North Carolina GOP approves new House map targeting vulnerable Democrat

North Carolina’s state House passed a new Republican-drafted congressional map Wednesday, giving the party one additional pickup opportunity ahead of next year’s midterm elections. 

The new map, which was approved by the Senate earlier this week, likely makes incumbent Rep. Don Davis’s (D-N.C.) reelection bid more difficult going into the midterms. Davis represents the state’s 1st Congressional District. 

Davis is already considered a vulnerable House Democrat, winning reelection in November by just under two points. 

The Democratic lawmaker is one of three Black representatives serving in the state’s House delegation, and represents a number of majority Black counties. Democrats argue that the redrawn map amounts to a racial gerrymander. 

“This extreme gerrymandered map, their fifth in as many years, 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,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said in a statement.

The effort is the latest from Republicans to create more red-leaning districts to bolster their chances of holding onto their majority in the House. 

North Carolina is unique in that the governor is exempt from interfering in the redistricting process, meaning the new map can’t be voted by the state’s Democratic Gov. Josh Stein and will now become law.