Republicans release new NC maps for 2024 likely to expand GOP power in Congress
North Carolina Republicans released a slate of proposed electoral maps on Wednesday, aiming to reshape congressional and legislative districts under new precedent from the state Supreme Court, which ruled to limit its own power to decide on claims of partisan gerrymandering.
Legislators unexpectedly filed two different options for the state’s congressional maps without saying which would be voted on. Both maps appear to give Republicans a far greater advantage than the current districts, which were drawn by court order in 2022 following a gerrymandering trial.
Republican leaders have said they will allow amendments to be proposed to the maps, but if the party is united they can use their supermajority to pass all new maps without Democratic support. The governor, currently Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, has no role in redistricting.
House and Senate redistricting committees plan to discuss the new maps on Thursday but will not take votes. The Senate’s agenda included both congressional maps for consideration.
Shortly after maps were released, House Democratic leader Robert Reives released a statement denouncing Republicans not drawing the maps in a public process.
“Democrats are seeing these maps at the same time as the public and the press,” he said. “This secretive process has shut out real, meaningful input from the minority party, stakeholders and most importantly the public. We are reviewing these maps in real time and will no doubt find them to be partisan gerrymanders that violate the rights of minority voters in North Carolina.”
Republican-created maps have been struck down several times by courts — just as Democratic-drawn maps were before the GOP gained power — which have ruled that the districts gave the GOP an unconstitutional advantage in elections. In 2022, after judges struck down two maps from the legislature, they appointed a bipartisan group of “special masters” to draw the congressional map.
These new districts ended up electing seven Republicans and seven Democrats to the U.S. House. However, a court-drawn map can only be used for one election, and the new maps are unlikely to result in the same breakdown.
After the GOP swept statewide judicial races in 2022, the state Supreme Court’s new Republican majority reversed the court’s previous gerrymandering decision, ruling that the court has no jurisdiction over claims of partisan gerrymandering.
That ruling also allowed the General Assembly to draw new legislative maps as well, instead of automatically adopting the ones that had been struck down by an earlier court decision.
Congressional maps
Republicans filed two bills with options for congressional maps.
Analyzing data from previous elections, it appears that one of the options, SB 756, could give Republicans an 11-3 advantage while the other, SB 757, could give them a 10-4 breakdown, though one of the Democratic districts would be very competitive.
