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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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The Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature has garnered criticism after passing a congressional map that could improve their party's chances of picking up U.S. House seats in next year's elections.
The Senate Redistricting and Elections Committee approved a new map that divides up the state's 15 congressional districts. It favors Republicans in 10 of the state's 14 House seats. Three seats favor Democrats, and one would be competitive for both parties.
North Carolina currently has a delegation split 7-7 between Democrats and Republicans after a Democrat-led court ordered that a specific map was used in the 2022 elections against partisan gerrymandering, which they ruled violated the state constitution.
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Newsweek reached out to the Republican Party for comment.
State-level gains in the 2022 elections for the North Carolina Supreme Court itself gave the GOP more influence. They flipped the court and tossed out the ruling, meaning it would no longer litigate partisan gerrymandering, making the map changes possible.
The North Carolina Democrats whose seats are now at risk are Representatives Jeff Jackson, Wiley Nickel, and Kathy Manning. Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, does not have the power to veto the changes.
Reacting to the news, Jackson called the decision "a brutal gerrymander" on X, formerly Twitter, and said he was "probably toast" in the next election.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who leads the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said that North Carolina "is now one the most egregiously gerrymandered states in the country."
Nickel said in a statement that he would not announce a re-election bid "in any of these gerrymandered districts" and would only make a decision about seeking elected office "once the courts have spoken."
During a demonstration outside the state Capitol on Wednesday, Karen Zeigler, lead organizer for Democracy Out Loud, said: "These proposed maps further destroy the guardrails of democracy."
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Also speaking at the demonstration, Kyle Brazile, the director of civic engagement at the NC Counts Coalition, called the changes in the map "a clear instance of discrimination."
"This is minority rule fighting to preserve a political gerrymander on the back of Black communities, poor communities and rural communities," Brazile said.
Democratic state Representative Allison Dahle said: "It just feels to me that we are trying to get rid of three Democrats to get more Republican folks in Congress. I kind of feel like the people of North Carolina are getting shafted."
GOP state Representative Destin Hall, one of the lawmakers who oversaw the redistricting process, admitted the changes benefitted Republicans. "There's no doubt that the congressional map that is before you today has a lean towards Republicans," he said. But he insisted that "it doesn't preordain any type of outcome."
During a committee debate, Republican state Senator Ralph Hise defended the state's map. Hise said the movement of the Black population out of the district represented a less than 1 percentage point change.
Hise said the movement of "such a small amount" of the Black voting-age population would not affect the map's legality under the Voting Rights Act.
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