How fights over congressional maps and redistricting will affect 2024

Control of the House of Representatives will be hotly contested in the 2024 elections, and the landscape that delivered control of the lower chamber to Republicans in 2022 is getting shaken up.

Typically, maps remain in place for a decade at a time. However, with a handful of challenges to maps that were used in 2022, pivotal states are being forced to change their makeups. Here is the latest in the various legal fights and challenges to congressional maps ahead of the 2024 election.

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Florida

In the Sunshine State, the current map gives the GOP a 20-8 advantage over Democrats but does not include a black-majority district included in the previous map based on 2010 census data. Activists argue not including the long, thin district in the northern part of the state violates the state’s Fair Districts Amendment.

The state has defended the maps as “race-neutral” and said replicating the elongated black-majority district would be an unconstitutional gerrymander.

The map was struck down in September by a circuit judge, but the ruling was overturned by a Florida appeals court earlier this month. The case is now headed for the Florida Supreme Court, which is seeking to expedite the case before House elections next year.

Georgia

Lawmakers in the Peach State recently redrew their congressional districts after a court ruled the maps used in 2022 violated the Voting Rights Act. The map, passed by the Georgia legislature and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) earlier this month, adds the court-mandated additional black-majority district.

The newly implemented map redraws the 6th and 7th districts and divides Rep. Lucy McBath’s (D-GA) suburban Atlanta district in the process. All other incumbents will not see drastic changes to their districts under the new map, and the number of GOP and Democratic districts does not change compared to the old map.

The map passed by the legislature has been contested by plaintiffs of the lawsuit, which struck down the old map. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones has scheduled a hearing for Dec. 20 on whether the passed districts follow court orders.

Hyosub Shin/AP

New Mexico

Republicans in New Mexico had attempted to argue the implemented congressional map was significantly gerrymandered and disenfranchised GOP voters in the state. The current map, which was passed by the Democratic-led state legislature, has three districts that all have a net Democratic partisan voting index, according to the Cook Political Report.

The GOP lost its challenge earlier this year, when a judge ruled that the map was created in a manner that weakened GOP voting power but said it did not meet the necessary legal standard of an “egregious” gerrymander. An appeal of the ruling by Republicans also failed, meaning the same map from 2022 will be used in 2024.

New York

In the Empire State, the New York Court of Appeals threw out the court-ordered map used in the 2022 elections in a 4-3 decision last week.

The ruling said the map created by a court-ordered master in 2022 was not meant to last for the entire 10-year redistricting cycle and ordered the Independent Redistricting Commission to create a new map and have it passed by the legislature by Feb. 28, 2024.

The court-ordered map, which had a bevy of competitive districts, was created after the Independent Redistricting Commission failed to agree to a map and the Democratic-led legislature drew a map favorable for Democrats, which was struck down by a court. The ruling will give Albany Democrats a chance to draw the map more favorably to their party and cut out some GOP districts.

Hannah Schoenbaum/AP

North Carolina

In the Tarheel State, the state Supreme Court vacated a ruling that struck down a previous map on allegations of partisan gerrymandering and implemented a map that sets up a 7-7 Republican-Democrat split for the state’s congressional delegation.

With the previous ruling now vacated, the state legislature passed a map that will likely see Republicans pick up as many as four seats in the 2024 election. The new maps caused Reps. Kathy Manning (D-NC), Wiley Nickel (D-NC), and Jeff Jackson (D-NC) to announce they will not run for reelection, citing the redrawn districts.

The map is facing a legal challenge from a group of black and Latino voters alleging the district lines are an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

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Along with the slate of new congressional maps in some states, the House of Representatives has also seen a massive exodus of members who are ditching the lower chamber of Congress after a chaotic first session of the 118th Congress.

Republicans won a 222-213 majority in the 2022 elections, flipping the chamber back to GOP control for the first time since the 2016 election but underperforming expectations. The 2024 elections will also see a presidential race, which is expected to be a tight contest, and Senate elections, which analysts believe will favor the GOP.