What you need to know
North Carolina lawmakers voted last month to change the map that sets out the state’s congressional districts. Republican leaders said they did not use racial data in creating the new map, but Democratic leaders said the bill targeted one of the state's three Black members of Congress and weakened the power of Black voters in the eastern part of the state.
Currently, Republicans control 10 of the state’s 14 seats in Congress. The vote left most congressional districts untouched while moving some Black voters out of District 1 and into District 3. The move creates an 11th Republican-leaning seat, based on data from prior elections.
Rep. Don Davis, a Black Democrat who represents District 1, will likely lose his seat in the next election. Rep. Davis has reportedly said that he will still run for office.
The move is part of a larger strategy nationally for both parties to try to control the U.S. House in the 2026 election. President Trump called for Republicans to use redistricting to gain more seats.
Who is affected?
The changes in District 1 and District 3 affect voters in parts of the following counties:
Not sure what district you are in? Enter your zip code here to find out:
Why the move now?
Republicans currently hold a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives with 219 members to 213 members of the Democratic Party. There are three vacant seats.
Redrawing the districts would allow Republicans to stay in power without necessarily winning more votes.
Earlier this year, President Trump called on Republican-led states to redraw their districts so that Republicans could maintain full control of Congress after the 2026 election.
After Trump’s call, a redistricting process that was only happening around census time was suddenly being pushed in non-census years.
The Texas legislature, controlled by Republicans, was the first to respond to President Trump’s call. Lawmakers there redrew congressional seats in the middle of the decade to send five additional Republicans to the House of Representatives in Washington. The Texas governor signed the measure into law on August 29.
After seeing what happened in Texas, the California legislature, controlled by Democrats, essentially said, Hey, no fair. They redrew the California congressional map to send five more Democrats to Washington.
But California’s governor cannot sign the measure into law yet, because in California, mid-decade redistricting has to be approved by the voters.
A ballot measure in California will have the final say in November.
California isn’t the only state to get into the battle. In September, the Missouri governor approved a new map that would give Republicans in Washington yet another seat.
What does this have to do with North Carolina?
In October, North Carolina became the fourth state to officially join this fight. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina announced that they too would redraw the state’s congressional maps in response to President Trump’s call.
In a statement, Republicans said the move was in response to California’s redistricting move.
I keep hearing the term “gerrymandering.” What is it exactly?
The word gerrymandering describes a way of manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts to favor a particular political party, group, or incumbent. Gerrymandering allows those in power to influence election results without actually winning more votes.
Where did gerrymandering come from?
In 1812, the political party controlling the state legislature in Massachusetts changed the boundaries of the state’s voting districts so that their party could stay in power. The maps they drew to create new districts were so wild that one of the districts was said to resemble a salamander – long and squiggly and clearly drawn to group together citizens of one political party.
When the Massachusetts governor, Elbridge Gerry, signed the new, salamander-like maps into law, a political cartoonist coined the phrase Gerry-mandering.
So why is everyone talking about gerrymandering now, in the fall of 2025?
Gerrymandering has been a part of American politics for a very long time.
Every 10 years, following the United States Census, state legislatures redraw the boundaries of state and congressional legislative districts to reflect actual changes in the population.
When this redistricting pushes the limits of fairness – when it clearly favors one party over another rather than the voting public – people tend to call it gerrymandering. Redistricting in a fair way is complicated, so labeling a particular attempt as gerrymandering tends to be controversial.
The reason we’re hearing so much about gerrymandering now is that lawmakers are redistricting not only every 10 years – following the census count – but pretty much whenever they want.
Which lawmakers in North Carolina wanted to redraw state congressional maps this time around, and which ones were against it?
The sponsors of the bill defining the new maps, were all Republicans except Sen. Paul A. Lowe, a Democrat representing Forsyth County, who later voted against the measure:
- Sen. W. Ted Alexander, representing Cleveland, Gaston, and Lincoln counties
- Sen. Warren Daniel, representing Buncombe, Burke, and McDowell counties
- Sen. Amy S. Galey, representing Alamance and Randolph counties
- Sen. Steve Jarvis, representing Davidson and Davie counties
- Sen. Timothy D. Moffitt, representing Henderson, Polk, and Rutherford counties.
When it was time to vote, the state senators split along party lines – all present Republicans voted for the bill, and all present Democrats voted against it. The House also voted on party lines to pass the measure on Wednesday.
Under North Carolina law, Democratic Gov. Josh Stein does not have veto power over the maps. North Carolina is one of only five states where district lines are set by joint resolution in the legislature, and the governor has no veto authority.
Has anything like this ever happened in North Carolina?
Actually, yes. North Carolina has a long history of redistricting and lawsuits from both sides protesting the changes.
As recently as 2022, North Carolina elected an evenly split congressional delegation – seven Republicans and seven Democrats. That changed after a Republican-majority North Carolina Supreme Court legalized partisan redistricting in 2023.
The House delegation is now 10 Republicans and four Democrats. Under the map that was just passed, it could be 11 to three in 2026.
Is President Trump getting what he asked for?
Trump said he wants to maintain Republican control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections.
Let’s run a tally to see where that effort stands:
The Texas legislature added five Republican congressional seats and their governor signed the measure into law.
Then the California legislature added five Democratic congressional seats, potentially evening the score, but that will only go into effect if voters approve a ballot measure in November.
The governor of Missouri signed a bill that will send an additional congressperson from their state. And North Carolina will send an additional member - likely a Republican.
On balance, President Trump’s call will likely net two additional Republican seats in the midterms if voter trends remain as expected.
Other states could still make changes, but some experts say Democrats have the weaker hand because states where they have power make redistricting decisions by independent commissions - not the legislature.
Learn more
Watch this video for an explanation of gerrymandering:
- The North Carolina General Assembly maintains a webpage that tracks the legislature’s redistricting plans (at the time of publication, that page did not yet include the developments with the new law).
- For a look back at how the state has redistricted in the past, check out Behind the Lines from WUNC.
- The National Conference of State Legislatures has a lot of information tracking and comparing redistricting across states.
- The Brennan Center for Justice, which is left of center, pulls together a lot of the history and caselaw.
This article first appeared on NCLocal and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
