In a joint letter to legislative leaders, dozens of organizations and faith communities asked lawmakers to refrain from introducing new Congressional maps “that would further distort North Carolina’s federal voting maps and erode any North Carolinian’s power to elect candidates of their choice”

RALEIGH, NC — North Carolina Republicans this week are attempting to further gerrymander and dismantle Congressional District 1 (CD1) in the historic Black Belt region of northeastern North Carolina, severely undermining the voting power of residents there.

Common Cause North Carolina joined more than 70 North Carolina-based groups to deliver a joint letter to legislative leaders opposing the legislature’s newest discriminatory gerrymandering scheme.

As NC Senate leaders prepared to take up the proposed map in committee hearings on Monday morning, the letter was sent to Senate Pro Tempore Phil Berger and House Speaker Destin Hall, along with Senate Redistricting and Elections Committee co-chairs Sen. Warren Daniel, Sen. Ralph Hise, and Sen. Brad Overcash, as well as House Redistricting Committee co-chairs Rep. Hugh Blackwell and Rep. Brenden Jones.

The maps were released to the public on October 16.

The following letter was delivered to legislative leaders on Monday, October 20, at 9:00 a.m.: 

Monday, October 20, 2025

TO:
Senate Pro Tempore Phil Berger
House Speaker Destin Hall
Senator Warren Daniel, Co-Chair, Redistricting and Elections Committee
Senator Ralph Hise, Co-Chair, Redistricting and Elections Committee
Senator Brad Overcash, Co-Chair, Redistricting and Elections Committee
Rep. Hugh Blackwell, Co-Chair, Redistricting Committee
Rep. Brenden Jones, Co-Chair, Redistricting Committee
16 W Jones St, Raleigh, NC 27601

Dear North Carolina Legislative Leadership:

As groups that support fair voting maps and represent North Carolinians who reside in voting districts across the state, we ask that you refrain from introducing any mid-decade congressional redistricting in 2025 that would further distort North Carolina’s federal voting maps and erode any North Carolinian’s power to elect candidates of their choice.

The undersigned include members and supporters that understand the dangers of state-sanctioned gerrymandering of any kind. We represent North Carolinians in all regions and congressional districts of the state, including residents of the 1st Congressional District and constituents of the counties you serve; they align with all recognized North Carolina political parties in the state or none, including Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated voters; and many have lived in the state long enough to have been gerrymandered by race and party for some or all of their lives, albeit in increasingly sophisticated gerrymanders passed with minimal public input.

The people of our state are therefore accustomed to legislative leaders gerrymandering their districts. They are also tired of it.

A recent September 2025 poll by conservative pollster Opinion Diagnostics found broad agreement on the importance of fairness and transparency, strong support for independent mapmaking, and growing opposition to all forms of gerrymandering. In fact, 76% of North Carolina voters say it should be illegal for gerrymandering to be used to discriminate against voters based on their political party. There is also strong, bipartisan agreement on this point among voters, with 66% of Republicans, 79% of Democrats, and 82% of Unaffiliated voters saying the type of partisan gerrymandering being considered by Senate leadership should be against the law.

While we elect state and federal lawmakers under a partisan banner, we must carefully guard the People’s confidence that, once elected, you will represent all North Carolinians and protect their votes equally. Any decision to further rig congressional or other voting maps for partisan gain, including to target any class or group of voters in order to achieve a perceived partisan gain, in this case just days before candidate filing begins and a few months before voters will cast their ballots in those races, flies in the face of that basic principle and the basic integrity that guides our state motto: “Esse Quam Videri.”

Just because you can redraw North Carolinians’ voting maps and thereby manipulate the upcoming 2026 elections, doesn’t mean you should.

For the sake of our members and supporters, our maps, our votes, and our collective democracy, we hope you consider our urging as sincerely as we offer it.

Sincerely,

A Better Chance A Better Community (ABC2)
ACLU of North Carolina
African American Caucus of RCDP
ATU Local 128
Black Voters Matter Fund
Care in Action
Casa Azul de Wilson
Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice
Common Cause North Carolina
Cumberland County Retired School Personnel
Democracy North Carolina
El Pueblo, Inc.
Emancipate NC
Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville, Board of Directors
Fayetteville Alumnae Chapter Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc
Fayetteville Freedom For All
Fayetteville Friends Meeting
For the Struggle, Inc.
Forward Justice Action Network
Future Endeavors Life Program
Good Trouble WNC
Indivisible Asheville/WNC
Indivisible Lincoln County NC
La Fuerza NC
League of Women Voters of North Carolina
Likeminded Alliance
NAACP North Carolina State Conference
NAACP Charlotte-Mecklenburg Branch
NAACP Currituck County Branch
NAACP Fayetteville Branch
NAACP Goldsboro Wayne Branch
NAACP Northampton County Branch
NAACP Onslow County Branch
NAACP Pasquotank County Branch
NAACP Transylvania Branch
NAACP Wilson Branch
Nariah’s Way Foundation
North Carolina Asian Americans Together
North Carolina Black Alliance
North Carolina Council of Churches
NC Counts Coalition
NC For The People Action
NC League of Conservation Voters
North Carolina Union of the Homeless
Organizing Against Racism Cumberland County
Pathway Preschool Center
The People’s Place AVL
Piedmont Raging Grannies
Piedmont UU Church
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic
Poder NC
Pro-Choice North Carolina
Progressive Democrats Of Buncombe County
Rebuilding Broken Places CDC
Red Wine and Blue
Salisbury Indivisible
Shiu Cheong, LLC
Sierra Club
Southern Coalition for Social Justice
Social Justice Ministry of UUCWNC
Sojourn Project II
Sunrise Movement WNC
TFBU Foundation
Third Act North Carolina
TriadRising
Triad NCPPC
Unifour One
Union of Concerned Scientists
Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of North Carolina
Women for Community Justice, Rowan County
Western Circle of NC Poor People’s Campaign
Western North Carolina Central Labor Council

Bob Phillips, Executive Director of the nonpartisan voting rights group Common Cause North Carolina, which signed on to the letter, praised the groups’ participation in this joint statement opposing new gerrymanders.

“We thank these fair-minded groups from every corner of the state for their willingness to be vocal opponents of this latest gerrymandering scheme and ask legislative leadership to refrain from further distorting our districts,” Phillips said. “Like Northeastern North Carolina residents targeted by this latest gerrymander in CD1, all people of North Carolina deserve Congressional districts that reflect their communities and respect their right to have a voice in choosing their representation. What Republican legislative leaders are attempting with their latest discriminatory gerrymander makes already extreme maps even worse. Today we are all CD1.”

North Carolinians can speak out against the legislature’s discriminatory gerrymander at ccnc.me/cd1.

Common Cause NC is a nonpartisan grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.