A federal three-judge panel on Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed at flipping a seat to Republicans as part of Donald Trump’s multi-state redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 elections.
The new map takes aim at North Carolina’s only swing seat, currently held by Democrat Don Davis, an African American who represents more than 20 counties in the state’s northeast. The 1st District has been represented by black members of Congress continuously for more than 30 years.
A three-judge panel rejected the preliminary injunction requests after a hearing in Winston-Salem in mid-November. The day after the hearing, the same judges separately upheld several other redrawn US House districts that GOP state lawmakers initially enacted in 2023. They were first used in the 2024 elections, helping Republicans gain three more congressional seats.
North Carolina is one of several states this year where Trump has broken more than a century of political tradition by directing the GOP to redraw maps mid-decade — without the need for the courts — to avoid losing control of Congress in next year’s midterms.
Democrats need to gain just three seats to take control of the House and obstruct Trump’s agenda. In addition to North Carolina, Republican-led legislatures or commissions in Texas, Missouri and Ohio have adopted new districts designed to boost Republicans’ chances in next year’s elections.
In California, voters have responded by adopting new districts designed to improve Democrats’ chances of winning more seats. And the Democratic-led Virginia General Assembly has also taken a step toward redistricting with a proposed constitutional amendment.
So far, several lower courts have blocked Trump’s initiatives, with only the conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court blocking those decisions. This includes the recent decision in Texas, where the U.S. House map was redrawn to give Republicans five additional House seats.
North Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly on Oct. 22 gave final approval to changes that could help keep the Republican majority in the U.S. House at bay, not requiring Democratic Governor Josh Stein’s approval.
In a statement, North Carolina Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said the decision “fails the radical left’s latest attempt to circumvent the will of the people” in a state that voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
“As Democrat-run states like California do everything in their power to undermine President Trump’s administration and agenda, North Carolina Republicans went to work to protect the America First agenda,” Berger said.
The decision covers two cases.
In one filed by the state NAACP, Common Cause and voters, the plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction on First Amendment grounds. They say Republican lawmakers unconstitutionally targeted North Carolina’s “Black Belt” rather than the more white-populated Democratic-voting areas because they organized and voted for their preferred candidates in 2024 and sued over the 2023 configuration of the district.
In the second lawsuit filed by voters, the preliminary injunction case was based partly on the argument that the use of five-yearly census data due to mid-decade redistricting violates the Constitution, including the 14th Amendment’s one-person, one-vote guarantee. Additionally, it says lawmakers relied on race in map-making, in violation of the First and 14th Amendments.
Republicans now hold 10 of the state’s 14 House seats — thanks to the 2023 map — and are expected to flip an 11th seat in the 1st District and the adjacent 3rd District under the latest redistricting changes. The effort came in a state where Trump gets 51% of the popular vote in 2024 and statewide elections are often close. Nomination of candidates for these and other 2026 North Carolina races is scheduled to begin Dec. 1.
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