(The Center Square) – Avoiding a government shutdown and choosing a different route to reforms for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security guided the vote of a Democratic North Carolina congressman targeted in the state’s congressional redistricting.
Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., was one of 21 Democrats voting for the legislation ending the partial government shutdown. The measure passed 217-214. He was the only Democrat in North Carolina to do so, and he’s in a district redrawn to favor a Republican win for the first time since 1882.
Davis made clear from the chamber floor he is calling for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
In an email to TCS on Tuesday evening after the vote, Davis wrote, “Secretary Noem’s failures necessitate that our focus remains on delivering meaningful reforms to the Department of Homeland Security. We can pursue those reforms without forcing the chaos and disruption of another government shutdown, causing severe and lasting harm to eastern North Carolina, impacting families, children, servicemembers, small businesses, health centers, and rural hospitals.”
Second-term Republican President Donald Trump signed the $1.2 trillion spending plan Tuesday night. Government operations are funded through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30 in 11 appropriations bills; the 12th has a deadline to resolve next Friday the 13th and includes Homeland Security funding.
“The next two weeks are crucial,” Davis told TCS. “As negotiations proceed, they must produce concrete results. The American people have made their position clear: they demand solutions, not chaos or the infringement of our constitutional rights.”
Democratic Reps. Alma Adams, Deborah Ross and Valerie Foushee voted nay, or to keep the government partially shuttered. For the legislation were Republican Reps. Dr. Greg Murphy, Virginia Foxx, Addison McDowell, David Rouzer, Rev. Mark Harris, Richard Hudson, Pat Harrigan, Chuck Edwards, Brad Knott and Tim Moore.
Davis, of Snow Hill, does not have a primary challenger. Libertarian Tom Bailey of Greensboro also does not, and each is ready for a Nov. 3 showdown with the Republican primary winner.
Those candidates are Edenton’s Laurie Buckhout, Beaufort’s Asa Buck, Powells Point state Sen. Bobby Hanig, Atlantic Beach’s Ashley-Nicole Russell and Eric Rouse of Kinston.
As newly constructed in Realign Congressional Districts 2025, known also as Senate Bill 249, six counties went from the 3rd Congressional District to the 1st Congressional District. Four counties went 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, and this year’s map has already survived litigation.
