Summary
- NC
Senate president pro tempore denies favoring Trump for endorsement. - Rumors
claim redistricting aids the GOP in competitive Democratic districts. - The
GOP already holds 10 of 14 U.S. House seats in NC.
Due to battles in several additional states, including
California, Texas, Ohio, and Missouri, redistricting during the decennial
process has gained national attention. After the decennial census, North
Carolina typically redraws its maps, which stay in effect for ten years.
State Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, released a statement
saying,
“I’ve been watching what’s going on in California with Gavin Newsom
trying to steal the Republican majority in Congress. We have drawn four
congressional maps in the last six years in redistricting fights with Democrats
because of their sue-until-blue strategy.
If we have to draw one more map this year, we will. That
said, I’ve never spoken to President Trump about this or an endorsement. The
Democrats are spreading lies to hurt President Trump.”
The rallying cry of “stop gerrymandering,”
“voter disenfranchisement,” and occasionally both have been used by
Democrats in litigation battles since Republicans’ dramatic first-in-140-year
takeover of majorities in both chambers of the Legislature in 2010. However,
there have been similar complaints of earlier maps created
by the party over the course of a century.
The 1st Congressional District and Berger’s Senate seat are
at issue in this dispute.
In 2024, U.S. Representative Don Davis (D-N.C. beat
Republican Laurie Buckhout 49.5%-47.8%, with a mere 6,307 vote difference out of
nearly 376,000. It was the most competitive of 14 congressional races in the
state of North Carolina every other congressperson was decided by 13% or
more.
Berger has been in the Senate since 2000, and he became a
party leader in 2004. He has been on a clear path toward the longest-serving
state Senate leader in the country since the unprecedented 2010 cycle. In 2026,
he will likely face the toughest opponent he’s ever faced popular Rockingham
County Sheriff Sam Page.
In his commentary on the most recent controversy, Page
claimed to have heard that, in connection with an endorsement,
“Berger’s
team has been puffing out their chests and bragging they have President Donald
J. Trump over a barrel.”
He further wrote that if Trump
“wants those maps
redrawn, that should come with no strings attached – but I guess Phil Berger
doesn’t think so.”
What legal risks would redrawing Don Davis’s district pose?
Any division of a district must not undermine the voting
strength of minority communities. The 1st Congressional District which Davis
represents has a majority of Black constituents, thus a change may also be
challenged in court for diluting Black voters’ ability to elect their preferred
candidates which violates federal law.
Courts have routinely invalidated plans that incorporate the
splitting or packing of racial communities for electoral purposes. If Davis’s
district is redrawn in a way that appears to racially discriminate against its
majority Black constituency, it risks considerable and inevitable costs
associated with lawsuits.
District maps must be drawn based on equal populations,
respecting communities of interest with the risk of extreme partisanship
arguably amounting to unconstitutional gerrymandering.
