Here’s how Republicans’ proposed map changes Lexington’s state House delegation
“Not good for Democrats” in Fayette County is how Democratic state Rep. George Brown Jr. of Lexington summed up the state House redistricting plan Republican leaders unveiled Thursday.
The plan, which lawmakers will consider in the first week of Kentucky’s 2022 General Assembly that begins Tuesday, drops the number of House districts in all or parts of Fayette County from 10 to nine.
Under the plan, Lexington’s home county would lose its connection to Woodford and Bourbon counties while connecting to Clark and Jessamine counties. The number of districts that exist entirely within Fayette County shrunk from six to five.
Brown, who is Fayette County’s only Black state representative, said Thursday afternoon he had not yet seen the proposed maps but watched online House Speaker David Osorne’s news conference in presenting them.
Brown, who has represented the 77th District since 2015, said he wants to make sure the proposed maps align with federal voting rights guidelines concerning minority representation.
“We will have to look if it meets judicial muster,” he said. “We generally have to take whatever the majority says but we want to be sure it is all done legally.”
His own district, as it turned out, was a source of immediate concern for House Minority Leader Joni Jenkins, D-Shively. She said that it appears that the new plan diminishes the influence of minorities in the district, though the caucus still needs precinct-level mapping and data to know for sure.
The 77th District currently covers much of Lexington’s historically Black eastern portion of downtown.
However, a press release from the Kentucky House Republicans stated that the district would increase its proportion of minority constituents in the proposed plan.
Brown said he thinks the House plan makes districts in Fayette County more Republican. State voter registration figures show 131,836 Democrats in the county, compared to 88,246 Republicans
If the Republican plan prevails, two new numbered districts would be added to Fayette County and three current ones would be dropped.
The two new ones would be the 93rd, now represented by Norma Kirk-McCormick, R-Inez, and the 73rd, now represented by Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester.
Gone from Fayette County would be the 72nd, now represented by Matthew Koch, R-Paris; the 62nd, now represented by Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown; and the 56th, now represented by Daniel Fister, R-Versailles.
Brown said fewer state representatives in the county could impact what the county gets from Frankfort but he said, “Those of us who actually live in Fayette County carry the ball.”
He said the new plan keeps him in the 77th District. “I live right in the middle of it so it would have been hard for them to move me out,” he said.
The current map
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 3:56 PM.
