While voters in some municipalities, but not Greensboro, are going to the polls for primary elections this week, the focus statewide is on the 2024 elections.
And the big question that many potential candidates have is – What district will I be in?”
According to the scuttlebutt out of Raleigh, the districts for state House, state Senate and US House seats have been drawn but won’t be revealed until next week when the North Carolina General Assembly is expected to approve redistricting maps.
Republican High Point Mayor Jay Wagner announced this week that he would be running for the 6th District congressional seat currently held by Democrat 6th District Congresswoman Kathy Manning.
What makes the timing of that announcement intriguing is that unless Wagner has been given inside information on the new congressional redistricting maps, he can’t be sure he even lives in the 6th District for the 2024 election.
The current congressional district maps were not drawn by the legislature but by a special master appointed by the North Carolina Supreme Court, with a Democrat majority, after it ruled that the maps drawn by the Republican legislature were unconstitutional because of partisan gerrymandering.
However, the current state Supreme Court with a Republican majority overturned that ruling, finding that the North Carolina Constitution didn’t outlaw partisan redistricting.
So despite the fact that the legislature had a Republican majority, the 2022 congressional districts were drawn by Democrats.
It is expected that with a Republican legislature and a Republican majority on the state Supreme Court that the congressional districts for the 2024 elections will be vastly different from the districts for the 2022 elections.
The state House and Senate districts for the 2022 election were drawn by the legislature, but it was the second attempt after the first attempt was struck down by the state Supreme Court, also because the court found the legislature guilty of unconstitutional partisan redistricting.
Since the current state Supreme Court has ruled that partisan redistricting is not unconstitutional, it is widely believed that the state House and Senate districts for the 2024 election will also be considerably different from the districts the legislature passed in 2022.
This week the legislature is concentrating on veto overrides. Next week is when the redistricting maps are expected to be revealed and passed.
A special master….my expectations are nil.
I’ll bet he’s smarter than the rest of us he walks on water ( he thinks) and poops sunflowers
I’m guessing Berger redistricts him self away from Guilford and Rockingham counties to avoid getting the boot in the primary
Include me out.