Republicans redrew North Carolina to win nearly two-thirds of its House seats — the blue wave left them poised to hold less than a third
North Carolina was a more drastic dummymander: The Republicans aimed to design districts where they would win seats accounting for almost two-thirds of their congressional delegation.
Key points
- Despite both states being traditionally competitive in statewide elections, their state legislatures drew a collection of seats Republicans believed they would win: 12 of these 15 new seats in Ohio and 11 out of 14 in North Carolina included a majority of voters who voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
- In Ohio and North Carolina, the size and scope of the midterm backlash against Trump and his party put many of the seats Republicans targeted in these states, including ones Trump won by as many as 20 points, in serious jeopardy.
- But the party is currently poised to hold, at best, less than one-third of their state’s seats.
Republican state legislatures in Ohio and North Carolina redrew their congressional maps in 2025, crafting a set of districts they believed would maximize the number of seats they could win in the House.
In Ohio, a gerrymander that aimed for a two-thirds Republican majority in their House delegation will net them less than half of that in the 120th Congress.
Additional details
- This unintended consequence is often referred to as a “dummymander.” So, with such massive Democratic majorities poised to enter the 120th Congress, did Republican attempts to gerrymander actually end up costing them some seats in the U.S.
- In the end, the Democratic wave overcame so many Trump-won seats in these states that their new delegations to Congress may be more Democratic than they would have been without the gerrymanders.
- In North Carolina and Ohio it does appear that Republicans overplayed their hand by counting on past Trump voters in a national environment that proved so favorable to the Democrats.
- During the 2026 election cycle, Republicans enacted a series of gerrymanders – a form of partisan redistricting – in a handful of states to give them a disproportionate edge over Democrats in their congressional delegations.
- But if spread too thin, these efforts can backfire and net seats for the other party, particularly in a “wave” election year that favors the other party.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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