North Carolina Republicans Kick Off Redistricting Effort With Trump’s Blessing Despite Public Protests

North Carolina Republicans are moving swiftly with their plan to redraw their state’s congressional map at the urging of President Trump, who is pressuring GOP lawmakers across the country to aggressively redraw maps in order to give Republicans an advantage in next year’s midterm elections. If the North Carolina map proposal becomes law, the GOP would likely gain one seat in the House. Mr. Trump’s redistricting effort kicked off in Texas earlier this year, when Republicans at Austin redrew their maps to potentially net the GOP five additional House seats in 2026. That prompted California Democrats to do the same, though their redrawing will have to be approved by voters in a statewide ballot initiative in November. Missouri Republicans have similarly redrawn their maps in order to gain one seat, though, again, voters in the state will have to vote to authorize that change. Indiana’s state legislature and governor are considering doing the same to eliminate either one or both of the state’s Democratic House seats. A committee of the North Carolina state senate began considering the new maps during a hearing on Monday, which included comments from the public. The chief state senate sponsor of the proposal to redraw North Carolina’s maps, Ralph Hise, said at the committee hearing that this was a “political arms race” with Democrats in order to determine control of the U.S. House. “Republicans hold a razor-thin margin in the United States House of Representatives, and if Democrats flip four seats in the upcoming midterm elections, they will take control of the House and torpedo President Trump’s agenda,” Mr. Hise said at the hearing on Monday. “President Trump has called on Republican-controlled states to fight fire with fire. This map answers that call,” he added. The elections committee advanced the bill to the floor of the state senate on Monday afternoon. In a statement issued Friday on Truth Social, Mr. Trump personally endorsed the North Carolina congressional map proposal, saying that Republicans would be “standing up to Save our Country” in passing the new map. The North Carolina Democratic Party is organizing a protest at the state capitol building at Raleigh on Tuesday, when the state house of representatives is due to take up the map proposals. Democrats are sending buses to Asheville, Charlotte, and Greensboro, among other cities, to bring protesters in for the event. “We’ve seen redistricting battles play out across the country — and now the fight is coming to North Carolina,” a notice from the North Carolina Democrats announcing the protest states. “We are gathering to send the GOP a message: North Carolinians are watching and we’re not backing down.”If the maps are adopted, Republicans would likely hold 11 of the state’s 14 congressional seats despite Mr. Trump winning the state by only three points in 2024. Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat who won his race last year by nearly 15 points even though Mr. Trump carried the state, said the Republicans’ “power grab” is unacceptable. Republicans have supermajorities in both the state house and state senate, meaning they can move forward despite Mr. Stein’s objections. “[Republicans] will be manipulating North Carolina’s congressional maps for partisan advantage even more than they already have,” Mr. Stein said at a press conference on Monday. “They are doing long-term damage.”The Democrat at risk should the new map be enacted is Congressman Don Davis, who already represents a district that was won by Mr. Trump last year. If the new map is enacted, Mr. Davis’s district will go from being a district won by the president by three points to a district Mr. Trump would have won by 11 points in 2024. Mr. Davis’s staff confirmed to Spectrum News that he would still run in his current district if North Carolina Republicans enact their new map. The maps could get even worse for Democrats depending on the Supreme Court’s ruling in a voting rights case that is expected to come by next summer. That case deals with a majority-black district which was drawn in Louisiana last year to satisfy a Voting Rights Act requirement, though the court could declare that map illegal and send a shockwave through southern states, allowing the GOP to aggressively gerrymander in states it currently controls.

North Carolina Republicans Kick Off Redistricting Effort With Trump’s Blessing Despite Public Protests

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