On Oct. 25, the North Carolina General Assembly adopted new congressional and legislative district boundaries. The final votes for each plan were strictly along party lines, with all votes in favor by Republicans and all votes against by Democrats. The state redrew its district boundaries after North Carolina’s Supreme Court in April overturned a prior decision that had held that the state’s enacted congressional and legislative maps were unconstitutional due to partisan gerrymandering. These new maps will take effect for the 2024 elections.
Describing the new congressional districts, The New York Times’ Maggie Astor wrote, “The map creates 10 solidly Republican districts, three solidly Democratic districts and one competitive district. Currently, under the lines drawn by a court for the 2022 election, each party holds seven seats. The Democratic incumbents who have been essentially drawn off the map are Representatives Jeff Jackson in the Charlotte area, Kathy Manning in the Greensboro area and Wiley Nickel in the Raleigh area. A seat held by a fourth Democrat, Representative Don Davis, is expected to be competitive.”
Regarding the state’s new legislative districts, WUNC’s Rusty Jacobs wrote that Catawba College Prof. Michael “Bitzer said Republicans have drawn maps that have a strong chance of preserving their veto-proof super majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Bitzer noted that constitutional provisions, like requiring legislators to keep counties whole when drawing state legislative districts, make it more difficult for lawmakers to gerrymander these maps more aggressively.”
