In October 2025 North Carolina's Republican legislature redrew its congressional map with a single target: the 1st district in the rural east, held by Democrat Don Davis. The map swaps counties between the 1st and the neighbouring 3rd. The old 1st was roughly even; the new one voted about 55% to 44% Republican in the 2024 presidential election, an eleven-point tilt. Davis's own home in Snow Hill was drawn out of his district and into the safely Republican 3rd.
The court fight
Challengers asked a federal court to block the new lines for 2026. In November 2025 the court declined, and the map is in force. Davis announced in December that he would run in the redrawn 1st anyway.
How the map does it
This is cracking at its most surgical. The 1st district had held together the Black Belt counties of eastern North Carolina, the state's historic majority-Black region. Trading a few of those counties for Republican ones next door was enough to move the seat. North Carolina's delegation goes from 10-4 to a likely 11-3.
Why it matters
One district, one incumbent, one swap of counties: the cleanest case study of the cycle in how little it takes. North Carolina is also the state whose maps the Supreme Court used, in 2019, to rule that federal courts will not police partisan gerrymandering at all.
Try it yourself
Draw North Carolina for either side and see how many seats the same voters can produce. This is the map the Supreme Court examined in 2019.
Sources
- NBC News: North Carolina can use GOP-drawn congressional map designed to add another Republican House seat, court rules (Nov 2025)
- NC Newsline: Federal court allows Republican-led North Carolina redistricting plan to proceed (26 Nov 2025)
- NCLocal: The North Carolina legislature just changed the voting maps. What happened? (22 Oct 2025)
- Spectrum News: Davis runs for second term despite redistricting (1 Dec 2025)