Gov. Josh Stein is calling the idea of redrawing North Carolina’s congressional districts right now “ridiculous.” His comment was in response to a recent post on X from Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, who dismissed rumors that he planned to redraw Congressional District 01 in exchange for a Trump endorsement calling them politically motivated “lies.”
“We just redistricted for the second time last cycle,” Stein told reporters after the Council of State meeting last week. “So, every two years is the theory that we’re going to redistrict so we can maximize the political advantage to stick it to one party and enhance another party? That is not how redistricting works. You do it once a decade unless you’re ordered to by the courts to redraw because your first effort violated the law, and then you wait till the next census, and then you redistrict again.”
Stein’s comment came after Berger referenced the process unfolding in California with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. On X, Newsom pointed to a rumor alleging that Berger would get an endorsement from President Donald Trump in exchange for redrawing Congressional District 1, which Democrat Rep. Don Davis currently represents.
Berger denied that he had spoken with the president about redistricting or an endorsement in his post.
“I’ve been watching what’s going on in California with Gavin Newsom trying to steal the Republican majority in Congress,” said Berger on X. “We have drawn four Congressional maps in the last six years in redistricting fights with Democrats because of their sue-until-blue strategy. If we have to draw one more map this year, we will. That said, I’ve never spoken to President Trump about this or an endorsement. The Democrats are spreading lies to hurt President Trump.”
Donald Trump is swapping endorsements in exchange for rigging elections.
And it’s barely making the news. pic.twitter.com/JWCX1k01KW
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 25, 2025
Stein, a Democrat, said that the country “cannot get into this maximalist political power worldview because it will destroy this country.”
“It will destroy the politics of this country,” he said. “You have to be able to recognize sometimes you win an election, sometimes you lose an election. When you lose, you gather your forces, you work harder, you try to convince the voters the next time. When you win, you work your tail off to deliver on the promises that you made to people, so they’ll re-elect you. That’s how it’s supposed to work.”
Still, he thought Newsom has been right with his own redistricting efforts in California.
“Sadly, I think he is because what’s going on in Texas, going on in Missouri, again, it’s this political maximalist position that is not good for democracy,” the governor said. “But you can’t have one side that is willing to abuse the rules to gain power, and then the other side say, oh, we will do the honest, true, and right thing. No, so I’m sympathetic to what California’s going through, and I understand why he’s doing it.”
Newsom is reportedly preparing retaliatory redistricting, possibly even bypassing the independent commission approved by voters in a constitutional amendment, to increase Democrats’ congressional advantage ahead of the 2026 election.
“I think it’s concerning to see what Gavin Newsom has done in California for the explicit purpose of trying to stop President Trump’s agenda in Congress,” NCGOP spokesman Matt Mercer told Carolina Journal regarding a potential redrawing of NC-1. “The California gambit is costing their taxpayers millions of dollars to hold a statewide referendum for no reason other than his own vanity and positioning for 2028. Here, exposing the failure of Rep. Don Davis to stand up for families in Eastern North Carolina will be critical to Republicans keeping the majority in the U.S. House in the midterms.”
In 2010, Republicans won control of the North Carolina State legislature using Democrat-drawn maps, and in 2011 redrew the maps using 2010 census data. Democrats challenged the new maps in court, leading to a 2016 court-ordered redraw over alleged racial bias. Another challenge in 2021 led a Democrat-leaning state Supreme Court to order a one-time-use map be drawn with a 7-7 split by three special masters. The final version had one competitive district. Jowei Chen, a witness for the Democratic-aligned plaintiffs in the 2021 redistricting case, found only a 5.3% chance of getting the 7-7 outcome forced by the courts. That map was used in the 2022 election.
The North Carolina Supreme Court later reversed itself in the Harper v. Hall decision, and the General Assembly drew a map for 2024 that elected 10 Republicans and four Democrats.
Last week, a federal judge ruled that the North Carolina General Assembly did not violate constitutional restrictions against racial gerrymandering when it drew two challenged state Senate districts in northeastern North Carolina.
Two black voters had challenged Senate Districts 1 and 2 as violating Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act.
The two plaintiffs, state Rep. Rodney Pierce and Moses Matthews, filed a notice of appeal the day after the judge’s order upholding the districts.
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