My Spin: The 1980 Election All Over Again
November’s election is reminiscent of the 1980 campaign when Ronald Reagan asked voters: Are you better off than you were four years ago?
By Tom Campbell
Congressman Don Davis was serving food and shaking hands with his new constituents on a recent Saturday in Pamlico County, one of six counties added to his district last October when our legislature, at Donald Trump’s insistence, gerrymandered the First Congressional District.
Legislators used a gerrymandering technique called “cracking” in creating the new district with 6 new counties and removing 4 from Davis’ previous district, including his Greene County home. In so doing they carefully divided what had previously been a highly competitive district with a significant number of Black and Democratic voters, (favoring a Democrat by 2 percentage points) to one that cracked apart minorities and moved them to the predominantly white Republicans voters in new 3rd Congressional district. Now Davis’ district favors Republicans by 8 percentage points.
