Two years ago in North Carolina, like Texas a state trending demographically towards Democrats, Republican judges and lawmakers successfully threw out a fair electoral map.
The result: three Democrats were forced out of Congress.
The previous court-ordered plan, enacted in 2022, resulted in a North Carolina congressional delegation that included seven Republicans and seven Democrats, accurately reflecting a divided state where voters have elected Democrats for governor and attorney general since 2016.
But Republicans have tightened their grip on the legislature since taking control in 2011, now holding a veto-proof supermajority in the Senate and a firm, if not total, control of the House. In 2023, after the Republican-friendly state Supreme Court restored legislative control over redistricting, GOP lawmakers created a new map. The result: 10 Republicans and four Democrats representing the Tar Heel State in Washington.
“They took three districts that in 2022 were considered toss-up districts with Democratic incumbents, and not a single Democratic incumbent filed for reelection,” said Robert Orr, a retired North Carolina Supreme Court associate justice who now serves as counsel in a lawsuit challenging the districts in state court.
“In the next election, there wasn’t a serious Democratic contender in all three districts, and in one district, there wasn’t a Democratic contender at all.
“Is that a fair election?”
A former Republican, Orr changed his registration to unaffiliated after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
“I would say it’s not a fair election any time government is influencing or rigging the election,” Orr told Raw Story. “That violates our Constitutional rights, as citizens and voters.”
Tom Ross, a former leader of the University of North Carolina System, is a registered Democrat and a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Under the 2023 redistricting plan, Ross’s home, in the northern suburbs of Charlotte, was drawn out of the 12th Congressional District represented by Democrat Alma Adams.
“If you’re looking at the national picture, that was a … three-seat switch that allowed Republicans to expand their majority by six seats,” Ross told Raw Story.
“In the U.S. House, which is closely divided, it was a huge impact nationally.”
In January 2025, when the 119th Congress was seated, Republicans held a 220-215 majority. The gap has widened since, with the deaths of Sylvester Turner (D-TX), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA), and the resignation of Mark Green (R-TN).
Ross now lives in North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District. In 2024, its Democratic representative, Jeff Jackson, ran for state attorney general and won by almost three points. Jackson’s old district is now represented by Tim Moore — the Republican former state House speaker who was involved in approving the new electoral map.
Ross acknowledged that under any plan, some districts will lean Republican or Democratic. But he said the 2022 plan was more competitive than the one that replaced it.
“It’s only in those districts that all voters are in play that politicians have to voice positions that aren’t going to alienate a large segment of voters,” Ross said.
“I also think you get people who are more moderate and able to compromise. That’s one of the biggest concerns, is that you have these elections where the winners are determined in the party primary. The winners are the ones who have been pushed to the extreme.”
‘Winners and losers’
Ross and Orr declined to comment on the quality of the new Republican members relative to the Democrats they replaced in the North Carolina delegation, insisting their only interest is fairness to voters.
But some characteristics stand out — of both the former representatives who were pushed aside and their Washington successors.
From 2021 to 2025, Democrat Kathy Manning, the first and only Jew to represent North Carolina in Congress, represented the Sixth Congressional District — anchored by Greensboro, the state’s third-largest city.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) leads an anti-redistricting protest in Austin, Texas. REUTERS/Nuri Vallbona
Manning won her seat after leading fundraising for the city’s performing arts center and chairing the Jewish Federations of North America. In Congress, she was a staunch supporter of Israel, meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and sponsored bills to combat antisemitism and protect the right to contraception.
The new Sixth District, which incorporates a chunk of Greensboro and stretches almost 75 miles southwest to the Charlotte suburbs, to take in Republican areas, is represented by Addison McDowell, a 31-year-old former lobbyist endorsed by Donald Trump.
McDowell, who lives in rural Davie County, is focused on securing the U.S.-Mexico border to stem the flow of fentanyl. He often speaks about being motivated by his younger brother’s death as a result of an overdose. His legislative initiatives include improving oversight over opioid grant spending and ending mass immigration parole.
To the east, the redrawn 13th District forced out the Democrat Wiley Nickel, a member of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition who worked in the Obama White House. This year, Nickel mounted a campaign for U.S. Senate, only to withdraw in July, when former Gov. Roy Cooper entered the Democratic race.
Brad Knott, Nickel’s Republican replacement in Congress, is a former federal prosecutor who also received Trump’s endorsement. Knott is focused on enhancing criminal penalties to discourage unauthorized immigration.
The North Carolina Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Harper v. Hall, which made it possible for Republicans to flip three seats, was itself the result of a partisan election. In 2022, Republicans flipped two seats on the court, gaining a 5-2 majority. The court then vacated a decision made when Democrats held control, 4-3.
“Choosing political winners and losers creates a perception that courts are another political branch,” the Republican majority wrote in the 2023 decision that gave the General Assembly unfettered power to pursue maximally partisan redistricting.
“The people did not intend their courts to serve as the public square for policy debates and political decisions. Instead, the people act and decide policy matters through their representatives in the General Assembly. We are designed to be a government of the people, not of the judges.
“This case is not about partisan politics but rather about realigning the proper roles of the judicial and legislative branches. Today, we begin to correct course, returning the judiciary to its designated lane.”
Associate Justice Anita Earls, a former civil rights lawyer in the Clinton Justice Department, penned a searing dissent, calling the majority opinion a “shameful manipulation of fundamental principles of our democracy and the rule of law.”
“I look forward to the day when commitment to the constitutional principles of free elections and equal protection of the laws are upheld and the abuses committed by the majority are recognized for what they are, permanently relegating them to the annals of this court’s darkest moments.
“I have no doubt that day will come.”
