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North CarolinaLegislature started redrawing this is congressman map On Monday, openly aimed to help Republicans achieve another America Home Seat, a step in line with the President donald trumpAttempt to maintain hold on one’s party Congress Next year.
State management committee Gave initial, party-line approval to new boundaries for the two eastern districts, specifically targeting the re-election of Democratic Representative Don Davis, one of three Black members of the state’s Congress.
This was followed by a committee meeting in which public speakers sharply accused Republican lawmakers in the ninth-largest state of kowtowing to President Trump. The main authors of the plan were direct about their intention to help their party in the 2026 midterm elections.

“The motivation behind this redistricting is simple and singular – create a new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the North Carolina congressional delegation,” he said. GOP Senator Ralph Hise. If Democrats otherwise take back the House, Hice said, they will “destroy President Trump’s agenda.”
Republican legislative leaders announced the plan to rework the maps a week ago as the mid-decade redistricting battle between Democrats and Republicans intensifies across the country. Democrats need to gain only three more seats to take the House, and the president’s party has historically lost seats in midterm elections.
Under the 2024 election map, Republicans would win 10 of North Carolina’s 14 U.S. House seats in a state where statewide races are often close. This compares to a 7-7 seat split between Democrats and the GOP under the map used in 2022. Based on past statewide polls, Republicans would have a good chance of winning the 11th seat in 2026 if the latest proposal is implemented.
Final vote expected this week, veto cannot block map
Following the Senate’s procedural vote on Tuesday, the proposal will be sent to the House for final General Assembly approval, expected later this week. The state Democratic Party has planned an outdoor rally on Tuesday to protest. But Democrats are the minority in both houses, and state law prevents Democratic Governor Josh Stein from using his veto stamp on redistricting action. Litigation challenging the map is likely over allegations of weakening black voting power.
“This is an attack on black voters,” Sen. Candy Smith, an African American lawmaker who represents a county in Davis’ current district, said during a Senate debate. “This is about stealing elections by design, so that the outcomes are predetermined and accountability becomes optional.”
Counties added, removed to tilt district more to the right
Under the proposal, Davis’ current 1st District – the state’s only swing seat – would shift to the right as mapmakers would remove inland counties, including Davis’ home county, and replace them with several from the coast. Counties removed from the 1st district were placed in the redrawn 3rd district, owned by Republican Representative Greg Murphy. Election results indicate that the 3rd will be favorable for Murphy.
North Carolina Republicans, armed with recent legal rulings that allow partisan advantage in drawing boundaries, last redrawn the map in 2023, leading three incumbent Democrats to decide not to run in 2024 as the lines shifted to the right. Those changes helped Republicans maintain their House majority in 2025.
Trump is also seeking more seats from other red states. He encouraged North Carolina Republican legislators last Friday on Truth Social to “work as hard as we can to pass this new map so we can continue our incredible record of success.”
Senate Democrats and their allies also criticized North Carolina GOP legislative leaders for working on a partisan map while they are still more than three months away from passing the state budget.
Eric Willoughby, a 19-year-old college student, told the committee, “They are wasting precious time and taxpayers’ money by kneeling before Donald Trump and taking away the voters’ voice. It’s shameful, it’s pathetic.”
The national redistricting battle began over the summer when Trump urged Republican-led Texas to reshape its U.S. House districts. After Texas lawmakers took action, California Democrats responded by passing their own plan, which still needs voter approval in November.
Former 1st District representatives described the proposal as “moral regression”.
Voters in the 1st District edition have continuously elected African Americans to the seat since 1992. Some counties in the current version have majority black populations.
The proposed map “is not merely a political act — it is a moral regression,” former 1st District Representatives Eva Clayton and GK Butterfield, both Black Democrats, said in a news release. “It weakens the representation of Black North Carolinians and undermines the promise of equal voice and fair elections that so many have fought to secure.”
Hise said there was nothing unlawfully discriminatory about the map. He said that race-based data was not used to redraw the boundaries and that the lack of significant evidence of racially polarized voting in the area would make it unconstitutional to draw lines with the main goal of helping black voters choose their preferred candidates.