Gerrymandering in North Carolina

As I write this in May of 2026, it seems that this is truly the Year of the Gerrymander. North Carolina, though, has been at the center of the gerrymandering controversy in the US since the 2010 census. While congressional districts are meant to be redrawn after each census (thus, every 10 years), North Carolina's districts have been redrawn and redrawn much more frequently. This page presents a couple of visualizations illustrating how North Carolina's districts have evolved and where that's taken us.

The evolution of NC's Congressional districts.

This visualization takes a look at the five maps that have been used in elections since 2010, together with the new map for 2026. I've also made a few comments and added analysis from the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.

You can select one of six years to view and hover over the map for a little extra information.

Comments

This map used in 2012 is one of the craziest from a geographic perspective. District 12 snakes from Charlotte to Greensboro with a spur to Winston-Salem to achieve a Democratic vote share of 77%. My own city of Asheville is split in two by districts 10 and 11 diluting the liberal population there and forming two strongly Republican districts.

The two "competitive" districts still lean Republican by just over 2.5% so the final district split was 10-3 in favor of the Republican party, in spite of the fact that the state wide Democratic vote share was over 48%.

Princeton Analysis

• Estimated statewide vote shares:
  • Dem: 48.4%
  • Rep: 51.6%
• Competitive analysis of seats:
  • 3 strongly Democratic,
  • 8 strongly Republican, and
  • 2 competitive.
• Actual results:
  • Democratic wins: 3
  • Republican wins: 10
• Scorecard:geographicScore
  • Geographic grade: F
  • Competitiveness grade: C
  • Partisan grade: F
  • Overall grade: F

Results map

Here's what the legislative election results look like throughout North Carolina from the most recent elections is 2024. Pick the chamber you want to view, pan and zoom the map to take a look around, and/or click on the map to get the results for all the districts at that point.

If you'd like to see the results in your neighborhood, ust enter an address or place in the search box and hit "submit".