GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina Republicans passed a new congressional map through the state legislature that would likely add one additional GOP seat in the U.S. House.
Spurred on by California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s threat to retaliate against Texas’ redistricting, state senators on Tuesday approved their fifth redrawn map in six years.
It is the latest victory in President Trump’s push to level the electoral playing field, where Democrats also carved out advantages in blue states.
Thus far, GOP-run Texas, Missouri and Ohio have passed redrawn maps. Some 15 additional states are considering revisions to those passed after the 2020 Census.
“President Trump has called on Republican-controlled states across the country to redraw congressional districts,” said state Sen. Ralph Hise, North Carolina Republican, who championed the new redistricting effort. “This map answers that call.”
Mr. Trump praised North Carolina’s legislative initiative in a recent post on Truth Social, saying that he was “watching, and strongly supporting, very closely.”
In North Carolina, the seat currently held by Democrat Rep. Don Davis swung blue by just 1.8% in the last election. The new map is expected to give Republicans an 11-point advantage in that district.
Three other Democrat-occupied seats in the 14-seat congressional delegation are projected to remain solid blue.
“Clearly, this new congressional map is beyond the pale,” Mr. Davis said on social media.
Other state Democrats said the redistricting was racially motivated.
“This proposed map was drawn almost entirely as an attack on Black North Carolinians and it’s an attempt to remove Black representation from eastern North Carolina because they can’t win in a fair fight,” said former U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel. “Democrats will aggressively defend Don Davis and continue the fight for Fair Maps in federal and state courts.”
Republican lawmakers, who hold strong majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, said the change was long overdue.
State Sen. Phil Berger, the Republican president pro tempore, pointed to the long and contentious redistricting fight with Democrats.
“We have drawn four Congressional maps in the last six years in redistricting fights with Democrats because of their sue-until-blue strategy,” Mr. Berger said last month on X. “If we have to draw one more map this year, we will.”
In recent years, North Carolina has been ground zero for redistricting legal battles.
In 2019’s Rucho v. Common Cause, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively punted the question of partisan gerrymandering back to the state at a time when North Carolina’s high court had a slight liberal advantage.
A separate high court case, 2017’s Cooper v. Harris, also sided against the state’s GOP legislators, forcing them to redraw maps after allegations of race-based gerrymandering.
However, the court may soon reverse course on racial gerrymandering. Democrats fear an unfavorable outcome in the recently heard case Louisiana v. Callais could yield a net loss of 19 congressional seats nationwide, giving the GOP a near-impenetrable majority in the U.S. House.
Even if the battle is waged in state courts, Democrats could have a more difficult time than in the past because there are fewer liberal justices on the state Supreme Court.
Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, also has no power to step into the redistricting battle under the state constitution.
