North Carolina has a new Congressional map, barring likely legal challenges.
The N.C. House of Representatives voted 65 to 48 in favor of a new map that shifts about 500,000 people in eastern North Carolina between the 1st and 3rd Districts to give the GOP an advantage in the 1st.
Every Republican who was present Wednesday voted for the new map, and every Democrat voted against it. The vote took place six days after the new map proposal was made public.
Republicans have maintained that their sole purpose in drawing the new map is to win an additional Congressional seat to bolster the GOP's chance of keeping power in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year's midterm elections. Democrats argue the map dilutes the power of a bloc of Black voters in eastern North Carolina, potentially representing a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Under the maps used in 2024, Republicans held a clear advantage in 10 of the state's Congressional districts, Democrats held it in three and the 1st Congressional District was effectively a toss-up.
U.S. Rep. Don Davis, a moderate Democrat, won that district in 2022 and 2024.
House Majority Leader Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, said the new map is necessary to reverse an advantage he believes Democrats have long held in terms of gerrymandered districts.
"It's the same playbook over and over. Well, enough is enough. We have been called to fight back, and that's exactly what this body intends to do," Jones said.
It is the seventh district nationwide that has been shifted in favor of Republicans this year, following five in Texas and one in Missouri. California is poised to vote on a referendum that would gerrymander its districts to give Democrats the advantage in five additional seats there.
Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell County, said he drew the map without using racial data. Jones has said this week that House proposals of the new map also were not drawn using that data.
But Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, have insisted that the map breaks up a bloc of Black voters who have elected Black representatives to Congress for 32 consecutive years.
House Minority Whip Gloristine Brown, D-Pitt, made a similar argument on the floor Wednesday.
"You claimed that racial data was not used. You didn't need to use racial data because every single member of this body knows about the Black population in the northeastern part of this state," Brown said.
In the version of the 1st District used in 2024, about 40% of voters were Black. That will decline to about 32% in the new map, with significant Black populations in Greene, Lenoir, Wayne and Wilson counties moving to the 3rd District.
Rep. Rodney Pierce, D-Halifax, said he believes the new map separates communities that have common interests for political gain.
"It ties our inland agricultural communities where families are working generations deep in the soil to coastal areas driven by tourism, property and development. These are different economies, different priorities, different needs," Pierce said.
He continued, "When you do that, you dilute the voice of people who have long toiled together toward a common good."
Gov. Josh Stein cannot veto the new map under North Carolina's constitution. It will become law, although almost everyone anticipates a legal challenge, likely arguing that it weakens the power of the region's Black voters to elect a representative to Congress.
