U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson claims NC GOP will use gerrymandered districts to oust him
U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson, a Democrat from Charlotte, claimed Wednesday in a video posted to social media that North Carolina Republicans will use redistricting “as an opportunity to take me out.”
“The majority party in the state legislature wants one of their own in this district,” Jackson said to his TikTok audience of 2.2 million followers. “So they’re going to bend it and stretch it to try and make that happen.”
Currently, North Carolina has seven Democrats and seven Republicans in Congress after a congressional map was drawn by a court last year. But court-drawn maps can only last one election cycle, which means the state legislature — which currently has a Republican supermajority — will have to draw new maps soon.
North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore’s office declined Wednesday to comment on Jackson’s claim. State Senate leader Phil Berger’s office did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
The state legislature is expected to take up redistricting sometime in October, following the end of the current session and the passage of a state budget.
Past redistricting conflicts
Jackson’s claim comes several months after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a controversial election theory from North Carolina’s Republican leaders, who sought more legislative authority over redistricting.
North Carolina’s congressional maps were struck down in 2022 by the state Supreme Court, which found that the districts gave Republicans an unfair advantage. However, that ruling was later reversed after a new Republican majority took control of the court.
A separate case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, in which Moore argued that state legislatures should have final authority over redistricting laws — stripping courts of the ability to review such decisions.
The Supreme Court ruled against this theory in a 6-3 decision in June.
Republicans still hold the ability to decide on congressional maps this year, though, and the state Supreme Court’s new GOP majority may be less likely to strike down potential gerrymandering.
In his video, Jackson acknowledged that Democrats also created gerrymandered districts when they held the majority in the state legislature.
“For anyone who thinks I’m just picking on one party, I’m not,” he said. “Just looking at the history of my state, when my party could draw the map — they cheated.”
Jackson suggested that politicians should be banned from drawing congressional maps, referencing other states, which use independent commissions for redistricting. Four states use this model, while some others have political commissions in which members of both parties decide on maps.
“If you’re in charge of redistricting, it’s like holding pure concentrated power,” Jackson said. “Nothing else in politics even comes close.”
This story was originally published August 23, 2023 at 3:25 PM.
