The North Carolina Legislature passed a new map designed to gain Republicans a U.S. House seat.
The new map (SB 249) passed in the North Carolina House on a 66-48 vote, a day after the state Senate passed the cartography on a 26-20 vote. Both chambers advanced the map on pure party line votes.
The new map includes 11 of 14 districts where Republicans believe they have a political advantage. Democrats currently hold four North Carolina U.S. House seats.
U.S. Rep. Don Davis, a Snow Hill Democrat already targeted by National Republican Congressional Committee, said Republicans in the Legislature were not serving voters by embarking on a mid-decade redistricting effort, and also signaled he doubts voters will toss him from office despite GOP efforts.
“In the 2024 election with record voter turnout, N.C.’s 1st Congressional District elected both President Trump and me,” Davis said in a statement. “Since the start of this new term, my office has received 46,616 messages from constituents of different political parties, including those unaffiliated, expressing a range of opinions, views, and requests. Not a single one of them included a request for a new congressional map redrawing eastern North Carolina. Clearly, this new congressional map is beyond the pale.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) slammed the map as an attack on Black voters in the Tar Heel State.
“This extreme gerrymandered map, their fifth in as many years, was clearly drawn to dilute the voting power of Black voters by dismantling the Black Belt to stop North Carolinians from holding Trump and House Republicans accountable for ignoring the needs of hardworking Americans,” said DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene.
“Voters should pick their representatives – not the other way around. Today’s corrupt action by Raleigh Republicans, under orders from their party bosses in D.C., is not the final word. The DCCC is going to continue the fight against this illegal map in the courts and use every tool at our disposal to support North Carolinians in stopping this desperate attack on their voting rights.”
But North Carolina Republicans cheered the passage of a new map. The North Carolina Republican Party pinned the new cartography atop its social media feed.
GOP lawmakers on the floor expressed confidence the new map would mean gains for Republicans in Congress.
In a floor speech, House Majority Leader Brenden Jones, a Columbus County Republican, said efforts in Democrat-controlled states, most notably California, to redraw maps forced lawmakers into action. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing a ballot referendum that would allow the Democrat-dominated Legislature there to make a map helping that party, a response to Texas redrawing its map to aide Republicans.
“Republican-led states are here to make sure one man does not predetermine the controls of Congress,” Jones said. “North Carolina will not be lectured, will not be bullied, and will not be sued into submission. We will not let outsiders tell us how to govern, and we will never apologize for doing exactly what the people of this state has elected us to do. We did our job transparently, lawfully and unapologetically.”
But the new North Carolina district notably impacts Republican seats in one district as it erodes Democratic presence in another. In addition to increasing the Republican share of voters in Davis’ CD 1 seat, it also makes a more competitive environment for U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy, a Greenville Republican, in North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District.
According to Punchbowl News, Murphy may run instead in Davis’ district, though the outlet noted the White House wants him to defend his CD 3 seat. Meanwhile, Davis has told local outlets he may run in Murphy’s district.
Members of the U.S. House by law need only live in the state they represent, and states cannot impose residency requirements on federal offices.
