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A panel of federal judges on Wednesday allowed North Carolina to move forward with a mid-cycle congressional map engineered to flip a key Democratic seat, underscoring the scope of the Republican Party’s aggressive redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The unanimous decision lets the GOP-controlled legislature use a map that weakens the state’s lone swing district — the 1st Congressional District, represented by Democratic Rep. Don Davis — shifting it from 48% to 44% Democratic, according to a CBS News analysis. The district, anchored in the state’s “Black Belt,” has been represented by Black members of Congress for more than three decades.
The three-judge panel denied requests for a preliminary injunction after a November hearing in Winston-Salem. Just a day later, the same judges upheld several other Republican-drawn districts enacted in 2023, which helped the GOP gain three additional U.S. House seats in the 2024 elections.
Part of a broader pressure campaign led by Trump
North Carolina is one of several states where Republicans have pushed through new maps without any court mandate — a striking break with historical practice — in line with President Donald Trump’s public calls for the GOP to redraw districts mid-decade to preserve House control. Texas and Missouri have already approved more favorable maps, while a California voter initiative went in the opposite direction, adopting boundaries designed to boost Democrats. The Supreme Court recently allowed Texas’ new map to remain in place while litigation continues.
Democrats need only three seats to reclaim the House and challenge Mr. Trump’s agenda.
North Carolina’s legislature approved its new boundaries on Oct. 22; Democratic Gov. Josh Stein had no role in the process. Republican Senate leader Phil Berger praised Wednesday’s ruling, calling it a blow to “the radical left’s latest attempt to circumvent the will of the people,” and framed the map as a defense of the president’s “America First Agenda.”
Challenges rooted in race, retaliation and outdated data
The ruling covers two lawsuits. One, filed by the state NAACP, Common Cause and voters, argued that Republican lawmakers retaliated against Black voters for opposing the 2023 map and engaged in unconstitutional racial targeting under the First Amendment.
The second lawsuit claimed that using five-year-old Census data for a mid-decade redraw violates the Constitution’s one-person-one-vote requirement and alleged that legislators improperly relied on race to reshape districts.
Republican lawmakers denied any racial intent, describing their effort as part of a “nationwide partisan redistricting arms race” and insisting that the boundaries were driven solely by partisan advantage.
The 2026 map would reduce the Black voting-age population in the 1st District from 40% to 32% compared with the 2023 map — a substantial shift achieved by moving several predominantly Black, heavily Democratic counties into the nearby 3rd District represented by Republican Greg Murphy. Recent election results show both districts would likely tilt Republican under the new lines.
Judges skeptical of plaintiffs’ evidence
The judges — all appointed by Republican presidents — recently dismissed similar claims targeting the 2023 map, ruling that plaintiffs had not proved lawmakers acted with “discriminatory purpose” when drawing the districts.
Republicans currently hold 10 of North Carolina’s 14 House seats. With the new map, they aim to capture an 11th seat by reshaping the 1st and parts of the 3rd District. Candidate filing for the 2026 races begins Dec. 1.
