RALEIGH, N.C. — A panel of federal judges on Wednesday rejected an effort to prevent North Carolina’s new Republican-favoring congressional map from taking effect before the midterm elections.

The challengers had claimed the map illegally retaliated against voters in the northeastern part of the state for electing a Democrat in 2024.

The three judges — all of whom were appointed by Republican presidents — sided with Republican lawmakers in a unanimous 57-page order, writing that the plaintiffs’ claims involved political questions beyond the reach of the courts.

Any appeal of the ruling will go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, which last weekend temporarily ruled in Texas Republicans’ favor in a case challenging their own redistricting plan.

This year’s national redistricting wars began when Texas enacted a plan to redraw its own map to give Republicans five more seats in Congress. California then retaliated with a similar plan designed to benefit Democrats. Since then, President Donald Trump has called on Republican-led states to further gerrymander their congressional maps in his party’s favor.

North Carolina Republicans heeded that call last month, drawing a new map intended to pick up another seat for the GOP by drawing out Democratic Rep. Don Davis from his district in the northeast.

In a statement Wednesday evening, Senate leader Phil Berger celebrated the ruling.

“As Democrat-run states like California do everything in their power to undermine President Trump’s administration and agenda, North Carolina Republicans went to work to protect the America First Agenda,” Berger said. “North Carolinians voted to send President Trump to the White House in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and this new map reflects that support.”

Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina — one of the groups bringing the case — said he was disappointed in the decision.

“This ruling gives blessing to what will be the most gerrymandered congressional map in state history, a map that intentionally retaliates against voters in eastern North Carolina for supporting a candidate not preferred by the majority party,” he said in a statement. “I believe the lawmakers responsible for the map and for this misguided ruling know they are wrong and will be judged accordingly. Meanwhile, our fight for fair maps continues, and our fight for voters living in these distorted districts will carry on, with more energy than ever. Ultimately, we the people will prevail.”

The lawsuit was filed just a month ago by a collection of advocacy groups after state lawmakers enacted the new Republican-favoring map.

Speaking at a hearing last week, plaintiffs’ attorney Hilary Klein said the map represented an “unprecedented escalation of picking up the pen just to harm voters.”

Plaintiffs also challenged the map as a racial gerrymander, noting that it significantly undercuts the influence of Black voters in an area they have historically dominated.

Judges rejected that claim Wednesday, writing that the plaintiffs had failed to show the legislature acted with discriminatory intent when it redrew the map.

“As of now, the direct evidence shows that partisanship, not race, motivated the reconfiguration of (the map),” they wrote.

The new map targets the 1st Congressional District, which encompasses the state’s portion of the South’s historic “Black Belt.” The newly drawn district has a markedly lower racial-minority population and is more favorable toward Republicans.

Attorneys for legislative leaders, who are defendants in the case, repeatedly claimed that lawmakers did not use racial data when crafting the map.

The lawsuit in question built on an existing case against the electoral maps used in the 2024 election.

Those legislative and congressional maps were also challenged as racial gerrymanders, but the same panel of judges from Wednesday’s decision dismissed that lawsuit last week.

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