The Caucus: The Winner Takes It All

The Winner Takes It All

During a Monday committee hearing, hours before the state Senate approved a new congressional map that all but guarantees Republicans 11 of the state’s 14 U.S. House seats, Sen. Ralph Hise was asked if he’d allowed any Democrats into the room while he and GOP staffers redrew the districts. 

“I do not represent Democrats in the Senate,” Hise replied. His response elicited gasps from some onlookers. “I represent nine counties in Western North Carolina,” he continued. “But no, there were no Democrats involved.”

A few minutes later, Democratic Sen. Julie Mayfield pressed Hise on his answer: “You just said that you do not represent Democrats. I know a lot of Democrats who live in your district. Are you suggesting that you don’t represent them?”

“I do not represent senators that are Democrats,” said Hise, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Perhaps unfairly, some liberals have turned a truncated version of Hise’s statement—“I do not represent Democrats”—into a meme. But his dismissiveness was nonetheless revealing. 

As the redistricting bill moved through the General Assembly this week, Republicans didn’t act like purple-state politicians. They didn’t appeal to moderates. They were unapologetically partisan, interested in pleasing their base and, more importantly, its leader, President Donald Trump. 

“The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular: Draw a new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the North Carolina congressional delegation,” Hise said when introducing the bill. Legislative leaders said last week that they were redrawing the maps in response to “President Donald Trump’s call.”

Over the last decade, though Democrats have remained competitive in statewide races, legislative Republicans have consolidated power through aggressive gerrymandering. Few state lawmakers have reason to fear a backlash from general-election voters anymore.

Republicans won a supermajority in the Senate and a near-supermajority in the House in 2024, even though Democratic legislative candidates won about 320,000 more votes than their GOP counterparts. That statistic is a bit deceptive because Republicans didn’t field candidates in 30 of the 69 contests Democrats won. But it also underlines how GOP mapmakers packed Democratic voters into those districts. 

Many November legislative elections are formalities. Incumbents are often more at risk of primaries. For Republicans, that means aligning with Trump, who has urged red states to redistrict to cushion against potential midterm losses and preserve the GOP’s narrow U.S. House majority. Senate leader Phil Berger agreed to redraw congressional lines while facing a difficult primary. 

The 1st Congressional District, which Republicans redrew this week, has the state’s largest percentage of Black voters, at about 42 percent. When Republicans redrew it in 2023, they maintained the district’s Black population, compared with the map in place in 2022, while making the district significantly more Republican. 

Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Budd would have won the district by about six points had it been in place in 2022. It went for Trump by 3.1 points in 2024. 

Lawmakers drew the map that way in hopes of both defusing racial gerrymandering lawsuits and showing that Republicans could win areas with large Black populations. Except that Don Davis, a moderate Democrat, narrowly won the congressional race.

At Trump’s urging, Republicans moved the goalposts, making the new 1st District about 8 points redder and about 8 percentage points less Black, according to a legislative analysis and the election data site Dave’s Redistricting. (Hise and other Republicans said they did not use race when drawing the new districts.) They also put Davis’ home in a different district. 

Republicans said this week that they were redistricting in response to California, which could add five seats to the Democratic column if voters approve a redistricting referendum next month. But California’s referendum was a response to Texas’ redistricting, and unlike in Texas—or North Carolina—it won’t take effect unless voters sign off. 

“Are you open to sending it to North Carolinians for the decision about whether or not we want new maps?” Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch asked Hise on Monday.

Hise was not. “Our process in North Carolina is that legislative maps are passed by the General Assembly,” he said. 

Polls suggest that voters would reject a redistricting referendum. Though not a representative sample, the 943 pages of often vehement public comments the General Assembly received point in the same direction.

Hise, who lives in Mitchell County, won his district by almost 30 points last year, and lost only one of the nine counties he represents: Watauga, home to Appalachian State University. 

Watauga also voted for Democrats in all federal and statewide elections. But right now, Republicans hold all of the seats on its Board of County Commissioners—because Hise engineered it. 

In 2023, the General Assembly passed a bill Hise sponsored to overhaul Watauga County elections. Instead of all county residents voting for three commissioners, it now has five single-member districts, drawn to give Republicans a 3-2 advantage. The law delayed elections for the two Democratic-leaning seats until 2026, and the current commissioners got to fill the vacancies. 

Hise argued that “temporary” App State students held too much influence, so their votes should be diluted. 

County officials responded by taking advantage of a state law that allowed them to redistrict by referendum. But before voters could go to the polls, Hise pushed through another law that rendered the referendum irrelevant. 

“Some commissioners are not happy and are trying to change the districts over the will of the General Assembly,” Hise said during a legislative hearing. In November 2024, the referendum passed anyway, with 71 percent of the vote. 

Voting rights advocates sued earlier this month to overturn the districts. For now, the “will of the General Assembly” trumps that of more than two-thirds of county voters.

— Jeffrey Billman

Thanks for reading The Caucus, a politics newsletter anchored by Bryan Anderson. Reach us with tips or ideas at politics@theassemblync.com.

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About That Map…

On Thursday, a group of Democratic voters asked a federal judge to block the new congressional map from taking effect. 

In a legal filing, the voters called it an “unnecessary, mid-decade redistricting that targets a historic Black opportunity district that has elected a Black representative to Congress for more than 30 years.” That’s a reference to the 1st District, which includes the Black Belt region and is currently represented by Davis, a Black Democrat. 

The complaint alleges that the new map “takes account of racial information and partisan politics without any legitimate justification.” (Lawmakers have said they did not use race when drawing the districts.) Though the U.S. Supreme Court allows lawmakers leeway after a census, the complaint continues, it does not permit “weaponization as part of a voluntary mid-decade revision to legislatively enacted districts of the sort that North Carolina has engaged in here.”

The complaint is an addendum to ongoing litigation over North Carolina’s last round of redistricting in 2023. The judge in the case held a bench trial in July and has not issued a ruling. 

— Jeffrey Billman

On the Rocks

After a drawn-out feud with the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, Hunter Ford opened Momentum Distillery last Friday in downtown Wilmington.

Despite what Ford’s distillery permit suggests, no production happens at that site. Momentum’s production operations are housed in a nondescript industrial area 2.5 miles away. 

The ABC Commission, which controls alcohol sales and businesses statewide, allows distilleries to sell their own liquor directly to customers only if it’s produced on-site. Ford is selling liquor at his new store anyway, relying on legal ambiguity in the state’s interpretation of “production.”

He’s taunting the ABC Commission to intervene. “I hope that what we’ve accomplished is a roadmap to North Carolina going private,” he said.

Jeff Strickland, spokesman for the ABC Commission, said permits can be withdrawn if ABC investigators determine a permittee is not in compliance, and law enforcement can identify ABC-related violations. Outcomes from violations range from a warning or fine to permit revocation.

— Johanna F. Still

Around the State: Durham’s Greg Lindberg hires ex-Trump bodyguard to seek pardon from president (News & Observer). Attorney General Jeff Jackson visits Fayetteville, calls out FEMA over canceled disaster grants (CityView). How a developer’s $15 million free road for traffic-clogged NC town got charged to state taxpayers (News & Observer). Suspect in Charlotte train stabbing indicted on federal charges, death penalty possible (ABC). 

Let us know what’s on your radar at politics@theassemblync.com.