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The Republican-controlled North Carolina House on Wednesday approved a new congressional map expected to give the GOP an additional U.S. House seat in the 2026 midterm elections, one day after the plan cleared the state Senate.
The measure passed the House along party lines, 66-48, with Democrats denouncing the redistricting effort as partisan gerrymandering, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. The current congressional delegation includes 10 Republicans and four Democrats. Under the new boundaries, analysts project an 11–3 split favoring Republicans.
Because state law bars the governor from vetoing redistricting legislation, Democratic Gov. Josh Stein has no authority to block the new map. The plan will take effect once finalized, pending any court challenges.
President Donald Trump has urged Republican-led legislatures to adopt maps favorable to the GOP ahead of next year’s elections. North Carolina House Majority Leader Brenden Jones called the passage a win for conservatives.
“It’s a fact that we will send one more Republican to Congress from this great state,” Jones said, adding that Democrats’ criticism was misplaced. “You can be mad about redistricting all you want, but you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself, what got us here?”
The map is expected to significantly alter the district of Democratic Rep. Don Davis, whose territory will shift from one that the president carried by three percentage points in 2024 to one that backed him by 11 points.
Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger defended the new boundaries, saying they “respect the will of the North Carolina voters who sent President Trump to the White House three times.”
North Carolina joins Texas and Missouri in approving new congressional maps expected to benefit Republicans in the 2026 midterms. Several other GOP-led states, such as Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska and Louisiana, are considering similar redistricting efforts.
Democrat-controlled states such as California, New York and Illinois are pursuing their own new maps likely to strengthen Democratic representation. After Texas adopted a map projected to add five Republican seats, California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged voters to support a November ballot initiative aimed at redrawing his state’s districts in favor of Democrats.