Nov 8

Nov 8 Redistricting changes local NC House and Senate districts

The redistricting process for North Carolina legislative districts is now complete, with new maps for the NC House and NC Senate gaining approval last week in Raleigh. Those new maps changed the shape of the 12th House District, containing Lenoir County and moved Lenoir County from the 7th Senate District to the 3rd Senate District, beginning in 2022.

Previously, the 12th House District, represented by Rep. Chris Humphrey (R- Lenoir), encompassed all of Lenoir County and a portion of southern Pitt County. It will now contain all of Greene, Lenoir, and Jones Counties. Lenoir and Wayne Counties had previously made up the 7th Senate District, represented by Sen. Jim Perry (R-Lenoir), but the new maps move Lenoir County into the 3rd Senate District, along with Craven and Beaufort Counties.

Humphrey said he plans to run for reelection to continue to represent the 12th district in its new configuration, and said if he wins that election, he looks forward to the challenges it will bring.

“It will be a challenging district from a legislative point of view, because it’s three whole counties, so you have three school boards, three boards of commissioners, multiple municipalities, so you will have a lot of folks that you get to work with…I look forward to getting to know the people of Jones and Greene Counties better,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey said, while he did not get to pick his district, the configuration “makes sense,” given the similarities among the three counties as rural areas with a strong agricultural sector.

Perry shared his intention to run next year to represent the 3rd District in the NC Senate, and said he will miss representing Wayne County, but looks forward to solidifying new relationships in Craven and Beaufort Counties.

Perry is a member of the redistricting committee, and said the process for creating NC House and Senate maps is different than the process for congressional districts, and is based both on population and county lines, with a previous court decision prescribing that counties must remain whole whenever possible.

Regardless of the district, Perry said “small-town lawmakers have to band together anyway, so we all feel like we represent all of Eastern North Carolina already.”

While the entire Neuse News coverage area will now be grouped together as a single NC House District, the three counties will continue to be part of separate NC Senate Districts. Lenoir County will become part of the 3rd District, Greene County will be grouped with Wayne and Wilson Counties as part of the 9th District, and Jones County will move to the 8th District, grouped with Duplin, Pender, Sampson and Bladen Counties.