The North Carolina State Senate gave tentative approval on Monday evening to newly drawn Congressional districts, hours after it was passed out of the Senate Election Committee.
“The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular: draw a new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the Congressional delegation,” said Republican Sen. Ralph Hise, who serves as Senate Deputy President Pro Tempore.
The measure passed by a 25-20 vote.
The updated map would institute changes to District 1, represented by Democrat Don Davis, and District 3, represented by Republican Greg Murphy.
“The Democrats want to do everything they can to block President Trump’s America First Agenda,” said Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. “North Carolinians support President Trump and it’s incumbent on us to fight back against all attempts to defeat the will of the people of North Carolina as expressed in the 2024 presidential election.”
Republicans were open in saying the new map was to help Trump ahead of the midterms.
“Donald Trump, the president asked that legislatures look at their maps, determine whether or not it’s possible to add additional individuals that would support the agenda that the president has advanced. The people of North Carolina, again, on three separate occasions, have voted to do that,” Berger said.
The redrawn House maps are set to give Republicans an additional seat in Congress.
In 2024, District 1 was the lone competitive Congressional race in North Carolina, with Davis defeating Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout by less than 2%. Murphy did not face a Democratic challenger in 2024, and carried the district by about 55% over Libertarian Gheorghe Cormos.
The new maps would switch Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Dare, Hyde, and Pamlico counties from District 3 to District 1, while moving Greene, Lenoir, Wayne and Wilson from District 1 to District 3.
“The motivation behind this new plan is straightforward. The new congressional map improves Republicans political strength in eastern North Carolina. It moves NC District 1 from a district where President Trump earned 51% of the vote in 2024 to 55% of the vote,” said Hise.
Further, this would still leave District 3 as solidly Republican.
Currently, North Carolina is represented by 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats in Congress, with these maps setting up a Republican advantage in 11 districts.
“Really? Eleven Republicans seats out of 14. Is that what democracy looks like to you? That is not what democracy looks like to me,” said Shannon Halbur, one of several people who spoke against the maps during public comment.
“What folks need to understand is it’s not about these maps. This specific decision is going to impact education, opportunity, jobs, access to healthcare, and all sorts of things,” said Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, a Democrat who represents Mecklenburg County.
Hise said he did not have any communication with the White House regarding the maps, which President Donald Trump publicly supported Friday. He further asserted his belief that if challenged in courts, these maps would be upheld.
Republicans have pointed to redistricting efforts in California, led by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, as their motivation to make the move here.
“North Carolina is fighting fire with fire. If Gavin Newsom and his Democrat cronies want to try and take control of Congress to force their liberal agenda on the American people, then we’re going to respond in kind,” Hise said.
Democrats contested that assertion.
“I would like to make the point about who started this dance. Texas started this dance in response to a request from our President,” said Sen. Julie Mayfield, a Democrat who represents Buncombe County.
Redistricting for a partisan advantage is legal, and the governor is unable to veto redrawn maps.
While partisan gerrymanders — used historically by both parties — have been allowed in court, Democrats argue the new map also discriminates based on race by removing a large population of Black voters from the district.
“When you look at the data, it makes it very clear that he has taken northeastern North Carolina. That has always been a solid Black belt of voters who again fought for their civil rights to be here and to be elected by people that they chose,” said Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch.
The district at the heart of the debate has a long history of map lines making a big difference.
After decades of maps drawn by White Democrats, after the 1990 census, the 1st District was drawn to allow Black voters in northeastern North Carolina to be given the chance to have representation in Congress to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
And in 1992, under that new map, Eva Clayton made history by becoming the first Black member of Congress from North Carolina since Reconstruction. Since her retirement, every representative from the 1st District since has also been Black.
On Monday, Clayton spoke out seeing after watching the legislature try a split up the communities she once represented.
“Gerrymandering is wrong. It is evident that they are trying their best to do away with a Black representative that’s currently there. And by God, you happen to be a Black representative who’s a Democrat? Oh, my God. Unforgivable,. It’s wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong,” she said.
It’s why at age 91, she’s planning on coming to Raleigh on Tuesday, along with former Democratic Congressman G.K. Butterfield, who also represented the district, to again make her voice heard.
“If the citizens don’t have the will to stand up, we’re lost, I pray to God that we have the strength to stand up for democracy, stand up for justice, stand up for equality,” she said.
Just moments before a vote during Monday morning’s committee hearing, several members of the public began chanting in opposition of the maps leading them to be escorted out of the room.
The proposed Congressional map will receive a final vote on Tuesday before going to the House of Represenatives for consideration.
