Federal judge sides with Senate Republicans, rejects racial gerrymandering claims

The decision stands to make it easier for Republicans to retain their supermajority in the state Senate in the 2026 election.

North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican who represents Guilford and Rockingham counties, attends a legislative session on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.

A federal judge on Tuesday upheld the North Carolina Senate map, siding with Republicans who had been accused of intentionally diluting the voting power of Black Democrats in the northeastern part of the state.

U.S. District Court Judge James Dever, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, concluded that the voters in Northeastern North Carolina who brought forward the complaint hadn’t proved Black voters were being racially discriminated against, let alone meriting a redrawing of the map to create a majority-black Senate district.

“This case does not involve the General Assembly engaging in race-based districting or the odious practice of sorting voters based on race,” Dever wrote. “Indeed, the record demonstrates that when the General Assembly drew the maps… the General Assembly did not have racial data in the computer.”