This article is by Will Doran:

Gerrymandering has been one of the biggest political stories of the year in North Carolina as lawsuits forced the Republican-led legislature to draw new maps for the districts used to elect members of Congress and the N.C. General Assembly.

The new maps, analysts predict, will be more Democratic-leaning but could still favor Republicans. They will only be used once, in the 2020 elections. Whichever party takes control of the state legislature in those elections will be in charge of drawing new maps for the next decade.

The state will redraw its maps again in 2021, using updated population data from the 2020 Census. There’s no question that North Carolina’s rural areas will lose political influence when that happens. But which political party is in charge of that redistricting process could have a lot to do with how pronounced the rural losses are…

This is the link to the full article in The News&Observer.