Democrats celebrated winning what was billed as North Carolina's lone toss-up race for the U.S. House this month, as state Sen. Wiley Nickel’sin the 13th Congressional District helped weaken any national GOP midterm wave.
But there’s a good chance Nickel's Raleigh-area district and others will be dramatically altered for the 2024 elections, returning the advantage to Republicans. Republicans hold eight of the state’s 13 U.S. House districts through the year’s end. Population growth gave North Carolina a 14th seat with the November election.
The arrival of two more GOP justices makes it more likely — but not assured — that the court would uphold a future congressional map by the legislature while rejecting last year’s landmark ruling that defined illegal partisan gerrymandering. Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College in Salisbury, said Nickel would be a likely target for Republican lawmakers to place in a more GOP-friendly district.