Judges allow North Carolina to use Republican-drawn congressional map | US politics
A three-judge federal panel on Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed at flipping seats to Republicans as part of Donald Trump’s multi-state redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 election.
The new map targets North Carolina’s only swing seat currently held by Democrat Don Davis, an African American who represents more than 20 counties in the state’s northeast. The first district has been consistently represented by Black members of Congress for more than 30 years.
The three-judge panel denied the requests for a preliminary injunction following a hearing in Winston-Salem in mid-November. The day after the hearing, the same justices separately approved several other redrawn U.S. House districts that GOP state lawmakers first enacted in 2023. These were first used in the 2024 elections and helped Republicans gain three more congressional seats.
North Carolina is one of several states where Trump broke with more than a century of political tradition by directing the GOP to redraw maps in the middle of the decade — without requiring the courts — to prevent losing control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections.
Democrats need to win just three seats to win control of the House of Representatives and block Trump’s agenda. Republican-led legislatures or committees in North Carolina, as well as Texas, Missouri and Ohio, have adopted new districts designed to boost Republicans’ chances in next year’s elections.
In California, voters responded by accepting new districts designed to increase Democrats’ chances of winning more seats. And the Democratic-led Virginia legislature also took a step toward redistricting with a proposed constitutional amendment.
Many lower courts have so far blocked Trump’s efforts, but the conservative majority at the US supreme court has put those decisions on hold. This includes a recent decision in Texas, where a redrawn U.S. House map was designed to give Republicans five more House seats.
North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature gave final approval Oct. 22 to changes that could help preserve the slim Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. No approval from Democratic governor Josh Stein was needed.
North Carolina Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said in a statement that the decision “blocks the radical left’s latest attempt to subvert the will of the people” in a state that voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
“While Democrat-run states like California are doing everything they can to undermine President Trump’s administration and agenda, North Carolina Republicans have begun working to protect his America First agenda,” Berger said.
The decision covers two cases.
In a lawsuit filed by the state NAACP, Common Cause and voters, plaintiffs sought injunctive relief on First Amendment grounds. They say Republican lawmakers are unconstitutionally targeting North Carolina’s “Black belt” instead of Democratic-voting areas with large white populations, as they organize and vote for their preferred candidates in 2024 and sue over the 2023 restructuring of the district.
In the second lawsuit filed by voters, the injunction lawsuit was based in part on the claim that the use of five-year census data due to the redesignation of districts in the middle of the decade violated the constitution, including the 14th amendment’s one-person, one-vote guarantee. Additionally, lawmakers are reportedly using race as a basis for making maps in violation of the first and 14th amendments.
Republicans currently hold 10 of the state’s 14 House seats — thanks to the 2023 map — and are hoping to take the 11th under the latest redistricting changes in the first district and the adjacent 3rd District. The effort comes in a state where Trump has 51% of the popular vote in 2024 and where statewide elections are often close. Candidate filing for these and other 2026 North Carolina races is scheduled to open Dec. 1.
