‘Not going away quietly’: Rep. Wiley Nickel barnstorms state

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Call him a lame duck if you like, but Congressman Wiley Nickel believes that is far from the truth. He is still hoping for agreement in Congress on issues like the southern border, the budget, aid to Ukraine and a more dangerous Russia.

There is also the topic of why Nickel’s first term in the US House is his last in the foreseeable future. Nickel is one of three Democratic North Carolina congressional representatives with no chance of winning after Republicans in the General Assembly redrew the state’s election maps.

“I see first-hand why gerrymandering is just wrecking our democracy. You have less than 10 percent of people in the US House of Representatives who have seats that are competitive. The other 90 percent are virtually guaranteed to come back to congress if they win their Democrat primary or the Republican primary. So there’s so little motivation for people to work,” said Nickel.

Rep. Nickel will spend the months ahead crisscrossing the state arguing for a nationwide redistricting commission.

“So, every single state across the country has independent non-partisan redistricting. And we’re going to even show what that looks like. We’ve got researchers at Duke putting together what independent redistricting would look like for the US Congress in every single state in the country,” he said.

The 2022 race for the 13th congressional district was by far the most competitive in the state and among the topmost competitive in the country. But the new lines make it so noncompetitive that Nickel is not running again. A Republican is all but guaranteed the seat.

“The people that I serve, they want districts like mine. They want people in Congress who are working toward the center to solve our problems and we have fewer and fewer of those seats because of this,” Nickel said.

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