GOP Gerrymandering in NC “Tipped the Scales” of Congress, Outgoing Lawmaker Says

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Voting Wrongs

Outgoing North Carolina Rep. Wiley Nickel (D) penned an op-ed this week blaming Republican gerrymandering in the state for the lopsided outcome of North Carolina’s congressional races and for tipping the scales of Congress as a whole in favor of the GOP.

In an op-ed for The Raleigh News & Observer, Nickel noted that the result of the presidential election in North Carolina— and the results of other races in the state— showed close to a 50-50 split, representative of the “purple” status North Carolina is known for. However, because of Republican gerrymandering last year, the congressional delegation leaned Republican, with a 10-4 split.

That six-seat difference is wider than the five-seat advantage that Republicans have over Democrats in the House of Representatives. Had the delegation had an even 7-7 split (as it has under fairer maps), control of the House of Representatives would have been granted to Democrats, not Republicans, as that chamber of Congress is set to have 220 seats for the GOP and 215 seats for Democrats.

“The congressional map we used to have, with a 7-7 Republican-Democratic split, reflected the true political makeup of our state,” Nickel wrote. “It was fair. It gave voters on both sides confidence that their voices mattered.”

“It doesn’t take a mathematician to see…that gerrymandering in North Carolina tipped the scales in their favor and cost Democrats control of the U.S. House of Representatives,” Nickel said, adding that “New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries would be our next Speaker of the House with a one-seat Democratic majority at 218-217” had North Carolina’s congressional delegation been truly representative of voters’ preferences.

“This wasn’t an accident. This was by design. … The MAGA Republicans in Raleigh who drew these maps didn’t care about reflecting the will of the people,” Nickel opined. “They cared about power.”

North Carolina Republicans were able to redraw the maps in their favor after winning control of the state legislature in 2020. But the maps they drew were determined to be partisan and racially discriminatory gerrymanders by the state Supreme Court, and they were ordered to redraw them. Republicans sued over that decision to the federal Supreme Court.

Eventually, that court, too, ruled against them, but the delay allowed for statewide elections to shift the balance of the state Supreme Court to conservative control. Republicans relitigated their maps to that changed court, which ruled in their favor, allowing the maps to be drawn to their advantage.

Despite the outcome in his home state, Nickel said he’s not giving up, and will continue to fight against “extreme, partisan gerrymandering” in the future.

“The people of North Carolina and across the country deserve better. They deserve fair maps, a fair system, and a democracy they can trust,” Nickel said. “It’s time to end gerrymandering once and for all.”

Partisan gerrymandering wasn’t just a factor in North Carolina’s election. In Wisconsin, for example, the congressional delegation that will be sent to Washington in January has a 6-2 split favoring Republicans over Democrats, despite that state seeing a near-even split in terms of the presidential race.

Like North Carolina, Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court also issued a ruling against Republicans’ partisan-drawn maps, made possible by a shift in the ideological balance of the state Supreme Court in 2023. However, that ruling only affected the state legislature, and not congressional districts.

The changing of one set of maps and the leaving in place of another exemplifies how partisan Republicans’ maps truly were — while Wisconsin’s congressional delegation is lopsided, there was a more balanced outcome for the state legislature in the 2024 elections, with Republicans in the legislature going from having a 29-seat majority to just a nine-seat advantage in the 99-seat Assembly.