Former U.S. Rep. Eva Clayton, a North Carolina Democrat, blasted the new Republican-led congressional map that would significantly alter the northeast district she represented for more than a decade. "No court has ordered this," she said. "It's a power grab." (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)
As North Carolina lawmakers continued to advance a new congressional map Tuesday that would flip control of a northeastern swing district to favor Republicans, a former occupant of that seat visited the legislature to denounce the plan.
“You’ve done a disservice to my own people,” former U.S. Rep. Eva Clayton, who represented the district from 1992 until 2003, said in a news conference. “As well as politically. You’ve taken away the political power of minorities and rural people.”
Republicans returned to Raleigh this week to swiftly push through a new map at the urging of President Donald Trump. The latest of several states to be drawn into mid-decade redistricting, North Carolina would likely send 11 Republicans and three Democrats to Washington under the plan.
Senators gave the map final approval in a vote Tuesday morning. It now moves through the House, which is expected to vote on the floor tomorrow. Redistricting plans are not subject to veto, meaning Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, cannot stop it from taking effect.
Opponents, meanwhile, have been frank in their criticism of the map, arguing that it undermines the voting power of the state’s rural Black voters in the northeast 1st Congressional District — who for decades have been represented by Black lawmakers.
That includes Clayton, who in 1992 became the first Black person elected to the U.S. House from North Carolina since George Henry White in the late 19th century. Clayton and her successors — the late Frank Ballance, G.K. Butterfield and U.S. Rep. Don Davis — have all been Black Democrats.
Clayton, in comments to reporters Tuesday, called the new map a “power grab” that would displace a congressman “sensitive to the needs” of northeast North Carolina. The 1st district’s existing boundaries and demographics, she said, required her and her successors to pay close attention to all corners of the region.
“Republicans came to my office, like Democrats came to my office,” Clayton said. “White farmers came to my office like Black farmers came to my office. And that’s how I got re-elected, really. … I’m not willing to say that I know any new person coming into that district will do that.”
During earlier debate on Monday, Sen. Natalie Murdock (D-Durham) lamented that Clayton had to watch the historic district be redrawn.
“I can only imagine the joy and pride she felt that the South, the homeplace of Jim Crow, was finally getting it right when it made history by electing her,” Murdock said. “And now, in 2025, we are on the verge of subjecting the people of the 1st congressional district to having worse representation than they did in 1992. I’m really sad that in her 91 years, she will see us roll backwards, going, yet again, in the wrong direction.”
Republicans leading the charge to redistrict have steered clear of any discussion on the map’s impact on Black voters. Instead, they have described the new map on purely partisan terms: a “simple and singular” effort to maintain GOP control in Congress.
“Republicans hold a razor-thin margin in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell) said Monday. “And if Democrats flip four seats in the upcoming midterm elections, they will take control of the House and torpedo President Trump’s agenda.”
Hise later added that “no racial data” was used in the construction of the new map. House majority leader Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) reiterated that Tuesday afternoon.
Protesters gather in Raleigh on Oct. 21, 2025 as North Carolina Republican lawmakers prepared to pass a new congressional map giving Republicans another seat. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)That distinction comes in light of a 2023 state Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for partisan gerrymandering. Redrawing maps with the specific intent to dilute the power of Black voters remains against the law; the current 1st district is part of a pending federal lawsuit alleging as much.
Any lawsuits challenging the map, which are all but certain, will likely involve Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act. But opponents to the map are wary of a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court that questions the constitutionality of that section. Clayton urged those in North Carolina not to let that prevent them from pushing back against the new district lines.
“Don’t defeat yourselves,” she said.
Hise said Monday that “we will defend these maps, and I am confident [the maps] will be held by the courts.”
Davis: ‘All options on the table’
Davis, who narrowly won a second term in the House last November, said in a statement Tuesday that he was “considering all options on the table” for his political future.
“That would include considering a run in both the new [1st district] as well as the new [3rd district],” Davis said in a statement.
U.S. Rep. Don Davis addresses reporters at his Goldsboro office on Oct. 7, 2025. (Photo: Christine Zhu/NC Newsline)Davis’ home is located in the new 3rd district, but U.S. representatives are not required to live within the bounds of their district. If he chose to run in the 3rd district, he would likely face a fellow incumbent in U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy, who has held the seat since 2019.
Davis said since his term began, his office had received more than 46,000 messages from constituents across party lines. “Not a single one” requested redrawing the district, he said.
“Clearly, this new congressional map is beyond the pale,” Davis said.
Public protests and criticism of new map continues
Lawmakers’ new map continued to draw scrutiny and protesters from the public Tuesday, after vocal objections during debate and ejections from the Senate gallery on Monday.
An organized protest in front of the old Capitol Building on Tuesday drew more than a hundred people as Democratic leaders called on supporters to continue making their opposition known.
“Legislators, congresspeople, should not pick their constituents,” U.S. Rep. Alma Adams said from the stage. “Constituents, it’s your job … to pick your members of Congress.”
And members of the public, including Clayton and Adams, again packed the committee room later Tuesday to criticize the map in over an hour of public comment.
Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) said lawmakers had received more than 11,200 public comments online about the map. The 2023 redistricting plan, she said, drew about 600 comments, and the 2021 plan drew about 1,000.
U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, a North Carolina Democrat, speaks to protesters in Raleigh on Oct. 21, 2025 as Republican state lawmakers prepared to pass a new congressional map giving Republicans another seat. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)“Everything about this process is so wrong,” Harrison said during the House committee hearing. “I’m just so angry about what we’re doing to our democracy today.”
Protesters were escorted from the committee room shortly before lawmakers voted on party lines to approve the bill, chanting “Berger’s maps are racist maps.”
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