North Carolina's 4th congressional district

North Carolina's 4th congressional district
North Carolina's 4th congressional district - since January 3, 2013.
Current Representative David Price (D–Chapel Hill)
Cook PVI D+17[1]

The Fourth Congressional district of North Carolina is located in the central region of the state. The district stretches from Burlington to Fayetteville. It includes two-thirds of the state capital, Raleigh, all of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, and portions of Durham.

The district is currently represented by 11-term Congressman David Price, a former political science professor at Duke who was first elected in 1986, ousting one-term Republican incumbent Bill Cobey.[2] Price was reelected in 1988, 1990, and 1992, but he was defeated in his bid for a fifth term in 1994 by Republican Fred Heineman, the Raleigh Police Chief, in a generally bad year for Democrats in North Carolina. Price came back to defeat Heineman in a rematch in 1996, and has been reelected each time since then by large margins, usually with more than 60% of the vote. In 2008, Price received 63% (265,751 votes) to defeat Republican challenger B.J. Lawson, who received 37% (153,947 votes).[3]

According to research by Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post, the district is the third most gerrymandered Congressional district in North Carolina and seventh most gerrymandered district in the United States.[4] In contrast, its predecessor was the most regularly drawn of the state's 13 districts.

History

From 2003 to 2013 it contained most of the area commonly known as The Triangle. It included all of Durham and Orange counties, part of Wake County and a small section of Chatham County. The 4th district picked up the most Republican areas of Wake County, such as Apex, Cary, and much of North Raleigh in order to help make the neighboring 13th and 2nd districts more Democratic. For instance, Barack Obama defeated John McCain in the Wake County portion of the district in 2008 by 51-48%, a difference of less than 8,000 votes in between the two candidates.[5]In contrast, Obama won Wake County overall by a much greater margin of 56-43%, and Obama swept the 4th district as a whole by 63-36%. The Republican influence in the district's Wake County portion was more than canceled out by the two Democratic strongholds of Orange and Durham counties, where Obama received 72% and 76%, respectively, his two best counties in the entire state. The 4th district had a Cook PVI of D+8, which made it the most Democratic white-majority district in the entire South outside of South Florida and Northern Virginia.

The district became even more heavily Democratic as a result of 2012 redistricting, in which the more Republican areas of western and southern Wake County were removed, along with northern Orange County and most of its share of Durham County. They were replaced by heavily Democratic portions of Alamance, Cumberland, Harnett and Lee counties. Additionally, the district was pushed further into Raleigh. Like its predecessor, the district is one of the few Southern districts with a significant concentration of progressive-minded white voters--similar to areas around Atlanta, Houston, Charlotte, Nashville, Memphis and Austin. The presence of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Duke University, as well as a large African-American population in Durham and Raleigh help contribute to the liberal nature of the 4th district.

The district is just barely contiguous; the northern and southern portions are connected by a barely-discernible strip of land along the Lee/Harnett line.

Voting

Election results from presidential races
Year Office Results
2012 President Obama 71 - 28%
2008 President Obama 72 - 27%
2004 President Kerry 61 - 38%

List of representatives

Representative Party Years District Residence Note
John Steele Pro-Administration April 19, 1790 – March 3, 1791 Redistricted to the 1st district
Hugh Williamson Anti-Administration March 4, 1791 – March 3, 1793 Redistricted from the 2nd district
Alexander Mebane Anti-Administration March 4, 1793 – March 3, 1795
Absalom Tatom Democratic-Republican March 4, 1795 – June 1, 1796 Resigned
William F. Strudwick Federalist November 28, 1796 – March 3, 1797
Richard Stanford Democratic-Republican March 4, 1797 – March 3, 1803 Redistricted to the 8th district
William Blackledge Democratic-Republican March 4, 1803 – March 3, 1809
John Stanly Federalist March 4, 1809 – March 3, 1811
William Blackledge Democratic-Republican March 4, 1811 – March 3, 1813
William Gaston Federalist March 4, 1813 – March 3, 1817
Jesse Slocumb Federalist March 4, 1817 – December 20, 1820 Died
William S. Blackledge Democratic-Republican February 7, 1821 – March 3, 1823
Richard D. Spaight, Jr. Crawford D-R March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1825
John Heritage Bryan Jacksonian March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1827
Adams March 4, 1827 – March 3, 1829
Jesse Speight Jacksonian March 4, 1829– March 3, 1837
Charles B. Shepard Whig March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1839
Democratic March 4, 1839 – March 3, 1841
William H. Washington Whig March 4, 1841 – March 3, 1843
Edmund Deberry Whig March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1845 Redistricted from the 7th district
Alfred Dockery Whig March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1847
Augustine H. Shepperd Whig March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1851
James T. Morehead Whig March 4, 1851 – March 3, 1853
Sion H. Rogers Whig March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1855
Lawrence O'Bryan Branch Democratic March 4, 1855 – March 3, 1861
Civil War and Reconstruction
John T. Deweese Republican July 6, 1868 – February 28, 1870 Resigned
John Manning, Jr. Democratic December 7, 1870 – March 3, 1871
Sion H. Rogers Democratic March 4, 1871 – March 3, 1873
William A. Smith Republican March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875
Joseph J. Davis Democratic March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1881
William R. Cox Democratic March 4, 1881 – March 3, 1887
John Nichols Independent March 4, 1887 – March 3, 1889
Benjamin H. Bunn Democratic March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1895
William F. Strowd Populist March 4, 1895 – March 3, 1899
John W. Atwater Independent Populist March 4, 1899 – March 3, 1901
Edward W. Pou Democratic March 4, 1901 – April 1, 1934 Died
Harold D. Cooley Democratic July 7, 1934 – December 30, 1966 Resigned
James C. Gardner Republican January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1969
Nick Galifianakis Democratic January 3, 1969 – January 3, 1973 Redistricted from the 5th district
Ike F. Andrews Democratic January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1985
Bill Cobey Republican January 3, 1985 – January 3, 1987
David Price Democratic January 3, 1987 – January 3, 1995
Fred Heineman Republican January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1997
David Price Democratic January 3, 1997 – Present

Historical district boundaries

2003 - 2013

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" (PDF). The Cook Political Report. 2012. Retrieved 2013-01-10.
  2. ↑ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=1398
  3. ↑ "Local and National Election Results - Election Center 2008 - Elections & Politics from CNN.com". CNN.
  4. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/05/15/americas-most-gerrymandered-congressional-districts/
  5. ↑ http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p7Hn_T5RBt3R5n9TlVGs0EQ

External links

Coordinates: 35°37′28″N 78°59′43″W / 35.62444°N 78.99528°W / 35.62444; -78.99528

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