It ain’t over until … they say.
After a decade of court fights over districts gerrymandered by Republicans with surgical precision, Democrats gained two congressional seats last night. This takes the state’s caucus from 10 Rs and 3 Ds to 8 Rs and 5 Ds:
Former State Rep. Deborah Ross, who four years ago unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Richard Burr for his seat, was declared the winner by AP Tuesday in the race to represent a redrawn congressional district that takes up most of Wake County.
Unofficial results showed Ross, a Raleigh Democrat, was ahead of Republican Alan Swain by 63% to 35% in a district that state lawmakers redrew last year in response to a gerrymandering lawsuit. House District 2 is now strongly Democratic in voter registration; incumbent Rep. George Holding, a Raleigh Republican, decided not to run after four terms.
Kathy Manning picked up the vacant 6th District seat recently redrawn after court fights to include all of Guilford County (Greensboro) and part of Forsyth County (Winston-Salem).
Pulling all of Asheville-Buncombe back into NC-11 did not erase the Republican tilt enough to prevent Madison Cawthorn (R) from defeating Moe Davis for the seat vacated by Rep. Mark Meadows. This was 25-year-old Cawthorn’s first tweet as congressman-elect:
A quick tally of unofficial statewide votes in the congressional races reveals that gerrymandering still pays for Republicans. Democrats received 27,000 more votes statewide:
Democrats: 2,632,913
Republicans: 2,605,760