Judges are allowing North Carolina to use a redrawn map in an effort to give Republicans another seat in the U.S. House of Representatives

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A three-judge federal panel on Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed at flipping a seat to Republicans as part of President Donald Trump’s multi-state redistricting drive ahead of the 2026 election.

The new map targets North Carolina’s only swing seat, currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis, an African American who represents more than 20 counties in the state’s northeast. The 1st District has been represented by black members of Congress continuously for more than 30 years.

The three-judge panel denied requests for a preliminary injunction after a hearing in Winston-Salem in mid-November. The day after the hearing, the same justices separately upheld several redrawn U.S. House districts that GOP state lawmakers initially enacted in 2023. They were used for the first time in the 2024 election, contributing to Republicans gaining three more seats in Congress.

North Carolina is one of several states this year where Trump broke with more than a century of political tradition in directing the GOP to redraw the maps mid-decade — without the courts requiring it — to avoid losing control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections.

Read more: The battle to redraw the maps of the US House of Representatives is spreading. This is where things are in Missouri and other states

Democrats need to win just three seats to win control of the House of Representatives and block Trump’s agenda. Besides North Carolina, Republican-led legislatures or commissions in Texas, Missouri and Ohio have adopted new districts designed to boost Republicans’ chances in next year’s elections.

In California, voters responded by adopting new districts designed to improve Democrats’ chances of winning more seats. The Democratic-led Virginia General Assembly also took a step toward redistricting through a proposed constitutional amendment.

So far, several lower courts have blocked Trump’s initiatives, but the conservative majority on the US Supreme Court has put those rulings on hold. This includes the recent ruling in Texas, where a redrawn US House map is designed to give Republicans five additional House seats.

North Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly gave final approval on October 22 to changes that could help maintain a slim Republican majority in the US House of Representatives. Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s approval was not necessary.

North Carolina Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger said in a statement that the decision “thwarts the latest attempt by the radical left to circumvent the will of the people” in the state that voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

“While Democratic-run states like California are doing everything they can to undermine President Trump’s administration and his agenda, North Carolina Republicans have gone to work protecting the America First agenda,” Berger said.

The ruling includes two lawsuits.

In the lawsuit brought by the state NAACP, Common Cause and Voters, the plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction on First Amendment grounds. They say Republican lawmakers unconstitutionally targeted North Carolina’s “Black Belt” rather than Democratic voting districts with larger white populations because in 2024 they organized and voted for their preferred candidates and are suing over the district’s 2023 makeup.

In the second suit, brought by voters, the preliminary injunction case was based in part on an argument that the use of five-year-old census data due to mid-decade redrawing of districts violates the Constitution, including the 14th Amendment’s one-person-one-vote guarantee. Additionally, it says lawmakers relied on race in drawing the maps in violation of the First and 14th Amendments.

Lawyers for Republican lawmakers defending the districts wrote that the goals of redrawing the map were political and permissible, not racial, and were part of a “nationwide partisan arms race for redistricting.” They rejected assertions about years-old census data and retaliation for activities protected by the First Amendment, saying they were inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent.

Read more: Why Trump’s plan to help the GOP control the House could backfire

Republicans now hold 10 of the state’s 14 House seats — thanks to the 2023 map — and are hoping to flip the 11th under recent redistricting changes to the 1st District and the adjacent 3rd District. The effort occurred in a state where Trump received 51% of the popular vote in 2024, and statewide elections are often close. Filing of candidates in these and dozens of other 2026 North Carolina races is scheduled to begin Dec. 1.

The lawsuit challenging the October changes to the map said the Republican-approved boundaries would result in the number of black voting-age residents in the 1st District falling from 40% in the 2023 map to 32%.

Republicans partly moved counties in the 1st District with large black populations — and typically very Democratic — to the 3rd District currently represented by Republican Greg Murphy. Recent election results indicate that both the first and third elections will favor Republicans.

Many of the same plaintiffs who challenged the newly amended 1st District had previously sued over the House map enacted in 2023, alleging that Republicans illegally divided and corralled Black voters to dilute their voting power.

But the judges — all nominated by GOP chairs — recently dismissed claims against five other congressional districts and three legislative districts, saying those who sued failed to prove that lawmakers drew the maps “with the discriminatory purpose of reducing or eliminating the ability to vote for blacks in North Carolina.”

Mathis reported from Nashville, Tennessee.