North Carolina’s new congressional map can be used for the 2026 elections, a panel of federal judges ruled Wednesday — a win for Republicans in a nationally watched case at the center of a nationwide redistricting battle.
President Donald Trump urged Republicans in Texas, North Carolina and other GOP-led states to redraw their districts to help ensure the party will win more U.S. House seats next year, hoping to stave off Democratic efforts to break the GOP’s control of Congress. Democratic voters in California retaliated, voting earlier this month to approve a new congressional map that’s expected to flip several Republican-held seats to the Democratic party.
Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger celebrated the victory Wednesday, which came in a ruling from an all-Republican panel of federal judges.
“As Democrat-run states like California do everything in their power to undermine President Trump’s administration and agenda, North Carolina Republicans went to work to protect the America First agenda,” Berger wrote in a news release.
What’s next
If the challengers in the case appeal, it would head directly to the United States Supreme Court.
A win there wouldn’t necessarily stop all litigation over the map but could at least keep it in place for the 2026 election — when voters will decide whether Republicans continue to control Congress for the final two years of Trump’s time in office, or if Democrats will take back power, giving them the power to launch investigations into Trump and his administration, and block his legislative agenda.
The challengers didn’t immediately announce plans to appeal. But they indicated after an earlier court hearing on the case that if they lost, an appeal would be coming. “We must continue this fight,” said Deborah Dicks Maxwell, president of the state NAACP, one of the groups suing. “And we will take it wherever we can. Because people deserve their constitutional rights.”
After the ruling was published Wednesday, Bob Phillips, the state leader for Common Cause, another group that sued over the maps, indicated more legal action is likely.
“Our fight for fair maps continues, and our fight for voters living in these distorted districts will carry on, with more energy than ever,” Phillips wrote in a statement. “Ultimately, we the people will prevail.”
Political considerations
Democrats had been projected to flip control of the U.S. House before the start of this year’s unprecedented, nationwide redistricting push. The party out of power typically gains seats in midterm elections, and Democrats won’t have to flip too many GOP-held seats to take back control of the House. A majority requires 218 seats, and Republicans currently hold 219.
Republican state lawmakers in North Carolina had already aggressively redistricted the state’s map for partisan gain, passing a map that gave their party 10 of the state’s 14 U.S. House seats in 2024 — 71.4% of the representation — even as only 50.9% of statewide voters supported Trump for president that same year.
The map used in 2024 had only one competitive seat, won by Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis. The new map turns that competitive seat into one that’s expected to elect a Republican in the future, likely giving Republicans 11 of the state’s 14 House seats in next year’s election.
Davis didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.
Legal arguments
The challengers said the unprecedented nature of the national redistricting battles made it especially important for judges to step in and stop it. Otherwise, they said, Republicans and Democrats alike will have a green light to draw new maps before every single election in the future, punishing politicians for votes they took, or their voters for supporting the “wrong” candidate.
“They are saying they will engage in a never-ending game of whack-a-mole to punish voters for dissenting speech,” Hilary Klein, a lawyer for the challengers, told the judges during last week’s court hearing.
She reiterated that argument Wednesday in a statement after the ruling, writing that “if politicians want to keep their majority in any legislative body, our Constitution should require them to do it by earning votes, not by silencing the voices of communities they disagree with after every election.”
The judges were unconvinced, in part because the challenge relied on never-before-used legal arguments to make its case involving the First Amendment and other claims. The ruling didn’t dismiss the lawsuit entirely. But it declined to block the map without a full trial being held first.
“Plaintiffs have not made a clear showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of any of the claims advanced in their preliminary injunction motions,” the judges wrote.
The ruling was signed by judges Allison Rushing, Richard Myers and Thomas Schroeder. Schroeder is a George W. Bush appointee. Rushing and Myers are Trump appointees.
