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North Carolina state senators say they will vote Tuesday on a redrawn congressional map that would give Republicans an opportunity to gain an extra seat in the U.S. House.
State Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican, said his chamber gave the new map tentative approval Monday and will take a final vote Tuesday before sending it to the state House.
The state Senate was divided along party lines over new boundaries for two eastern North Carolina districts in a move aimed to thwart the reelection of Democratic Rep. Don Davis, one of the state’s three Black members of Congress. The vote followed a committee meeting in which dozens of speakers from the public sharply accused Republican lawmakers in the ninth-largest state of bowing to Republican President Donald Trump.
The plan’s chief author was direct about the map’s intent to help his party in the 2026 midterm elections.
“The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular — draw a new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the North Carolina congressional delegation,” said GOP Sen. Ralph Hise, who shepherded it through his chamber. If Democrats take back the House, Hise said, they will “torpedo President Trump’s agenda.”
The proposed map reconfigures the 1st District, which is currently represented by Davis, by adding more Republican-leaning counties along the coast and removing more liberal-leaning ones inland. Greene County, Davis’ home county, is among several that would be removed from the 1st District and instead become part of the 3rd District.
The new map would help Republicans flip Davis’ seat in next year’s elections. That would mean 11 of the state’s 14 House representatives would be Republicans, up from the current 10-4 split. Under a map used in 2022, the state had a 7-7 seat split.
If the map is approved, Davis would run in the 1st or 3rd District, according to a spokesperson.
After a Senate procedural vote Tuesday, the proposed map will head to the House, which is expected to give it final General Assembly approval later this week.
The state Democratic Party plans an outdoor rally Tuesday to oppose it. But Democrats are the minority in both chambers, and state law prevents Democratic Gov. Josh Stein from using his veto stamp on redistricting action.
“This is an attack on Black voters,” Sen. Kandie Smith, an African American legislator who represents a county in Davis’ current district, said during Senate floor debate. “It’s about stealing elections by design, so that the outcomes are predetermined and accountability becomes optional.”
Redrawing the districts is typically only done every 10 years after the census, but North Carolina is not the first state to propose a new map five years earlier than usual.
Texas led the trend when its governor, Greg Abbott, signed a new map into law in August that could add five Republican seats. California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded by announcing his own redistricting plan, which California residents will vote on whether to approve.
The practice of redrawing maps to favor a political party is known as gerrymandering. The term dates back to the early 1800s when Massachusetts’ state Senate election districts were redrawn under Gov. Elbridge Gerry. An article in the Boston Gazette compared the shape of one district to a salamander, and the “Gerry-mander” was born.
Gerrymandering has long been a feature of North Carolina’s politics. The Supreme Court case Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019 was a result of the state’s congressional map redrawn to favor Republicans after the 2010 census. The court’s decision effectively ended federal oversight of the redistricting process, opening the door nationally for more gerrymandering.
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Caroline King, Associated Press
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