Democrats knew the carnage was coming all year, but the outrage is still palpable: On Oct. 25, the North Carolina General Assembly’s Republican supermajority swiftly approved an aggressive gerrymander designed to transform the state’s current 7D-7R delegation into either a 10R-4D or 11R-3D rout. The three-to-four seat grab is a valuable insurance policy for House Republicans as they attempt to defend a narrow 222-to-213 House majority and offset losses from new maps in Alabama and possibly Georgia, Louisiana and Florida in 2024.
The new map cracks the blue-trending Piedmont Triad into four rural-dominated GOP seats, stretches one seat from the Outer Banks all the way to Fayetteville and packs Democrats into just three safe seats anchored by Raleigh, Durham/Chapel Hill and Charlotte.
The brutal plan — North Carolina’s fifth different map in the past six cycles — leaves Democratic Reps. Kathy Manning (NC-06), Wiley Nickel (NC-13) and Jeff Jackson (NC-14) without viable paths to reelection (Jackson has already launched his campaign for state attorney general). The only remotely competitive seat is the northeastern 1st District, traditionally a Black-opportunity district, where
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