Democrats and voting rights advocates are sounding the alarm over North Carolina Republicans’ redistricting efforts, accusing the proposed new map of discriminating against Black voters in particular.
Tar Heel State Republicans announced they were moving forward with a new set of congressional lines earlier this year, approving the new map in mid-October. The map targets Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.), a two-term congressman representing the 1st Congressional District, a heavily Black district President Trump won in 2020.
Opponents of the plan, including the NAACP, argue the redistricting move is not only diluting the Black vote by shifting half those voters into a neighboring district, but also having a detrimental effect on democracy as a whole.
“When congressional districts are redrawn so frequently, it erodes public trust and distracts from the real issues families care about, like costs, raising children, retaliatory tariffs and health care. Consequently, so many are left out in the process,” Davis told The Hill.
All in all, the new map will decrease the Black voting population in the district by more than 8 percent, according to the North Carolina Black Alliance.
North Carolina is still seen as a swing state, having elected a Democratic governor while having a majority-Republican congressional delegation. The state went for Trump by just over a point in the 2020 election, while Trump defeated Vice President Harris by 3 points last year.
This would be at least the fourth time the Tar Heel State’s congressional lines have been redrawn since the 2020 Census. The move comes amid an ever-expanding redistricting battle across the country, which was sparked this year by Republicans’ decision to approve a new map in Texas in an effort to pad out their chances of holding onto the House in next year’s competitive midterm elections. Democrats have responded in kind; on Tuesday, California voted to approve its own new map, which could net the party as many as five additional seats.
But as both parties move forward with redistricting, advocates are warning of the corrosive effect it could have on democracy.
Aimy Steele, founder of the New North Carolina Project, said the process to constantly reeducate voters on their districts annually is “nightmarish.”
“These lines, they just change with the wind, and the average voter does not understand why,” Steele told The Hill. “So not only do we have to constantly combat misinformation, but we have to educate them on just simple terms like gerrymandering, which are not really so simple, but gerrymandering, line drawing, maps, the courts, and why the courts are involved in voting and politics.”
North Carolina’s gerrymandered maps have already been the subject of an ongoing legal battle. In 2023, a group of voters challenged the maps at the time, arguing they diluted the minority vote. No ruling has been issued in that case yet.
Now, the NAACP, Common Cause and a group of voters are seeking to block the latest map. A three-judge panel will hold a hearing on Nov. 19 in which it will consider temporarily blocking the maps from going forward.
Davis, meanwhile, is taking action in Congress. He recently teamed up with three other lawmakers to reintroduce a bill seeking to bring more transparency to the redistricting process.
Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.), a co-sponsor of the bill, argued Republicans were engaging in racial gerrymandering.
“Gerrymandering our state is being done at the request of President Trump, not because it serves North Carolina citizens best. North Carolina was already one of the most gerrymandered states in the country,” Adams said in a statement to The Hill.
“It is no coincidence that the First District is being targeted which changes it from an R+3 to an R+11 seat, giving Republicans the advantage. Not only did they draw a Black Democrat out of his seat, double bunking him in the Third District, they are trying to dismantle the district with the longest record of Black Congressional leadership in North Carolina history,” she added.
Democratic strategists argued the GOP-led redistricting efforts are examples of pure power politics at the behest of Trump, who has pushed his party to rewrite congressional lines across the country.
“I think what this reflects broadly across the nation is that the Republicans are focused on absolute power, and they’re not focusing on folks that are stressed out every day trying to figure out how they’re going to pay their bills and pay their mortgage,” said Doug Wilson, a Democratic strategist.
His comments come amid growing concerns that the Supreme Court will roll back parts of the Voting Rights Act next summer, essentially scrapping a framework that requires states to draw additional majority-minority districts. That could have a ripple effect across the Deep South in particular, doing away with heavily Black districts like the one currently represented by Davis.
But Republicans have pushed back against the criticism, noting that Democrats have long engaged in redistricting as well.
“The redistricting process is not new to North Carolina, and it is as much a part of our political history as a new legislative session,” said Republican strategist Paul Shumaker.
“The Democratic Party in North Carolina wrote the playbook on redistricting. The only significant change is that they are no longer drawing the lines themselves,” he added.
The Black Voter Project suggested the GOP’s efforts in North Carolina could potentially backfire, while also noting the repercussions for Black voters across the country.
“With many Black voters already questioning the backbone of the Democratic Party, begging for Democrats to fight back, the response to redistricting efforts such as the one in North Carolina could go a long way in elevating Black voter enthusiasm and turnout in the coming election cycles,” Christian Towler, director of the Black Voter Project, said in a statement to The Hill.
“Moreover, as the redistricting battles heat up across the nation, Black voters continue to be in the crosshairs as many of the districts targeted by GOP efforts are districts that were previously created to address historical discrimination ultimately ruled unconstitutional under the Voting Rights Act,” he added.
Democrats for their part are showing no sign of backing down. Leaders in blue states like Illinois, Maryland and New York have all signaled an openness to rewriting their congressional lines in recent months.
Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), who also served in the North Carolina General Assembly, attempted to create an independent redistricting commission in 2019 for the Tar Heel State and said she continues to “support efforts” to see the entity created.
“But Republicans have set the rules of engagement, and until they join us in passing legislation to establish these commissions, it is critical that Democrats continue to fight back,” she told The Hill.
