Dec. 8—TRIAD — Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning won’t seek reelection next year in a 6th District that was redrawn by the Republican-controlled N.C. General Assembly to make it difficult for a Democratic candidate to win.
Manning, the two-term congresswoman from Greensboro, announced Thursday afternoon that she will relinquish the post when her current term concludes at the end of next year. She squarely blamed gerrymandering of the 6th District for her decision.
“The Republican-led General Assembly passed flagrantly gerrymandered congressional districts to reduce the North Carolina congressional delegation from seven Democrats and seven Republicans to four Democrats and 10 Republicans,” she said.
The district that Manning ran in and won comfortably in 2022 covered Guilford, Rockingham and Caswell counties and southeastern Forsyth County. But the redrawn district for the 2024 elections is a Republican-friendly district that covers High Point and southwestern Guilford County, western Greensboro, eastern Forsyth County, all of Davidson, Davie and Rowan counties and the western tip of Cabarrus County.
At least four Republican challengers have announced they will run in the 6th District next year: former High Point Mayor Jay Wagner, former 6th District congressman Mark Walker, 2022 6th District GOP nominee Christian Castelli and Bo Hines, who narrowly lost a congressional race in eastern North Carolina in 2022.
Manning left open one possibility for seeking a third term. If a pending legal challenge to the current congressional district succeeds, Manning said, she would run. A federal lawsuit filed this week seeks to overturn the Republican-crafted congressional map as disenfranchising minority voters.
Candidate filing for next year’s congressional races under the current map concludes at noon Dec. 15. If a court were to invalidate the Republican-drawn districts, it most likely would prompt a new candidate filing period.
pjohnson@hpenews.com — 336-888-3528 — @HPEpaul