Only North Carolina Voters Can Stop the GOP Gerrymander

By Billy Corriher

North Carolina Republicans have — yet again — gerrymandered the state’s congressional districts, and this time they targeted one of the few districts that elected a Black representative.  With the U.S. House majority in the balance, the GOP’s new, gerrymandered map could help the party keep control of Congress after the midterm elections.  

There’s a long-term path to defeating the gerrymander — but only if voters act to put pro-democracy judges on the state’s highest court.

Though North Carolina is a purple state that splits its statewide vote evenly between the two parties, the current map has sent 10 Republicans and only four Democrats to Congress. The new districts — which lawmakers are rushing to pass this week — are intended to yield 11 Republicans and three Democrats. Republicans also moved the home of Rep. Don Davis, one of three Black North Carolinians in Congress, out of his district. 

As in other GOP-controlled states, the redraw came after pressure from President Donald Trump, who wants to rig the House map to ensure the GOP retains control of Congress despite his unpopularity. 

There’s a long-term path to defeating the gerrymander — but only if voters act to put pro-democracy judges on the state’s highest court.

It’s also no coincidence that minority voices have been targeted and silenced in the GOP gerrymanders. In North Carolina and other states, Republicans are undoing districts that have given Black and Latino voters the chance to win seats in Congress, as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) requires. The new maps reduce the percentage of Black voters in the 1st District, Davis’ district, from 40% to less than a third. Protesters decried the impact on Black voters at recent public hearings, and some were thrown out of the legislative chamber for chanting, “Racist maps make racist reps.” 

Ashley Mitchell, an attorney with Forward Justice who lives in the 1st District, warned that the new map threatens decades of progress. 

“It’s the people power that pisses off our legislature, which is why we see so much pushback against the voters,” she said. “We are going to fight back in 2026 and show that the people truly do have the power to elect our representatives and leaders, whether they like it or not.”

Because the new districts will curtail the political power of Black voters, they are likely to face lawsuits in state and federal court. A federal court is already hearing a VRA challenge, and state courts could address the issue, because the state constitution’s ban on racial discrimination applies to redistricting. 

The state Supreme Court, in its current form, appears unlikely to block the gerrymander. In 2023, Republicans gained control of the court and — in an unprecedented move — overturned the Democrats’ recent rulings. The court legalized extreme partisan gerrymandering and allowed lawmakers to redraw all of the state’s districts, despite a constitutional ban on redrawing state legislative districts more than once per decade. 

North Carolina’s voters will have the chance to elect a new majority in 2028. If they vote for justices in favor of bans on gerrymandering and voter suppression, Black voters can challenge the new congressional districts as violating the state constitution’s ban on racial discrimination. 

In 2018, when lawmakers redrew judicial election districts in ways that disenfranchised Black voters in Charlotte, they faced a lawsuit in state court. The legislature settled the case and redrew the districts in a way that didn’t make it harder for Black voters to exercise political power.

North Carolina Republicans may get away with gerrymandering Black voters in 2026 and 2028. But voters have the chance to put a pro-democracy majority back on the state supreme court, and any rulings under North Carolina law cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Our state courts can help restore democracy and ensure that voters of color have an equal voice.

Billy Corriher is the state courts manager for People’s Parity Project and a longtime advocate for fair courts and progressive judges. As a Democracy Docket contributor, Billy writes about voting and election state court cases in North Carolina and across the country.