News: North Carolina Republicans are seriously considering redrawing their House map to net an additional seat in 2026, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations.
The existing Tarheel State map was redrawn last cycle and is already heavily gerrymandered. The GOP can likely only draw out one Democratic incumbent if they want to avoid making the surrounding Republican seats too vulnerable. The delegation currently has 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats.
The most obvious target: Democratic Rep. Don Davis’ eastern North Carolina district that President Donald Trump won by 3 points in 2024. Republican Rep. Greg Murphy could easily give up some GOP voters in his Outer Banks district to Davis.
Republicans could, in theory, also draw a map that shores up Davis and loops Democratic Reps. Deborah Ross and Valerie Foushee into one seat.
North Carolina has had a new congressional map nearly every cycle since 2012, thanks to a never-ending cascade of lawsuits and court rulings. Both parties spent heavily in the state’s Supreme Court races in recent years, hoping to secure a more favorable bench for redistricting cases.
Democrats have lost that battle for now. Five of the seven justices are Republicans.
State Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger said Thursday on X that he was open to a redraw.
“I’ve been watching what’s going on in California with Gavin Newsom trying to steal the Republican majority in Congress,” Berger wrote. “If we have to draw one more map this year, we will.”
Berger also strongly denied a local news report that he was pursuing redistricting in exchange for an endorsement from Trump in his own reelection.
After winning a favorable ruling last cycle from a newly elected state Supreme Court, Republicans drew out former Democratic Reps. Kathy Manning, Wiley Nickel and Jeff Jackson. They made Davis’ seat competitive and packed the other remaining Democratic seats.
A 2026 redraw could only slightly improve upon that. But the White House has been leaning on states to redistrict in a brazen attempt to insulate Republicans from what could be an unfavorable midterm.
The state has a Democratic governor, Josh Stein. But in North Carolina, the governor does not have veto power over congressional maps.
