An NC Republican reported his party’s plans to gerrymander. Then he walked it back.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication with additional comments from Dallas Woodhouse.
The former North Carolina GOP executive director reported this week that his party would gerrymander the state’s new congressional districts to create a 10-4 Republican advantage for the U.S. House of Representatives later this year.
That report, published by Dallas Woodhouse on the conservative news site Carolina Journal, came just hours after new Census data was released Monday. That data showed North Carolina will gain a House seat, bringing its total to 14.
“Carolina Journal has learned that GOP redistricting leaders will consider approving a new map designed to elect a 10 Republicans and four Democrats beginning in 2022,” an early version of the article said.
The article was later edited, softening Woodhouse’s prediction of a 10-4 split. But the report spread quickly among North Carolina politicos, sparking early debate over how lawmakers will redraw the districts.
Woodhouse’s reporting foreshadows the impending fight over the future of North Carolina’s political landscape. Even as the state’s population shifts, Republicans have an opportunity to draw maps to their advantage.
With Congress narrowly divided, North Carolina lawmakers can influence the balance of power in Washington.
If Woodhouse’s predictions are correct, this wouldn’t be the first time North Carolina lawmakers — of either party — have gerrymandered districts for political gain. Lawmakers have drawn numerous maps over the last few decades that were eventually deemed unconstitutional gerrymanders.
On Friday, after this article was published, Woodhouse emailed The News & Observer disputing whether a 10-4 split — if it even were to happen — would be a gerrymander.
“I did not use the word gerrymander, nor do I believe that,” he said.
To gerrymander, by one definition, is to “manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favor one party or class,” or to “achieve (a result) by manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency.”
House seat drawn for Speaker Moore?
Woodhouse’s article also suggested the new district could be drawn specifically for House Speaker Tim Moore — a Republican from Cleveland County, west of Charlotte, who will have personal influence over the map-making process.
Moore and Republican Sen. Phil Berger, the top legislative leaders, dismissed Woodhouse’s report in interviews with The News & Observer.
“Nothing has been decided,” Moore said. “There’s been zero work done on any districts.”
Moore also said he is not planning to run for Congress, but plans to run for state House again.
But Woodhouse, now employed by Carolina Journal, has been right about several other political rumors he’s reported on for the publication this year.
Woodhouse correctly called that Republican Pat McCrory and Democrat Cheri Beasley would jump into the state’s 2022 Senate race before they made their official announcements, and he was the first to report that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was considering the GOP Senate primary, too — rumors Robinson later confirmed, before ultimately deciding not to run.
“Let me say for the record, I have no inside knowledge,” Woodhouse said Wednesday morning when The News & Observer asked what he knew about the 10-4 maps and plans to draw the new seat to help Moore run for Congress. “I have no people talking to me. It’s water cooler talk at the General Assembly.”
Courts struck down past maps
Democrats controlled the legislature for over a century and drew maps for Congress and the state legislature in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s that were eventually overturned as unconstitutional. Republicans then took over in 2011 and did the same; they remain in control for the new, 2021 version of the maps.
Courts overturned multiple versions of the maps for the last decade as unconstitutional gerrymanders — including at least one lawsuit in which the challengers pointed to the fact that a Republican lawmaker acknowledged a predetermined outcome of guaranteeing his party 10 of the 13 seats.
Courts shot down the original map drawn after the 2010 Census, with its 10-3 split. Lawmakers then re-hired the same political consultant, who drew a different 10-3 map. That was also ruled unconstitutional, in 2019. Lawmakers then drew a map with an 8-5 Republican advantage, used only in the 2020 elections, after judges demanded a more transparent process.
The News & Observer has previously reported that the 2019 redistricting effort was, by all accounts, the most transparent redistricting process in North Carolina history. Berger has said the legislature this year will likely use many of the same rules from 2019, even without a court order requiring them.
If the new maps are drawn 10-4 as Woodhouse predicted, the GOP’s current three-seat advantage would double to a six-seat advantage in next year’s elections.
Moore said Tuesday he had no idea what Woodhouse was talking about, as did Berger.
Woodhouse said Wednesday that “I have not talked to Speaker Moore” about it and that he was just reporting rumors he had heard. Rumors have surfaced before about Moore seeking other jobs, like the UNC System president, as reported by the liberal news website N.C. Policy Watch. But he has remained the House speaker.
Berger laughed when asked about the reporting on the floor of the state Senate Tuesday evening.
“I have no idea where it came from,” he said. “Somebody called me about it earlier today and it was the first I’d heard of it.”
He said he did not have a goal of drawing a 10-4 split, or any other predetermined outcome.
“We have taken no steps to draw maps, to take into consideration what maps ought to look like, or anything,” Berger said. “We will wait until we actually receive the Census data that we can utilize before we start that process.”
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Pandora, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Megaphone or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "An NC Republican reported his party’s plans to gerrymander. Then he walked it back.."
