Judges allow North Carolina to use a map drawn in bid to give Republicans another US House seat

FILE - Demonstrators approach the Legislative Building during a rally protesting a proposed election redistricting map, Oct. 21, 2025, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)

By GARY D. ROBERTSON and JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal three-judge panel on Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed at flipping a seat to Republicans as part of President Donald Trump’s multistate redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 elections.

The map targets the state’s only swing seat, currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, an African American who represents more than 20 northeast counties. The 1st District has been represented by Black members of Congress continuously for more than 30 years.

The three-judge panel unanimously denied preliminary injunction requests after a hearing in Winston-Salem in mid-November. The day after the hearing, the same judges separately upheld several other redrawn U.S. House districts that GOP state lawmakers initially enacted in 2023. They were first used in the 2024 elections, helping Republicans gain three more congressional seats.

After Trump’s push, Democrats’ return fire

Trump broke with more than a century of political tradition by directing the GOP in North Carolina and several other states this year to redraw maps at mid-decade — without courts requiring it — to avoid losing control of Congress in next year’s midterms.

Democrats need to pick up just a handful of seats to win control of the House and impede Trump’s agenda. Besides North Carolina, Republican-led legislatures or commissions in Texas, Missouri, and Ohio all have adopted new districts designed to boost Republicans’ chances next year.

In California, voters countered by adopting new districts drawn to improve Democrats’ chances of winning more seats. And the Democratic-led Virginia General Assembly also has taken a step toward redistricting with a proposed constitutional amendment.

Thus far, many lower courts have blocked Trump’s initiatives, only for the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court to put those rulings on hold. That includes a recent ruling in Texas, where a redrawn U.S. House map was engineered to give Republicans five more House seats.

North Carolina GOP seeks one-seat swing

North Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly gave final approval on Oct. 22 to the redrawn map. Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s approval wasn’t needed.

North Carolina Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said Wednesday’s court decision “thwarts the radical left’s latest attempt to circumvent the will of the people” in a state that voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

“As Democrat-run states like California do everything in their power to undermine President Trump’s administration and agenda, North Carolina Republicans went to work to protect the America First Agenda,” Berger’s statement said.

But others called Wednesday’s decision a bad one.

“This ruling gives blessing to what will be the most gerrymandered congressional map in state history, a map that intentionally retaliates against voters in eastern North Carolina for supporting a candidate not preferred by the majority party,” said Bob Phillips, Executive Director of Common Cause North Carolina.

The ruling covers two lawsuits.

One filed by the state NAACP, Common Cause and voters sought a preliminary injunction on First Amendment grounds. They said Republican lawmakers unconstitutionally targeted North Carolina’s “Black Belt” instead of Democratic-voting areas with higher white populations because in 2024 they organized and voted for their preferred candidates and had sued over the 2023 configuration of the district.

In the second lawsuit, filed by voters, the case for a preliminary injunction rested in part on an argument that the use of five-year-old Census data due to the mid-decade redrawing of districts violates the Constitution, including the 14th Amendment’s one-person, one-vote guarantee. Additionally, they said, mapmakers relied on race in violation of the First and 14th Amendments.

Attorneys for the Republican lawmakers argued that their map-drawing intentions were political and allowable, not racial, and were part of a “nationwide partisan redistricting arms race.” They rejected assertions about old Census data and retaliation over activities protected by the First Amendment, saying they don’t align with Supreme Court precedent.

Judges allow other districts from 2023 map

Republicans now hold 10 of the state’s 14 House seats — thanks to the 2023 map — and they hope to flip an 11th under the latest redrawing of the 1st District and the adjoining 3rd District. In North Carolina, Trump got 51% of the popular vote in 2024 and statewide elections are often close. Candidate filing for many 2026 North Carolina races begins Dec. 1.

The latest challenge said the October map would drop the Black voting-age population in the 1st District from 40% in the 2023 map to 32%.

Republicans in part moved counties in the 1st District with significant Black — and usually highly Democratic — populations to the 3rd District currently represented by Republican Greg Murphy. Recent election results indicate both the 1st and 3rd would favor Republicans.

Many of the plaintiffs challenging the 1st District changes sued earlier over the 2023 House map, alleging that Republicans unlawfully diluted Black voting power. But judges dismissed those claims.

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Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee.