Gerrymandering Concerns Raised Over New North Carolina Political Maps

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Concerns over gerrymandering are front and center this week in Raleigh.

State lawmakers plan to vote on new maps that could change the make-up of Congress and North Carolina’s state legislature.

“If either of these maps become final, it means I’m toast in Congress,” says Congressman Jeff Jackson, in a Facebook video.

North Carolina’s 14th District Congressman, posting on social media about a proposed redistricting that could push him out of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Both of them draw me out of my district and put me in one that’s totally unwinnable,” Jackson says in the online video.

This week, state lawmakers in Raleigh are voting on new maps, proposed by the Republican-led majority.

One of the maps would change the lines of Congressional districts, helping Republicans in an effort to retain the U.S. House majority in 2024.

“Basically, Republicans are building in a cushion of three extra seats from North Carolina,” explains Catawba College Political Science Professor Dr. Michael Bitzer.

Bitzer says the change could have national implications.

“What we’re seeing right now in our current delegation is an even split – seven Republicans and seven Democrats. The likely hood is that this new Congressional map for example will likely elect 10 Republicans and three Democrats with one kind of lean-Democratic toss up district,” Bitzer says.

Lawmakers are also redrawing lines for State Senate seats like in Senator Natasha Marcus’s district 41.

“So they took my town of Davidson, they literally cut my precinct in half. Put the half that I live in with Iredell County,” Marcus says.

She says she’ll have some tough decisions to make if the new map is approved.

“Some of the choices are to run in a district that is stacked against me from the start, or to move to what will be called the new Senate District 41,” she says.

She thinks the changes are unfair to those who elected her.

“In a Democracy, voters are supposed to be able to choose their representatives and decide whether their Senator goes back for another term, based on good work, or gets unelected,” Marcus says.