NC General Assembly Approves Gerrymandered Congressional Map

The NC General Assembly last week approved a new gerrymandered Congressional district map, eliminating the state’s only competitive district by drawing a Black Democrat out of his seat. Civil rights organizations and voters immediately challenged the move in federal court.

Taking Marching Orders

Acting at the specific instructions of Donald Trump, Republican legislative leaders drew new district lines to make the change, and passed the map on party-line votes in less than a week. Taking advantage of recent court rulings that there is no Constitutional bar to extreme partisan gerrymandering, the map’s backers made no pretense that it represented anything other than raw partisan power politics. Since North Carolina’s state constitution does not allow the governor to veto redistricting legislation, the map became law after both legislative chambers approved it.

The new Congressional map divides a district which has elected a Black Democrat in every election cycle since 1992. Republican claims that the district was not drawn based on racial discrimination ring hollow, said critics, because the mapmakers were well aware of the racially discriminatory effect that their action would have.

Silencing Black Voices, Political Robbery

“You didn’t need to use racial data because every single member of this body knows about the Black population in the northeastern part of this state,” said Rep. Gloristine Brown (D-Pitt). “North Carolina is the testing ground for the new era of Jim Crow laws. You are silencing Black voices and going against the will of your constituents.”

Moving immediately after the map’s adoption, the plaintiffs in a pending federal court challenge to the previous map were allowed to update their challenge to incorporate the latest change. That lawsuit challenges the maps as racially discriminatory. In addition, another legal challenge was announced by other groups and individuals.

Speaking at an event announcing the new lawsuit, Rev. William Barber, founder of Repairers of the Breach, called the redistricting “political robbery.” “It is a boldfaced lie when they say that they don’t know what this is doing to Black voters and poor voters,” he said. “They know exactly what they’re doing. It’s the data that they use to make these decisions.”

Why This Matters for the Environment

The most important thing we can do for the environment is vote. If power-hungry politicians diminish our vote, they diminish our power to create a healthy, equitable environment. Everything we do here at NCLCV depends on a representative democratic system. That’s why we say we need a healthy democracy to have a healthy environment; and that’s why we dedicate so much effort advocating for our democracy.