Republican lawmakers in North Carolina announced plans Monday to redraw the state’s already gerrymandered congressional maps to further favor their party. It’s the latest effort to help the Trump administration retain control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections next year.
Phil Berger, the state Senate leader, and Destin Hall, the speaker of the state House of Representatives, said in a joint statement that they would hold votes next week on the rare mid-decade redistricting effort. Republicans control the Legislature, and Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, cannot veto redistricting plans, per the state constitution.
Republicans already control 10 of the state’s 14 congressional seats. Hall said in the statement that Republican lawmakers would seek to secure one more seat, though he did not specify where. The most likely target is the 1st Congressional District, the state’s only competitive House seat, which is currently held by Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat.
The proposed redrawing in North Carolina comes as the Trump administration has pushed Republican-led states to redraw House district maps to strengthen his party’s majority in the chamber before the midterm elections. That effort took off over the summer in Texas, at the urging of Gov. Greg Abbott. Lawmakers there approved a map that could give Republicans up to five more seats in the U.S. House.
In response to Texas’ actions, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, pressed his state’s Legislature to approve a new map that could flip as many as five Republican-held House seats to Democrats. That map will require the approval of California voters in November.
Since then, other states, including Missouri and Indiana, have either taken part in gerrymandering or threatened to do so before 2026.
A fight over congressional maps is nothing new in North Carolina, a politically divided swing state where the governor’s mansion has long been occupied by Democrats, even as Republicans have controlled the General Assembly since 2011. But the Republicans’ near-total control of the Legislature has made them the dominant political force in the state.
That power allowed them to pass a heavily gerrymandered map in 2023 that created 10 solidly Republican districts, three solidly Democratic districts and one competitive district. The previous map had seven seats for each party.
On Monday, Berger defended the new redistricting effort as a way to “protect President Trump’s agenda, which means safeguarding Republican control of Congress.”
The timing of Berger’s willingness to engage in redistricting has raised eyebrows in the state. He is in a contentious and possibly close primary race against a popular sheriff, Sam Page. Berger has denied claims that the redistricting plans are part of a deal to secure President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Stein denounced the redistricting move, saying in a statement Monday that “the General Assembly works for North Carolina, not Donald Trump.”
“The Republican leadership in the General Assembly has failed to pass a budget, failed to pay our teachers and law enforcement what they deserve, and failed to fully fund Medicaid,” he said. “Now they are failing you, the voters. These shameless politicians are abusing their power to take away yours.”
State Rep. Phil Rubin, a Democrat, said in a separate statement that “Republicans are terrified of a system where voters matter.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2025 The New York Times Company