New NC congressional districts challenged in federal court on racial bias claims

RALEIGH. N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Black and Latino voters sued in federal court on Monday seeking to strike down congressional districts drawn this fall by Republican state legislators that they argue weaken minority voting power in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in central North Carolina challenges four districts where the plaintiffs contend GOP leaders in charge of the General Assembly moved around groups of voters and minimized the voting strength of minorities, thereby strengthening “the state’s white majority.” They also want a new map adopted.

The map enacted in October puts Republicans in good shape to win at least 10 of the state’s 14 congressional seats next November. Under the iteration of the congressional map that had been drawn by state judges for the 2022 elections, Democrats and Republicans each won seven seats. The shift could help Republicans on Capitol Hill retain control of the U.S. House.

“North Carolina’s minority populations have long suffered from voting discrimination and vote dilution and as a result have endured persistent disparities in political representation,” the lawsuit reads, adding that “the state’s newly enacted congressional redistricting plan exacerbates these issues.”

The lawsuit filed by 18 individuals challenging the 1st, 6th, 12th and 14th Congressional Districts as racial gerrymanders was filed the same day that candidate filing began for those seats and other positions on the ballot in 2024. The 1st District, covering many rural, northeastern districts, and the

Charlotte-area 12th District are currently represented by Black Democrats.

While the plaintiffs seek to prevent the state’s full congressional map from being used in elections, their filings don’t immediately seek a temporary restraining order preventing their use in 2024. Candidate filing ends Dec. 15 for the March 5 primaries.

State House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican and one of several lawsuit defendants, said the lawsuit contains “baseless allegations” and is a “desperate attempt to throw chaos into North Carolina’s elections, on the first day of candidate filing no less. We are fully confident that these maps are going to be used in this election and every election this decade.”

The lawsuit contends that minority voters were harmed by the new Greensboro-area 6th District because they were removed from the previous 6th District and distributed to surrounding districts, which appear to be heavily Republican. This weakened their voting strength, the lawsuit said.

Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning is the current 6th District member. The new 6th District is now considered a GOP-leaning district.

Republican mapmakers also unlawfully diluted the voting strength of minority voters in the 1st District by removing from the district reasonably compact minority communities in Pitt County, the lawsuit said. Democratic Rep. Don Davis is the current 1st District lawmaker.

Looking at Charlotte and points west along the South Carolina border, the lawsuit alleges that Republican leaders removed minority voters out of the 14th District and into the adjoining 12th District so that the 14th was no longer a district where white voters could join up with minority voters to elect their preferred candidate. Meanwhile, the number of minority voters grows in the 12th, which is represented by Democratic Rep. Alma Adams of Charlotte.

The current 14th District member, Mecklenburg County Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson, previously announced that he’s running for state attorney general. Moore, the House speaker, is now running for the 14th District seat.