Slate: “I spoke with Rep. Butterfield about the Democrats’ chances in 2022, what the party needs to change about its messaging, and how he feels about Sen. Joe Manchin holding up the voting rights legislation that would have prevented this North Carolina redistricting disaster. Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Christina Cauterucci: How are you feeling about the redistricting in North Carolina?
Rep. Butterfield: Well, I am outraged about this map. I’m outraged that the Republicans would go to this extreme. I’ve been involved in redistricting in North Carolina since the 1980s, and this map is, in my opinion, the worst gerrymandered map that I have ever seen. It’s a political gerrymander and it is a racial gerrymander and it is totally unacceptable. That’s why we’re litigating. That is an unconstitutional map.
It is very unfortunate that we do not have the benefit of Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, because if it was enforceable, it would prevent states from engaging in these [racial] gerrymanders. We are also in state court with a claim that this is partisan gerrymandering in violation of the state constitution. So there are two lawsuits that are ongoing.
I suspected that since Republicans have the majority in the state legislature, that they would go for the 14th seat that was being awarded to the state, so we would keep the five Democrats that we have and increase the Republican delegation from eight to nine. No, that’s not what they did. They now want to have an 11-3 map, or giving them the benefit of the doubt, it would be a 10-3-1 map, with my district being the toss-up.”