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Civil rights leaders and Democrats are calling attention to a new congressional map passed by North Carolina Republicans that is set to weaken Black political representation, per theGrio.
The newly approved map reshapes North Carolina's 1st Congressional District, a seat currently held by Rep. Don Davis, the state's only Black member of Congress. The change shifts the district, largely made up of rural Black voters, from competitively Democratic to nearly unwinnable for the party. Residents in the district have elected a Black Democrat since 1992.
“We’ve seen this pattern before. It’s what I call surgical racism with surgical precision — the use of redistricting and voting laws to divide, diminish, and deny,” civil rights leader Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, said. “When you steal people’s representation, you steal their healthcare, their wages, and their future.”
Barber vowed to challenge the map “in the courts, in the streets, and at the ballot box,” calling it “our Edmund Pettus Bridge moment,” a reference to the 1965 Selma voting rights marches.
Davis, who was first elected to Congress in 2022, called the new map “one of the darkest moments in our state’s history” and “morally wrong on all fronts.”
“While families in eastern North Carolina face real struggles and concerns, our state has prioritized passing a new congressional map that affects only our region — with the intention of predetermining the outcome of an election 377 days away,” Davis said in a statement.
Davis also criticized Republicans for limiting opportunities for public input, noting that residents were given only one minute to speak at hearings and that the map was released just a week before its passage.
“They offered limited public participation by those affected and ignored the voices of those who did participate,” Davis said. “Still, I remain committed to ensuring every voice in eastern North Carolina is heard, no matter how the lines are drawn.”
The North Carolina map follows similar moves in Texas, where a mid-decade redistricting gave Republicans an advantage in several majority-Black and Latino districts. Trump has publicly urged GOP-controlled states to redraw maps to secure congressional control ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The Texas map is facing a federal lawsuit alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act, which bars racial discrimination in voting. A pending Supreme Court case, Louisiana v. Callais, could further weaken the landmark law and pave the way for more aggressive partisan gerrymandering.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin accused North Carolina Republicans of “bending the knee to Donald Trump.”
“Trump rigged North Carolina’s map even further because he knows his disastrous first year will cost him the 2026 midterm elections,” Martin said. “Democrats won’t stop fighting Trump’s attempts to cheat because every North Carolinian deserves fair representation.”
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