(The Center Square) – Voters in the Coastal Plains of North Carolina are on track for new congressional maps in the 2026 midterms.
The 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts are changed from the 2024 presidential cycle in the map redrawn this fall by the Legislature. On Wednesday, Justices Allison Jones Rushing, Richard Myers and Thomas Schroeder in a 57-page opinion concluded plaintiffs did not make a “clear showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of any of the claims advanced in their preliminary injunction motions” and denied the request for a preliminary injunction.
Filing for the 2026 midterms begins Monday.
Rushing is from the U.S. Appeals Court, Myers and Schroeder from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina where Myers is chief justice. The same panel last Friday delivered a 181-page opinion rejecting plaintiffs in two cases challenging a congressional map and state Senate and House maps for the 2024 cycle.
As newly constructed in Realign Congressional Districts 2025, known also as Senate Bill 249, six counties go from the 3rd Congressional District to the 1st Congressional District. Four counties go from the 1st to the 3rd. In the reconstruction, Republicans said their hope was to gain another seat – they have 10 to Democrats’ four in the 119th Congress – in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Twelve districts have no change.
Differentiations because of court orders have been in each map used for four of the last five congressional elections – 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022. The Legislature drew it in 2024.
The last time the U.S. House representative in the northeastern part of the state was won by a Republican was 1882, a streak voting trends indicate would likely be broken if this map survives litigations.
Beaufort, Hyde, Dare, Craven, Pamlico and Carteret counties change from the 3rd to the 1st Congressional District; Wilson, Wayne, Greene and Lenoir counties change from the 1st to the 3rd. The only district of 14 with closer than 13% difference in 2024 was a win by Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., in the 1st District.
Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., is the third-term congressman from the 3rd Congressional District.
