No reelection campaign for Democratic representative after North Carolina GOP redrew U.S. House map

A second-term Democratic congressman will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives under the North Carolina General Assembly's new redistricting maps.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning announced Thursday that she will not endorse what the state's election data suggests could give Republicans at least three additional seats. Manning's district is now considered a GOP-leaning district. It is one of four challenged earlier this week by Black and Latino voters in a federal lawsuit that alleges the new map weakens the voting power of minorities to strengthen “the state's white majority.”

“Unfortunately, the blatantly gerrymandered maps make this race uncompetitive,” Manning said in a statement. “I cannot in good conscience ask people to invest their time, resources and efforts in a campaign designed against us.”

If the lawsuit successfully overturns the latest iteration, Manning said she will run for office. The filing period for candidates ends on December 15 for a spot on the March 5 primary ballot.

Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, celebrated Thursday's announcement that she believes Republicans in the House of Representatives will gain another seat with their slim majority. Manning won re-election by nearly 8% in 2022. But Bomar said in a statement that North Carolina's new 6th Congressional District would have gone to Republican Donald Trump by 16% in the 2020 presidential election.

Manning represents the north-central portion of the state that includes Guilford, Rockingham and Caswell counties and part of Forsyth County. The new lines divided the voters of the city of Greensboro among the surrounding districts.

North Carolina voters sent seven Democrats and seven Republicans to the nation's capital under the previous boundaries. But the Republican majority on North Carolina's highest court has ruled against partisan gerrymandering in 2022. That decision paved the way for the new Republican majorities in the North Carolina General Assembly to pass maps along party lines that are poised to strengthen the Republican Party's growing grip on the ninth-largest U.S. state.

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Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.