NC Republicans release electoral map that would push Democrat Don Davis out of Congress

Republican leaders in the General Assembly say they will vote on a new congressional map next week that removes US Rep. Don Davis from his district and makes it virtually impossible for him to win re-election.

Following directives from President Trump, Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly proposed a new Congressional map on Thursday that blows up the state’s only competitive district, diminishes the role of voters, and seeks to guarantee that Republicans maintain control of the US House after the 2026 midterm elections before any votes are cast.  

North Carolina joins several other Republican-led states that have sought to remove Democratic representatives from Congress by drawing districts they can’t win. 

NC Senate majority leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall, making good on their promise earlier in the week, released the new map on the General Assembly’s website on Thursday. The map not only makes it impossible for incumbent Democrat Don Davis to win re-election in 2026, it removes him from the district entirely.

Davis, who lives in Snow Hill in Green County, currently represents District 1 in Congress, a 20-county district stretching along the northern part of the state that then dips down several counties to Lenoir. 

But in the newly proposed map, Republicans removed Green County from District 1 and added several heavily Republican coastal counties. They then crammed Green and a few other counties into US Rep. Greg Murphy’s heavily conservative district, District 3.

Under state law, Davis could choose to run in either district, but each would be rash-red.

The new map comes a couple of weeks after multiple news outlets reported that Berger, facing a primary challenge in 2026, sought a Trump endorsement in exchange for redrawing the map to Trump’s liking.

Berger denied a quid pro quo, but the new map’s only intent is to remove Don Davis from Congress rather than leave the choice to the voters: no  districts other than his and Murphy’s change at all.

A sordid history

Both Democrats and Republicans have gerrymandered election maps while in control of the General Assembly, but Republicans have been in power since 2010 and have shown an increasing appetite for using gerrymandering to sidestep voters. 

States are meant to change their electoral maps every 10 years, only after a new census. This is the fifth time in the last six years that Republicans redrew the Congressional map to make it easier to win. Each gerrymandered map faced lawsuits.

The map drawn for the 2022 Congressional election was deemed illegal by the North Carolina Supreme Court, then with a Democratic majority. The justices ordered a new map, drawn by mediators. That map, used only in 2022, resulted in a 7-7 split among Democrats and Republicans across the state’s 14 districts, a measure far more in keeping with the state’s political demographics.

Rep. Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, relaxes as the session draws to a close after lawmakers debated over redistricting bills at the Legislative Building, Oct. 24, 2023, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)

But when Republicans took control of the NC Supreme Court in that very election, the new court reversed the old court’s decision and allowed Republicans in the General Assembly to draw new maps for the 2024 election. 

That map redrew the districts of Democrats Wiley Nickel, Kathy Manning, and Jeff Jackson so that they could not possibly win. The 2024 map resulted in a 10-4 Republican advantage even though there are currently slightly more registered Democrats in North Carolina than Republicans.

It is no coincidence that Republicans in the state do great in the electoral maps they draw for themselves, but do poorly in statewide elections where gerrymandering has no sway.

President Trump won the state by three percentage points in 2024, but Democrats won nearly every other major statewide race, including governor, lieutenant governor, schools superintendent, and secretary of state. And Jeff Jackson, who was drawn out of this Congressional seat, won the attorney general race against Rep. Dan Bishop by 3 percentage points. 

What’s next?

Lawmakers will vote on the new maps when they return to session next week. But the to-do list is long, and Republicans have indicated they will prioritize the new maps over adequately funding Medicaid in the state, passing a budget, or filling funding shortfalls in food-aid programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

In a press conference on Thursday, Anderson Clayton, the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, blasted the maps and said they reflect a Republican preference for politics over governance. 

“Republicans are planning to conceal power in every way, shape, and form they can instead of worrying about the working people across this state who need their help,” Clayton said.

RELATED: Huge Medicaid cuts loom after NC Republican leaders fail to reach funding deal

NC Rep. Sarah Crawford, a Democrat representing Wake County, agreed.

“This just shows you where Republican priorities are in the state of North Carolina,” Crawford said.

“We should be coming back to talk about how do we fund Medicaid so that it doesn’t fall off a cliff on Nov. 1. Instead we’re coming back to talk about redistricting.”

Voting rights groups have filed several lawsuits against previously gerrymandered maps, some of which are still in the court system, and the new map will likely face lawsuits as well. But the US Supreme Court has ruled that federal courts are not the place for gerrymandering lawsuits, and Republicans control the state courts. Given the current political make-up of the courts, lawsuits are unlikely to block the maps from going into effect. 

Republicans also hold majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly and under state law, legislative maps cannot be vetoed by the governor, in this case Democrat Josh Stein. 

So unless there is some unexpected defection among Republicans, the new map is all but certain to pass. With all the new maps passed by Republican state legislatures, it will be difficult for Democrats to retake the US House. 

That, of course, is the Republican plan.

“We are looking at Democrats about to lose potentially 19 to 20 seats [in the US House] because Republicans are coming after Black and brown representation in Congress right now,” Clayton said of the push nationwide to gerrymander at Trump’s request.

“This is not supposed to be normal in North Carolina”, she said.

North Carolina Democrats and voting rights advocates will hold a rally outside the General Assembly at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 21, Clayton said, to protest the new maps and to call for a state budget and Medicaid funding.

The General Assembly’s public comment period on the maps is also open, and you can leave your thoughts here.