We're taking a tour of the most outrageous Republican gerrymanders in the nation. Read why in our introductory post, and click here for the full series.
North Carolina’s 19th State Senate District is perhaps the most absurdly gerrymandered legislative district in the entire country. The Fayetteville-based district was previously compact and nonpartisan, but after the 2010 Census, Republicans gained control over redistricting in North Carolina for the first time since Reconstruction. They turned the 19th into a Rorschach blot where tentacles from the neighboring 21st District scooped out as many black Democrats as it possibly could into a Democratic vote sink. Actor Zach Galifianakis even profiled the insanity of this gerrymander in a recent documentary series.
Obama won Cumberland County by 59-40, but our calculations indicate he won the 19th District by just 49.8 to 49.4. Even those numbers could easily overstate Obama’s support by several percent, because Republicans ruthlessly split precincts to segregate black voters, making our data assessment itself more difficult. Republican state Sen. Wesley Meredith first won office in 2010, and this gerrymander helped him comfortably secure a second term in 2012, while he won 56-44 in 2016. Earlier in 2016, a federal court struck down 28 North Carolina legislative districts as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, meaning the 19th and others will have to be redrawn before the 2018 elections.
This district was part of a larger gerrymander that gave Republicans veto-proof majorities in the last three election cycles, even when Democratic candidates won the statewide popular vote in 2012. We previously proposed a nonpartisan state Senate map for North Carolina that significantly straightened the lines in Fayetteville between the 19th and 21st districts. These changes might have made the 19th slightly more Democratic, although it probably wouldn’t have caused Democrats to win the district in 2016. However, consequent changes to the 13th District to the southwest could have turned Democrats’ loss there into a narrow victory in 2016, meaning this gerrymandered district might have cost Democrats one neighboring seat.
Tell us what you think the district looks like in the comments!