North Carolina Republicans in the state senate passed a new congressional map on Tuesday, intent on contributing more Republicans to the US Congress as the national redistricting battlefield widens.
Currently, North Carolina has a 10-4 partisan split in favor of Republicans in Congress. The new map would result in an 11-3 split, replacing congressman Don Davis, a Democrat, with a Republican.
State law does not give North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Josh Stein, a veto of redistricting legislation. The state house, controlled by a large majority of Republicans, will receive the redistricting legislation, and is expected to pass it quickly – likely on Wednesday, said Matt Mercer, communications director for the North Carolina GOP.
The recourse for critics of partisan gerrymandering is to replace state representatives by winning elections, Mercer said. The maps are a product of the time, and the shoe has been on the other foot for North Carolina Democrats, he added.
“I think Democrats are just kind of setting up this loser mentality where ‘we’re never gonna win’,” Mercer said. “Well, Republicans won in 2010, with maps that the Democrats specifically drew to give themselves more power. It’s about the moment, good candidates and good campaigns, and also convincing the voters of your choice.”
Davis’s seat in the north-east corner of the state had already been precarious. Shifting as few as 3,152 votes in the state’s first congressional district would have given his Republican opponent, Laurie Buckhout, the victory in 2024, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice.
Davis’s term has been marked by bipartisanship, said state congressman Rodney Pierce, a Democrat representing counties in the district. Redrawing a map to force Davis out is an attack on bipartisanship, Pierce said. “What does it say to the public at large?” he asked. “What does it say to Republicans who may want to work across the aisle with Democrats? What does it say to Democrats?”
Donald Trump won 50.9% of votes in North Carolina in 2024. Democrats hold half of its statewide elected offices, including the governor, secretary of state and attorney general. In 2024, 46% of votes for Congress went to Democratic candidates.
State law – and a state supreme court controlled by Democrats – had prevented extreme gerrymanders in the past. But Republicans elected a majority of North Carolina supreme court justices in 2022.
Buoyed by Rucho v Common Cause – a 2019 US supreme court case from North Carolina that ruled partisan gerrymandering was effectively legal – North Carolina immediately replaced a court-mandated congressional map. That move split the state’s delegation 7-7, with one drawn by Republican legislators that elected 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats in 2024.
The loss of those three seats represents the entire margin of partisan control of Congress.
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Republicans left the first congressional district in competitive territory, hoping to avoid a legal challenge on the basis of racial gerrymandering. The first district holds all eight of North Carolina’s majority-Black counties and has long been represented by a Black Democrat.
But the US supreme court is considering a challenge to the Voting Rights Act that could effectively end protections from gerrymandering for Black voters.
Much of the district is impoverished. About 45% of Halifax county residents receive Medicaid benefits, Pierce said. He would not expect a Republican to approach the problems of rural healthcare in poor, Black counties the way a Democrat might, Pierce said, quoting former North Carolina congresswoman Eva Clayton.
“I’ll say what she says. It’s not that I don’t think that they’re capable of it. They certainly are. Will they do it is another question.”
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
