FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nolan Fraver | NCFP Communication Director
[email protected]

Raleigh, N.C. — One sign of a healthy democracy is an electoral system through which voters choose their elected officials, not the other way around.

Reports surfaced this week that North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger may accept an endorsement from former President Donald Trump in exchange for redrawing congressional maps to further entrench Republican power in the General Assembly. According to CBS 17, sources allege that Berger’s acceptance of Trump’s support in his 2026 primary fight would be conditioned on overseeing mid-decade redistricting designed to tilt elections in Republicans’ favor—specifically by redrawing Congressional District 1 to oust Democratic U.S. Representative Don Davis.

Such a deal would not only escalate North Carolina’s ongoing partisan redistricting battles but also risk stripping voters of fair representation in Washington, deepening divisions and further eroding trust in the state’s democratic institutions.

The news has already provoked sharp responses across the political spectrum. Democratic U.S. Representative Deborah Ross condemned the reports as “blatant, unapologetic corruption,” arguing that Republicans are seeking to “stack the deck” because their policies and candidates cannot win on their merits. Meanwhile, Berger’s Republican primary opponent, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, accused Berger of “bragging that they [the Berger campaign] have President Donald J. Trump over a barrel” in order to secure personal political gain. Even Berger himself, while denying he has spoken to Trump about the endorsement, left the door open to drawing yet another map—what would be the fifth in just six years.

If true, the North Carolina Forward Party condemns the perceived quid-pro-quo between Leader Berger and President Trump, instead opting to promote a system in which politics, party affiliation, and personal relationships have no place in the districting process used to draw state electoral maps.

“North Carolinians are tired of being pawns in partisan power plays,” said Patrick Newton, Chair of the North Carolina Forward Party. “Whether it’s Democrats suing until they get the maps they want or Republicans cutting backroom deals to tilt elections in their favor, voters are the ones who lose. Gerrymandering is corruption by another name, and it silences citizens across the political spectrum.”

The Forward Party has long advocated for varied election reforms in the state of North Carolina—ending gerrymandering chief among them. In light of these recent developments, Party leaders are once again calling for our elected leaders, both in the North Carolina General Assembly and in the U.S. Congress, to pass legislation that implements common-sense solutions that make partisan redistricting efforts untenable. These include instituting non-partisan, independent districting commissions responsible for drawing district maps, or using advanced mathematical and machine learning techniques to remove human intervention from the map-making process altogether.

It is only by embracing and adopting these methods that we will collectively restore fairness and trust in North Carolina’s elections and ensure that voters choose their representatives—rather than politicians choosing their voters.

“Instead of asking how to rig the system, our leaders should be asking how to rebuild trust in it,” Newton added. “The Forward Party is committed to ending this toxic cycle and giving North Carolinians the accountable, representative democracy they deserve.”