North Carolina's Republican-controlled Legislature passed a new congressional map that aims to further boost the party ahead of next year's midterm elections.
The state House on Wednesday approved the map, which could give Republicans an additional U.S. House seat in North Carolina, on a 66-48 vote, one day after the state Senate advanced it and nine days after GOP legislative leaders first announced their plans for a vote.
“The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular: drawing new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the North Carolina congressional delegation,” state Sen. Ralph Hise, the Republican who prepared the map, told colleagues this week in a committee hearing.
North Carolina’s 1st District — which narrowly supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 election and is represented by Democrat Rep. Don Davis — would become more Republican-friendly under the new lines, with the nearby 3rd District absorbs some new Democratic areas. Republicans currently control 10 of the state's 14 districts.
“Since the start of this new term, my office has received 46,616 messages from constituents of different political parties, including those unaffiliated, expressing a range of opinions, views, and requests,” Davis said in a statement after the state Senate passed the map on Tuesday. “Not a single one of them included a request for a new congressional map redrawing eastern North Carolina.”
The map, which Democratic Gov. Josh Stein does not have the ability to veto, will now go into effect before the the 2026 elections, when Republicans will seek to protect their narrow House majority.
"If I did have that power, I assure you I would veto this map," Stein said in a video on Wednesday. "Republican legislative leaders are abusing their power to take away yours. They're afraid they will lose in the midterms and afraid to say no to the President, so they've turned their backs on you to silence your vote in the 2026 election."
In committee hearings this week, Democrats and members of the public protested the new map, arguing it diluted the political power of Black and Latino voters to achieve Republican aims.
Protesters called them "racist maps" at the end of the public comment period of a House committee hearing Tuesday afternoon, as they were escorted out for disrupting the proceedings.
"You didn’t need to use racial data because every single member of this body knows about the Black population in the northeastern part of this state," state Rep. Gloristine Brown said on the House floor Wednesday.
Out of 11,000 public comments submitted to a state House committee, Democratic state Rep. Pricey Harrison said Tuesday, her legislative aide was able to find just three comments in support.
"I'm just so angry about what we're doing to our democracy today that I'm having a hard time containing myself," Harrison said.
North Carolina is just the latest state where Republican lawmakers have heeded Trump's call to pursue an aggressive, mid-decade redistricting effort. Trump praised North Carolina's "improved" map last week on Truth Social, saying it would "give the fantastic people of North Carolina the opportunity to elect an additional MAGA Republican in the 2026 Midterm Elections."
In August, Texas lawmakers approved a new map designed to net Republicans an additional five House seats. One month later, Missouri Republicans followed suit with a map that made Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s district Republican-leaning.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in Kansas and Indiana are considering drawing new district lines. And GOP-controlled Ohio is required to draw new lines this year after passing its last map without Democratic support.
Democrats' most notable effort to counter is in California, where voters will decide whether to approve a map that could allow the party to pick up five House seats on the Nov. 4 ballot. Democratic lawmakers in Maryland and Illinois are also discussing potential redistricting efforts.
