In 2025, Republican leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly released new proposed voting maps during mid-cycle redistricting designed to ensure that the GOP can maintain its control over the U.S. Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. They intended to gain this additional seat by splitting the Black population of Eastern North Carolina (the “Black Belt”) between Congressional District 1 and Congressional District 3 so that Black voters in both districts would be unable to elect a candidate of their choice.
Attorneys from Forward Justice partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center to file an amicus brief on behalf of Repairers of the Breach, North Carolina Black Alliance, Black Voters Matter, and several North Carolina voters and community organizers, urging the courts to reject the new maps and their purposeful blow to the state’s Historic Black Belt region.
A Federal Court hearing was held in November in Winston-Salem where a panel of three Republican Judges voted to uphold the maps for the 2026 elections. We are prepared to continue to stand with our clients and movement partners in this fight against this continuation of the state’s long record of voter suppression, and deliberate strategy to sideline Black, brown, rural, and poor voters and weaken their collective voice.