NC Republicans accuse Gavin Newsom of undermining the will of voters. How hypocritical. | Opinion
Republican leaders announced Monday they will redraw North Carolina’s congressional districts, heeding President Trump’s call for red states to make their congressional delegations even redder.
In a statement, Republicans framed it as a response to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to draw new maps that favor Democrats and “take control of Congress from Republicans.” That’s a brazen lie, because it wasn’t California that started the gerrymandering back-and-forth. It was Texas that first redrew its maps at the request of Donald Trump, who is worried about voters rejecting him in the midterms and now seeks to artificially maintain a Republican majority in Congress by way of gerrymandering. California’s map was a direct response to that, creating five new Democratic-leaning districts to offset the five new Republican ones in Texas.
Equally disingenuous is the fact that North Carolina Republicans accuse Newsom of trying to “undermine the will of the people” with new maps. While the process was initiated by Newsom and Democratic lawmakers, they won’t be the ones to ultimately decide whether California gets new maps. Voters themselves will get to decide directly. That’s because in California, maps are constitutionally required to be drawn once per decade by an independent redistricting commission. To redraw them mid-decade at the hand of the legislature, rather than an independent commission, would require a temporary suspension of constitutional requirements — and therefore the approval of voters. A ballot measure will determine the outcome in November.
Contrast that with Texas, where Republicans passed new maps with only the approval of the legislature and the governor. They chose partisan loyalty to Trump over their own voters. Of course, we don’t hear a peep from our Republican leaders about Texas undermining the will of the people, do we?
Perhaps that’s because it’s exactly what Republicans have long done, and now plan to do again, in North Carolina, with no input from voters at all. Passing new maps is actually easier than passing any normal law, given that redistricting bills require just simple majorities in the General Assembly and aren’t even subject to the governor’s veto.
There aren’t many avenues for direct democracy in North Carolina, either. Unlike in California, voters can’t give explicit consent for most legislative actions, other than voting on constitutional amendments proposed and drafted by legislators themselves. State law doesn’t permit voters to weigh in on new state laws, veto existing ones, recall state officials or initiate any statewide ballot measures on their own. A citizen-led ballot initiative is what created California’s independent redistricting commission in the first place. But in North Carolina, all roads must go through the legislature, which is already gerrymandered to heavily favor Republicans in a state that’s almost evenly divided politically.
Republicans insist that Trump’s victory in North Carolina gives them a “clear mandate” to protect his agenda. While it’s true that Trump won North Carolina three times, getting 51% of the vote isn’t exactly a “clear mandate,” and it certainly doesn’t justify giving Republicans a nearly 80% share of the state’s congressional seats. Electing Democrats to other statewide positions, including governor and attorney general, in 2016, 2020 and 2024 suggests voters across the state don’t want Republican domination.
If North Carolina leaders are so confident that their actions will be supported by voters, why don’t they give them more opportunities to let their voices be heard? Why do they consistently reject efforts to make redistricting fairer?
It’s ironic that the leaders of a state that has cycled through five congressional maps in just six years would complain about another state redrawing its own, let alone feign any moral superiority when it comes to defending “the will of the people.” Framing their latest gerrymandering attempt as a fight to take back democracy from “radical Democrats” is a ridiculously false narrative. The fact that they have to manipulate the truth to justify their actions should tell us exactly how bad those actions are.
Paige Masten is a deputy opinion editor for the North Carolina opinion team.
This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 3:04 PM with the headline "NC Republicans accuse Gavin Newsom of undermining the will of voters. How hypocritical. | Opinion."
