The newly drawn congressional map drafted by North Carolina Republican lawmakers at the behest of Trump is facing its first legal battle within a month of being passed into law. The new map modifies North Carolina’s 1st and 3rd congressional districts with the intent of making the 1st district– currently held by Democratic U.S. Representative Don Davis– more Republican. The bill that makes these changes was quickly passed by the Republican majority in both the House and Senate, and was unable to be overridden by Governor Josh Stein.
North Carolina’s 1st congressional district is already a part of a different legal battle: a lawsuit from 2023 over the maps that were used in the 2024 election. The voters who filed the 2023 lawsuit filed to amend it in order to add the new congressional map to the already existing lawsuit, just a day after the bill passed the legislature.
Their claim for the new congressional map is that the way the 1st Congressional district is configured in the new map violates the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. Republican lawmakers made it clear they were drawing the maps to send another Republican to Congress by shifting the voting population, but they were adamant that they did not use racial data to make these changes. However, the lawsuit alleges the new map dilutes black voters’ votes in both the 1st and 3rd districts, where the former has consecutively elected a Black representative since 1992.
In addition to the lawsuit filed by voters, a second challenge regarding the maps was brought forward by voters, the North Carolina NAACP, and Common Cause North Carolina. These parties are also battling previously drawn lines of the 1st congressional district and have asked a judge to add the new map to their ongoing legal battle. This amendment claims that the Republicans drawing the new map discriminated against some of the plaintiffs by drawing them out of the 1st congressional district, where they had previously voted for Davis.
A three-judge panel is set to hear arguments regarding the map on November 17th. If legal challenges fail and Republicans are able to rig the vote to elect a Republican in the 1st district, Republicans will have control of 11 of North Carolina’s 14 congressional districts.
Along with the legal challenges, the map is facing backlash from voters.
Tyler Daye from Common Cause North Carolina calls the move disgraceful. “This is cheating, and disgraceful, and it should be illegal,” Daye said.
Prior to Republicans passing the new map, Common Cause NC conducted a poll of North Carolina voters that showed the majority of voters, regardless of party affiliation, think partisan gerrymandering should never be allowed, to the point of supporting it being outlawed.
