NC Newsline: “A federal district court judge in Raleigh is considering whether state Senate election districts in northeastern North Carolina violate federal law by diluting the influence of Black voters in counties with significant Black populations.
Matthews and newly elected Rep. Rodney Pierce of Halifax County sued over the Senate redistricting plan in November 2023.
The lawsuit claims that Republicans devised districts in an area of the state called the Black Belt so that voters in counties with majority or near-majority Black populations would not be able to elect the candidates of their choice, in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act. “