'Been thinking about - precedents''

The latest maneuver by the 2025 North Carolina General Assembly, adopting a new Congressional district for North Carolina’s delegation to the 2027 U.S. House of Representatives has established a new precedent. I can only go back as far as 1980 as that was when my career in elected politics began. Before then, I am told, the politics of congressional redistricting had been in the hands of Democratically controlled General Assemblies for generations without serious interference from the few Republicans who served in any Assembly. Every ten years, in Assemblies that convened in a year ending with a "1", the House and Senate members drew district lines to protect those who wanted to seek reelection, fiddled around with some lines around major urban areas, and gerrymandered the Republicans. Our major newspapers and television stations leaned Democratic so most folks were content with whatever lines were drawn for our U.S. House Representatives.

In 1979, when I organized my first N.C. House campaign, redistricting at any level was not even considered among my campaign issues or talking points. I ran for one of four seats in the 7th House District that encompassed all of Edgecombe, Nash and Wilson Counties-no county line was crossed. There was no Republican opposition to any of those four seats so, when I won the Democratic Primary, I was guaranteed a victory in the November general election. Congressman L.H. Fountain represented all three of my counties in his Second Congressional District and there was no communication between him and me about redistricting…none…not one word!

The 1981 General Assembly opened the gate for the mess we have today. The redistricting by that Assembly allowed all county lines to be ignored, eliminated multi-member districts, and required some districts to be gerrymandered to ensure election of Black candidates. Race was the issue in lawsuits over redistricting in my new, single member, 8th House District. After two years of litigation, I was reelected in a special election. There were three, new redistricting precedents: Race, Boundaries and Frequency.

The 1991 General Assembly was still controlled by Democrats and redistricting was consumed by race and gerrymandering. All three district maps, State House, State Senate and Congressional, were convoluted in the most partisan way that could survive judicial review. My district was now the 71st House District that contained parts of Edgecombe, Nash, Pitt and Wilson Counties.

Since I was defeated in the 1994 primary election, I only know about subsequent decennial  redistricting from media reporting but the race and boundary issues seemed to dominate. These redistricting efforts were led by Republican majorities in both North Carolina Houses and were skewed to favor Republicans in the Congressional races. As usual, plans were drawn, there were partisan objections,  courts intervened, plans were redrawn, courts approved, and elections were held.

Now a new precedent has been introduced. For the first time in over one hundred years, our General Assembly has established a precedent for redistricting the Congressional map after only four years. Now, there will be primary and general elections in some areas in 2026 that are different from those in 2022. Unless there is action by a U.S. Congress, each North Carolina General Assembly could redraw the next election’s  Congressional map. This would not affect our election cycles because we are required to hold elections every two years for our Assembly and our Representative and Senate districts shall remain unaltered until the return of another decennial census. The question is: after the congressional election in 2026, will the North Carolina 2027 General Assembly redistrict the 2028 Congressional map? The precedent has been set!