ATLANTA — Outgoing Republican Governor Brian Kemp announced on Wednesday, November 4, that he will not call a special session of the Georgia General Assembly to push new political maps or to curb the executive powers of the leaders who are about to succeed him, closing the door on a lame-duck manoeuvre that had been widely expected after the Democratic sweep of the 2026 midterms, the Georgia Recorder reported.
Source: Georgia Recorder, reporting Gov. Brian Kemp's statement and the Nov. 4 Atlanta press conferences
“The voters of our state have spoken. As long as I’m governor, we will always respect the results of secure, accessible, and fair elections, and also abide by the laws and constitution of our state,” Kemp said in a statement issued Wednesday morning. “I will not be calling a special session of the Georgia General Assembly in order to curtail executive branch powers or debate redistricting changes.”
The announcement is the first major governing decision to follow the election of Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor whose November 3 victory — 54.3 percent to 45.7 percent over Republican Rick Jackson in unofficial results reported by the Associated Press — made her the first Black woman ever elected governor of a U.S. state and ended 24 years of Republican control of the Georgia governor’s office. Kemp’s statement means the powers Bottoms inherits in January will be the powers the office holds today, and the district maps now in place will stay in place unless lawmakers revisit them in a regular session.
A redistricting fight that started earlier this year
The question Kemp settled on Wednesday had been hanging over Georgia politics for months. Earlier this year he called a special session partly to redraw Georgia’s maps for the 2028 election, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakened key protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. Republican leaders ultimately decided against pursuing redistricting during that summer session, but they were widely expected to revisit it after the election — and some Republican voices pressed for exactly the kind of post-election session Kemp has now ruled out, according to the Associated Press.
Source: Associated Press reporting on Kemp's announcement, via The Washington Sun
The one door Kemp left open: a budget session
Kemp did not rule out calling lawmakers back to Atlanta altogether. He said there are “budgetary issues that may need to be addressed before the convening of the regular session in January,” and added: “My office will continue to monitor and evaluate this situation and keep our partners in the General Assembly apprised of the state’s fiscal outlook in the days to come.” What those budget issues are, he did not say.
The background is a state income-tax cut the Legislature approved earlier this year. The measure cut Georgia’s income tax rate to 4.99 percent this year, down from 5.19 percent, and keeps trimming it over time to 3.99 percent if certain economic conditions are met. The head of the governor’s own Office of Planning and Budget said in May that the bill created a $1.3 billion hole in the state budget, and Kemp made about $300 million in cuts to help cover part of that gap. The state’s rainy-day surplus stands at $8.7 billion, according to an October annual report from the State Accounting Office — down from $14.6 billion as of January.
Danny Kanso, vice president of public policy at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, called the tax package “one of the most reckless and fiscally irresponsible pieces of legislation enacted,” but questioned whether it needs a special session at all: “Maybe it makes sense for the governor to warn that they did approve legislation that is very costly and that there wasn’t really a plan to pay for, and that is a problem that we need to address but not something that I think we need a special session for.”
Bottoms: “There’s one governor at a time”
Governor-elect Bottoms, at a press conference Wednesday afternoon in southwest Atlanta, said she had spoken with Kemp earlier in the day, but that he had not specified what the budget issues were. “He just mentioned that there were some priorities that he had, which I respect,” she said. “There’s one governor at a time, so as the person who will be the governor through the first part of January, that’s certainly his prerogative to call a session to try and deal with some of those budgetary issues that he believes need to be dealt with in a special session. And again, whatever that may be, we’ll see it when it happens.” Bottoms added that she is “just grateful (Republicans) will not be touching the powers of the governor.”
Democratic state Senator Josh McLaurin, the lieutenant governor-elect, said Republicans had already walked back their redistricting effort over the summer after intense backlash, and that Tuesday night’s results showed voters would “resist a similar move to redraw the maps.” “I would say that the resounding rejection of MAGA politics that you saw last night did not invite much adventurism by the Republican majority to keep drawing those maps,” McLaurin said. House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, who could be in line to become Georgia’s next House speaker, downplayed any budget changes Republicans might make in a special session, noting that the normal budget process — the governor presents a proposal in January and lawmakers then reshape it — is already under way.
Reaction beyond Georgia was quick. U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia described Kemp’s decision as a “wise choice” in an interview with Politico on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported, and John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, called the announcement “great news.”
Source: Associated Press reporting on Kemp's announcement, via The Washington Sun
Georgia’s regular legislative session convenes in January, when Bottoms takes office. A budget-only special session before then remains Kemp’s call — he has promised to keep legislative leaders updated on the fiscal outlook “in the days to come.” Redistricting and any change to the governor’s powers are off the table for the transition period: the maps and the office Bottoms inherits will be the ones in place on election day.
For Georgia’s voters — including the state’s growing Punjabi and South Asian communities in metro Atlanta and the truckers who run its I-75, I-85 and I-16 freight corridors — the practical meaning is a transition on the normal timetable, with no surprise redrawing of the districts that decide who represents them in Congress and at the state Capitol. The fight over Georgia’s maps has not ended; Kemp’s decision simply moves it back to the regular session, in full public view, after the new government is seated.