North Carolina is the latest Republican-led state to reshape a congressional district in hopes of boosting the GOP’s chances of keeping the House in next year’s midterms.
The North Carolina House on Wednesday passed a new congressional map that shifts the state’s major battleground Democratic-held House district and makes it more favorable to conservatives, following the state Senate’s approval one day earlier. And while the state has a Democratic governor, his veto power is limited and he cannot reject a standalone map.
North Carolina Republicans are targeting Democratic Rep. Don Davis, whose victory in 2024 was a rare bright spot for Democrats.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, said in a statement that the map “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.”
In a statement obtained by CBS News, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said state Republican lawmakers “rigged the state’s congressional map after being ordered to do so by Donald Trump,” adding that it was a “morally corrupt move” that was “part of a long line of desperate schemes to steal the midterms.”
Jeffries also said in a news conference Wednesday that Democrats plan to “sue immediately,” saying they believe the new North Carolina maps “clearly violate the voting rights.”
North Carolina Republicans are championing the map. Before the redraw passed, the state House GOP Majority Leader Brenden Jones said during a speech that “the end result is a congressional map that should perform to elect 11 Republicans,” from North Carolina, rather than the 10 that serve in the U.S. House right now.
North Carolina’s quick turn to draw new congressional lines is deeply intertwined with attempts by Republican leaders around the country to help President Trump. Democrats are locked out of power in Washington and the House is widely seen as the party’s most likely route to gaining back power in next year’s midterms.
At one point, Democrats winning back as few as three seats in the 2026 elections may have flipped control of the House. That dynamic has changed considerably in recent months as Mr. Trump and his allies have looked for Republican-led states to take Democratic districts and shift their boundaries in a way that boosts the GOP’s chances at keeping control of the House next year.
Republicans in Texas overhauled their state’s map earlier this summer in an attempt to flip five Democratic-held seats. In response, California Democrats have put a measure on next month’s ballot that could flip five of the state’s GOP House seats toward Democrats. Not long after, Missouri Republicans were able to follow through on a longstanding push to alter a Kansas City-area district held for decades by Democrats and turn into one that favors Republicans.
North Carolina is now primed to join that list, and more states could follow before the end of the year. No Democrat has won North Carolina in a presidential election since 2008, but statewide races in the southern battleground tend to be competitive. The state has a Democratic governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general but its two U.S. senators are Republicans. The state’s congressional districts are already tilted to favor the GOP, with 10 of the state’s 14 Congressional seats currently held by Republicans.
Under the new map, Davis’ Democratic battleground 1st Congressional District seat will be moved to try and make it more winnable for Republicans. This is done by adding parts of GOP Rep. Greg Murphy’s current 3rd Congressional District, to the 1st.
Davis said in a statement Tuesday that “this new congressional map is beyond the pale,” and noted that “in the 2024 election with record voter turnout, NC’s First Congressional District elected both President Trump and me.”
But Phil Berger, the GOP leader in the state Senate, contended in a statement of his own that “this new map respects the will of the North Carolina voters who sent President Trump to the White House three times.”
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