive authority or to redraw political maps before Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms is sworn in.
- Kemp said he will uphold the election results and state law, while permitting the possibility of a limited special session only to address specific budgetary concerns before the regular session in January.
- It is unclear whether Kemp consulted legislative leaders before his announcement, and lawmakers retain sole constitutional authority to change maps if they choose to act later.
- The decision halts an immediate GOP effort to pursue new maps that could have reshaped partisan advantage after Democrats won key statewide races, including Bottoms’s victory that ended 24 years of Republican control of the governor’s office.
- Kemp’s stance echoes his past refusals to use special sessions for election fights and leaves intra-party debate on next steps for Georgia Republicans as the key political question going forward.