The North Carolina Senate started moving a new Congressional map on Monday, a key step towards Republicans securing an 11th safe seat among the state's delegation in U.S. Congress.
Proposed last week, the new map swaps 10 North Carolina counties and part of one more between districts to shift the balance of North Carolina's First Congressional District.
U.S. Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat, has won that district in two consecutive elections. Under the existing Congressional map, it is widely considered the only one in North Carolina where Republicans and Democrats have a reasonable chance at winning an election.
Last week, Republicans announced that they were embarking on gerrymandering with the goal of securing an 11th safe seat for the party in order to protect President Donald Trump's agenda. It comes amid a nationwide push by the Trump Administration to secure seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to stave off the losses that the President's party typically suffers in midterm elections.
Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, remained clear about that intent during a Monday morning meeting of the N.C. Senate Elections Committee.
"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," Hise said.
Hise was introducing Senate Bill 249, the legislative vehicle for the proposed new map.
Democrats insisted Monday that the map has an undue impact on Black voters in the state's First Congressional District.
"This is a calculated move to weaken Black voter representation by splitting and diluting Black communities," Sen. Gladys Robinson, D-Guilford, said on the Senate floor.
The Senate Elections Committee approved that bill Monday morning. It passed a second reading in the Senate Monday afternoon.
All 20 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus filed formal protests to the new map on Monday.
The bill must receive a third reading in the Senate, which is expected to occur Tuesday, before the House can consider it.
New Congressional map proposal
That map would move six full counties (Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Dare, Hyde and Pamlico) and part of the Onslow County's Swansboro precinct from North Carolina's Third Congressional district into the First Congressional district.
Lawmakers are also proposing moving Greene, Lenoir, Wayne and Wilson counties from the First Congressional District to the Third Congressional District.
The goal, Hise said Monday, was to use past election results to reduce some of the GOP's advantage in the Third Congressional District to give it a great advantage in the First District.
"We took districts that were a 60% Donald Trump performance and a 51% Donald Trump and tried to move those to even districts, towards 55. I think we got them to 56-54," Hise said.
Hise said the new map was drawn between Monday and Thursday last week in a conference room near his Legislative Office Building office.
It is rare for North Carolina lawmakers to draw new maps at times other than the beginning of a decade unless they are directed to do so by a court order.
The existing congressional map, though, is one such exception because the General Assembly chose to draw it after the expiration of a court order that led to the 2022 elections resulting in seven Democrats and seven Republicans among the state's Congressional delegation.
During an exchange with Robinson, Hise said, "This is fully within our Constitutional authority, and we are exercising it. The President can make requests and supports and others, but we're making the choice to move forward."
A racial gerrymander?
North Carolina's First Congressional District is one of two in the state that have, in recent decades, elected Black people to Congress.
That fact played a major role in Monday's debate, with Democrats arguing that the new map will prevent Black voters in Eastern North Carolina from being able to select a Congressman of their choice.
Robinson asked Hise, "Did you consider that you diluted the representation of a Black population in terms of having a representative that is actually a person of their choice?"
Hise insisted that he and others who drew the new map did not consider racial data or implications on different racial groups when they were moving district lines.
"You do know that there are only three Black representatives (from North Carolina) in Congress? Aren't you aware of that?" Robinson asked.
"I'm aware it's a low number," Hise said.
Robinson chuckled and said, "OK. You made it a low number."
The debate about whether the new map has an outsized impact on Black voters is particularly important because it likely offers the only path to a lawsuit challenging the new map.
Both the state and federal Supreme Courts have decided they lack the power to overturn maps that are gerrymandered on a politically partisan basis. But they can decide if a map represents a racial gerrymander.
Hise, for his part, insisted Monday that he is confident the state's new Congressional map would withstand legal challenges.
"We have seen no indication that any part of our maps don't (comply) with federal law," Hise said.
Although the Senate must still approve the map in a third reading, the N.C. House Select Committee on Redistricting is set to take it up Tuesday afternoon.
If the map is approved in the full House, where Republicans hold a wide majority, they will become law barring a legal challenge. Under North Carolina law, Gov. Josh Stein does not have the veto power over redistricting.
