(The Center Square) – Most consistent for the congressional map districts in North Carolina the last 11 years is the lack of it.
Pending litigation to stop it, the constituents of the 1st Congressional District and the 3rd Congressional District changed Wednesday when the House of Representatives finalized the expected change 66-48 along party lines.
In Realign Congressional Districts 2025, known also as Senate Bill 249, 12 districts remain unchanged from 2024 and two are reshaped to strengthen Republicans’ chance to win in the northeastern part of the state for an 11-3 representation at the U.S. House of Representatives.
Differentiations because of court orders have been in each map used for the last five congressional elections of 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 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 be broken if this map survives potential litigations.
Gubernatorial veto is not possible on this legislation.
Beaufort, Hyde, Dare, Craven, Pamlico and Carteret counties change from the 3rd to the 1st; 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.
U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., remains forecast to win the 3rd District next year.
In a statement Tuesday, Davis said, “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. Not a single one of them included a request for a new congressional map redrawing eastern North Carolina. Clearly, this new congressional map is beyond the pale.”
Congressional map redraws stretch coast to coast. The impetus is a plea from second-term Republican President Donald Trump to keep party majority in the U.S. House at 2026 midterms, a pivot point in past presidential terms. Majority was 220-215 on Election Day and is 219-213 with three vacancies today. The magic number is 218.
Govs. Mike Kehoe of Missouri and Greg Abbott of Texas have already signed new maps into law; Utah’s legislative passage is awaiting judicial approval. California voters decide next month on Proposition 50, the November ballot measure that could replace the state’s independent commission-drawn congressional district maps.
Already 43-9 Democrats in representation to the U.S. House, the party figures five more in the Golden State could flip.
There is also some level of engagement about congressional redistricting happening in Ohio, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland and New York.
The move in the Tarheel State has rekindled memories of the 1992 federal court-mandated map for the 1st District and the serpentine 12th District. Litigation aftermath made lawyers a lot of money. Even today as he campaigns for the U.S. Senate, the role of then-state Sen. Roy Cooper in that map process is in the same breath as gerrymander.
The former of those two districts stretched from counties that border Virginia and South Carolina, meant to achieve a majority-minority district. Or, putting together as many Black voters as possible. Of the state’s 100 counties, 27 helped get Eva Clayton elected. Nine of the 27 were fully encompassed.
In went parts or all of Vance, Warren, Halifax, Northampton, Hertford, Gates, Pasquotank (all bordering Virginia), Perquimans, Chowan, Bertie, Washington, Martin, Edgecombe, Nash, Wilson, Pitt, Greene, Beaufort, Lenoir, Craven, Jones, Duplin, Pender, New Hanover (that borders the Atlantic Ocean), Columbus (that borders South Carolina), Bladen and Cumberland.
On I-95 in North Carolina, 181 miles separate South Carolina and Virginia.
The 12th District on that map snaked along Interstate 85 between Durham and Mecklenburg counties through Orange, Alamance, Guilford, Forsyth, Davidson, Rowan and Iredell counties.
