Under the Dome: US Rep. Deborah Ross talks about new Congressional maps and DC drama
Start your week in #ncpol #ncga with our latest Under the Dome politics podcast. Dawn Vaughan here, your News & Observer Capitol bureau chief and podcast host.
In the latest episode, for the week of Oct. 30, 2023, I sat down with U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat who just returned from quite the wild time in Congress this past month. Aside from the drawn out election of a Republican House speaker, the big news for the North Carolina congressional delegation, and potential candidates, was passage of new congressional district maps. Ross’ district changed a little but is still a safe blue seat for her in 2024, while other Democrats were given less favorable districts by Republicans state legislators who drew the maps.
“So it was a chaotic week, because we didn’t know what was going to happen with the speaker’s race. We didn’t know when we were going to be coming back to our districts. And we didn’t know what those districts were going to be,” Ross said.
She said that the Democratic U.S. House delegation had a meeting when the maps came out — different versions of the maps, and then we had a delegation meeting again immediately after the final votes on the maps — along with some of our advisors to decide about challenging the maps and to make some other strategic decisions.”
What’s come out publicly so far is U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson, who was drawn into a district favoring Republicans, declared his run for North Carolina attorney general. Rep. Kathy Manning and Rep. Wiley Nickel, who were both drawn out of their districts, are “assessing their options based on what may or may not happen with litigation,” Ross said.
Jackson’s Charlotte area district was redrawn to favor a Republican, possibly state House Speaker Tim Moore, who may soon announce he’s running. So I asked Ross about that. She and Moore served in the state House together previously.
“Well, it’s Groundhog Day, because we thought that Speaker Moore was going to run the last time. But then Madison Cawthorn told him that he might primary him,” Ross said, referring to Moore pulling out of the race before making a run official in 2021.
Ross noted that the previous N.C. Supreme Court, which was majority Democratic until the 2022 election, “rightly found the whole thing to be a partisan gerrymander, and came up with the 7-7 map which reflects the state of North Carolina, and which should have been our map going forward. But because the state Supreme Court reversed the previous state Supreme Court, he got another bite at the apple and he’s back. He’s back,” she said about Moore.
Headliner of the Week
After the break, we talk about U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, who was the interim U.S. House speaker for a dramatic time, and what that was like for Ross. She also talks about why she and McHenry brewed a beer called “To Be, Rather than to Seem,” and how she’s known several North Carolina politicians long before going to D.C.
Stayed tuned until the end for our picks for Headliner of the Week. Ross talks about that other chamber in Washington, D.C., and I, with my love of holidays, talk about Halloween.
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