NC redistricting may have been key to national GOP House win

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- As votes continue to be counted across the country, ABCNews now projects Republicans will narrowly keep control of the U.S. House.

And while the final numbers aren't known, North Carolina's new maps could have made the difference for Republicans, because of maps that many say amount to gerrymandering.

Normally states only redraw once after every Census at the beginning of each decade; but after a court ruling opening the door for partisan gerrymandering, Republicans in the GOP-led legislature in North Carolina saw an opportunity that paid off with them netting three seats in our state alone.

Under the court-drawn maps used in 2022, the election netted an even split in our purple state - seven Democrats and seven Republicans. However, once the legislature was given the green light to redraw the lines for 2024, Republicans targeted three Democratic seats - Jeff Jackson in Charlotte, Kathy Manning in the Triad, and Wiley Nickel in the Triangle. A look at the lines shows how that was done.

District 13 represented by Nickel was much more compact in 2022, centered around Wake County where most of the vote was, and Johnston County which leans more conservative, but that balance made this a true swing seat.

But the new version was drastically altered. They split up more of Wake County into bluer seats and instead spread it out all the way out into Person County down to Lee County, creating a hook around the Triangle so that the Wake County blue portion would be outweighed by conservative rural areas. It was so right-leaning, that Nickel decided not to even run again, and sure enough, Republicans carried the district by 18 points to elect Republican Brad Knott.

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Nickel said it's bittersweet to lose his seat in Congress but said gerrymandering is a symptom of a bigger problem.

"We are 50-50 state and with fair maps, we'd send seven Democrats and seven Republicans or at least have a chance to do that. You know, the best we're ever going to get in these maps is what we have now with four Democrats out of 14 seats and that's just wrong," Nickel said. "Folks ought to be upset about it and they should know that the control of the U.S. House of Representatives may come down to Republican gerrymandering in Raleigh."

Nickel wants to see nationwide gerrymandering reform, but unless that happens, the battle over who draws the maps will continue. Republicans in North Carolina argue they won the national popular vote and Democrats also gerrymander in other states.

"Both sides are going to come together to fix this and to play by the same rules or else this is going to be a tit-for-tat. California will do its thing. New York will do their thing. Illinois will do that, do their thing. And then Florida, North Carolina, and Texas will do their thing. That's just the way it is made up right now," said political strategist Patrick Sebastian.

The new lines also adjusted districts in the state legislature. Despite being a purple state, Republicans maintained a supermajority in the State Senate. However, in the State House, Democrats were able to flip enough seats to end the supermajority in the House and maintain veto power for incoming Democratic Governor Josh Stein.