NC organization fighting for independent redistricting commission amid GOP push for new congressional map

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — North Carolina’s congressional maps could be changing — again.

State Republicans will consider a redrawing of district lines next week — for the sixth time since 2010.

“North Carolina has done it more frequently than most other states, in part because the courts have consistently found that our legislature gets too cute in trying to draw the lines in ways that advantage the party in power,” said UNC Charlotte Political Science professor Eric Heberlig.

MORE | Supreme Court case could impact NC’s new congressional map

The state’s GOP-controlled General Assembly last changed the map two years ago, giving its party’s 2024 candidates the edge in 10 of the state’s 14 U.S. House districts.

The previous map used in 2022 gave both parties an even 7-7 split. The latest redistricting push could give the Republicans an 11th seat — one in eastern North Carolina currently held by a Democrat.

In a statement, a North Carolina Republican Party spokesperson says, “We commend our state legislative leaders stepping into the fray to stop Gavin Newsom and California democrats from rigging the midterm elections against President Trump. North Carolinians have made it clear they support President Trump’s America First agenda.”

“It should not be common. Redistricting is typically done every ten years after the U.S. census,” Dr. Heberlig explained. “And the census has determined that people have moved around within the state, and we have to have even numbers of people within each congressional district and each state legislative district, so they redraw the line to make sure that people are equally represented.”

Robert Dawkins with Action NC offers an alternative.

“Republicans are doing it, and it’s bad. Democrats did it, too. What we need is independent redistricting, and that is the solution,” Dawkins said. “We need for people to be pushing the Democrats and the Republicans because it’s not fair that every time you think that you’re in a district and getting representation for people to come in, surgically, come down streets and separate neighborhoods, in the middle of streets where people have in-kind relational districts for their majority.”

“An even number of democrats and republicans with a few independent or unaffiliated representatives as the tiebreaker, as a way to take the power out of the hands of the state legislature, where the incumbents are drawing lines and could have the potential to draw lines for the purpose of benefiting themselves or their party,” Dr. Heberlig explained. 

Currently, seven states have independent citizen-redistricting commissions, according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Dr. Heberlig says the downside of that is finding true independents and figuring out how citizens get on the commission. While the commission is supposed to make elections more competitive and neutral, Heberlig says it’s not always guaranteed.

“Fighting is what we do, and we’re hoping that people here will fight. General Assembly elections are coming up soon as we get this done, the attention of municipal elections and elections come up now for folks in the General Assembly. Our bad problem is in Charlotte, pretty much mainly a Democratic district; they all agree with us. But around the state, we need to be getting people applying pressure to the General Assembly, saying that they want to stop it, they want independent redistricting and not partisan redistricting,” Dawkins said.