ks-NC-REDISTRICTING // Judges allow Republican-drawn North Carolina congressional map to take effect for 2026

Kyle Ingram, The News & Observer on Nov 26, 2025

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RALEIGH, N.C. — A panel of federal judges on Wednesday rejected an effort to prevent North Carolina’s new Republican-favoring congressional map from taking effect before the midterm elections.

The challengers had claimed the map illegally retaliated against voters in the northeastern part of the state for electing a Democrat in 2024.

The three judges — all of whom were appointed by Republican presidents — sided with Republican lawmakers in a unanimous 57-page order.

Any appeal of the ruling will go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, which last weekend temporarily ruled in Texas Republicans’ favor in a case challenging their own redistricting plan.

The lawsuit was filed just a month ago by a collection of advocacy groups after state lawmakers enacted a Trump-backed plan to pick up another congressional seat for Republicans in the 2026 midterms.

Speaking at a hearing last week, plaintiffs’ attorney Hilary Klein said the map represented an “unprecedented escalation of picking up the pen just to harm voters.”

Plaintiffs also challenged the map as a racial gerrymander, noting that it significantly undercuts the influence of Black voters in an area they have historically dominated.

The new map targets the 1st congressional district, which is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Don Davis and encompasses the state’s portion of the South’s historic “Black Belt.” The newly drawn district has a markedly lower racial-minority population and is more favorable toward Republicans.

Attorneys for legislative leaders, who are defendants in the case, repeatedly claimed that lawmakers did not use racial data when crafting the map.

The lawsuit in question built on an existing case against the electoral maps used in the 2024 election.

Those legislative and congressional maps were also challenged as racial gerrymanders, but the same panel of judges from Wednesday’s decision dismissed that lawsuit last week.

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