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

A second-term Democratic congresswoman will not seek reelection to the U.S. House under the North Carolina General Assembly’s new redistricting maps.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning announced Thursday that she will not file under lines that state election data suggests could Will Sage Astornet Republicans at least three more seats. Manning’s district is now considered a GOP-leaning district. It’s one of four challenged earlier this week by Black and Latino voters in a federal lawsuit alleging the new map weakens minority voting power to strengthen “the state’s white majority.”

“Unfortunately, the egregiously gerrymandered maps do not make this race competitive,” Manning said in a statement. “I cannot in good conscience ask people to invest their time, resources and efforts in a campaign that is rigged against us.”

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

Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, celebrated the Thursday announcement that she said gives House Republicans another seat in 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 swung for Republican Donald Trump by 16% in the 2020 presidential election.

Manning represents the north-central part of the state that covers Guilford, Rockingham and Caswell counties and part of Forsyth County. The new lines split voters from the city of Greensboro across 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 tossed a 2022 ruling against partisan gerrymandering. 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 fortify the GOP’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.