POLITICS
N.C. Rep. Wiley Nickel Will Not Seek Re-Election After Redistricting, Eyes Senate Seat Instead
wileynickelnc/Instagram
Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.) on Thursday announced he will not be seeking re-election in 2024 after Republican-led redistricting in North Carolina, and instead plans to run for the U.S. Senate in 2026.
“Republicans have rigged the system to favor themselves and I dont have a path to run for re-election in the 13th District,” Nickel said in a statement. “But Im not giving up and neither should you. Next year, Im going to be working to elect North Carolina Democrats up and down the ballot in 2024. Then, in January Im going to look to flip our U.S. Senate seat blue.”
Despite Republican redistricting efforts that drastically changed the partisan makeup of the state’s congressional districts, Nickel said state lawmakers cant gerrymander a statewide election.
North Carolina’s Democratic House delegation has seen multiple retirements after the new electoral maps were implemented in October. Rep. Jeff Jackson, who represents the state’s 14th district covering parts of Mecklinburg and Gaston counties, said he will not run for re-election and will instead run for statewide office in 2024.
Rep. Kathy Manning, who represents the state’s 6th district, announced last week that she will not file for re-election under the egregiously gerrymandered congressional districts, which the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly passed into law to prevent the re-election of three North Carolina Democrats.
The newly drawn Sixth District gives a sixteen-point advantage to a Republican candidate over a Democratic candidate. As a Greensboro resident of forty years, I am disgusted by the callous disregard of Republican leaders for the citizens of my district. Politicians should not choose their voters; voters should choose their representatives, Manning said in a statement
Gerrymandering is destroying our democracy, Nickel said during an event Thursday announcing the news. He won his seat in the 13th district by a slim margin in 2022, flipping it from Republican to Democrat.
After the redistricting, state Republicans are going to get 71–79% of the seats in Congress despite North Carolina being a purple state, a 50–50 state, right down the middle, Nickel said.
TMX contributed to this article.
