North Carolina Representative Kathy Manning (D) announced on Thursday she wouldn’t seek reelection for her U.S. House seat in what she called an “egregiously gerrymandered” redrawn district.
“I would love nothing more than to continue representing our community in Congress. Unfortunately, the egregiously gerrymandered maps do not make this race competitive, and I cannot in good conscience ask people to invest their time, resources and efforts in a campaign that is rigged against us,” Manning said in a statement.
North Carolina’s Republican-majority General Assembly approved newly drawn congressional maps. Currently, the 14 congressional districts are represented by seven Republicans and seven Democrats. The new maps, however, favor Republicans heavily in 10 of the 14 districts.
According to her House webpage, Manning has served as a representative for North Carolina’s Sixth Congressional District – generally referred to as The Triad – which includes Guilford and Rockingham Counties and parts of Forsyth and Caswell Counties. She identifies as an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and co-sponsored H.R. 5, also known as The Equality Act. If it had passed, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would have been amended to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, federally funded programs, credit and jury service. The Senate companion bill did not gain enough support to overcome a filibuster, and H.R. 5 died in committee February 23, 2021.
Manning isn’t the only legislator who was gerrymandered out of her district. Former state senator and current congressional Rep. Jeff Jackson decided to not run for his congressional seat after he was gerrymandered out of his district.
“House Democrats are dropping like flies and choosing not to run for reelection with Joe Biden and their shared extreme record on the ballot,” Delanie Bomar of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said in a statement. “After today’s announcement by Kathy Manning, House Republicans just grew our 2024 majority by one seat.”
Manning said while she wouldn’t run for her current seat, she is still open to running for office again in the future. She said “if the impending lawsuits are successful and the General Assembly is forced to draw fair congressional districts, I will seek to continue my service to our community.”
“Rather than draw Congressional districts that are compact, include communities of interest, and promote the democratic value of allowing voters to decide who they want to represent them – the previously stated goals of the redistricting committee – Republican leaders have put their partisan self-interest above the people they’re elected to serve,” Manning said.
