Using cheese and pepperoni pizza to explain the changes to NC's voting maps

The big changes in the new Congressional voting maps will likely change who represents Wake County.

In 2022, District 13 was the southern half of Wake County, all of Johnston County and parts of Harnett and Wayne counties. It was a swing district – either party could win it.

U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel, D-North Carolina, won the vote in November 2022 and took office in January 2023.

Under the new voting maps approved by Republican state lawmakers this week, District 13 now hooks around the edges of Wake County, all the way up to the Virginia line. It now leans Republican by an 18-point margin.

“That's one of the most dramatic changes I think I've seen anywhere in the country,” said Meredith College political scientist David McLennan. “The shape of it would indicate that they had to move a lot of things around to get it more Republican leaning."

Nickel hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll run again.

“There is no Democrat that's ever won a race for Congress in the last four cycles in anywhere near a district like this,” Nickel said.

Nickel is hoping the courts will step in and force lawmakers to redraw the Congressional map.

“When you run for office, you want to have a fair fight, and this isn’t even close to a fair fight,” Nickel said.

Democrats say they’re planning to file a lawsuit to block it. However, no suit has been filed as of Friday.

Using pizza to explain changes to District 2 and District 13

Let’s use the example of pizza: Say Democrat areas are pepperoni pizza slices and Republican areas are cheese pizza slices.

In the November 2022 election, District 2 – which U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, D-North Carolina, represents – was about two-thirds Democratic (pepperoni) and about one-third Republican (cheese).

Also in the November 2022 election, District 13, represented by Nickel, was about half Democratic (pepperoni) and half Republican (cheese).

In the new maps, Republican lawmakers took a few of the Democratic slices (pepperoni) or areas out of District 13 and moved them into District 2.

Then, they took a few Republican areas or slices (cheese) out of District 2 and put them in District 13.

The changes make District 2 even more Democratic (more pepperoni) , but it was already mostly Democratic even before the maps changed.

But District 13 becomes majority Republican (cheese).