NORCROSS, Ga. — The sign-in table at May's meeting of the Gwinnett County Democrats is covered in literature.

There are sheets listing early voting locations, stacks of glossy campaign flyers and colorful maps of the new congressional districts in suburban Atlanta.

These new maps have Democrats like Catherine Valyi facing a difficult choice.

"We're talking about strong, intelligent, powerful ladies," she says.

Valyi is talking about the three women running in a contentious Democratic primary on Tuesday to represent this district in Congress.

Two of them, Carolyn Bordeaux and Lucy McBath, who Valyi is leaning toward, are incumbent members of Congress. They are now running against each other due to redistricting.

Whoever wins will glide to Washington in November in this safe Democratic district.

Across the country, safe districts like this one are becoming the norm.

Competitive districts that swing between Republicans and Democrats get a lot of attention, but they are rare and their numbers are shrinking. This last round of redistricting wiped out a slew of them, setting up heated primaries and sleepy races come November.

Just a few years ago, Atlanta's suburbs were congressional battlegrounds. In 2020, policy professor Bordeaux defeated an incumbent Republican.

In the district next door, prominent gun control advocate McBath did the same in 2018.

But when Republican lawmakers redrew the maps last year, they made McBath's 6th Congressional District a lot more friendly to...

Read Full Story: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/23/1100446446/redisticting-georgia-swing-district...