WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield plans to announce his retirement Thursday, two Democratic sources told McClatchy.
Butterfield, a 74-year-old Democrat, has not confirmed the decision, which would cap a career as a civil rights advocate, a judge and since 2004 a congressman representing North Carolina.
Butterfield would be the second North Carolina Democrat to retire in recent weeks, joining Rep. David Price.
Butterfield is the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and now serves as senior chief deputy whip of the House Democratic Caucus, where he succeeded the late John Lewis.
He currently serves in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, which stretches through Eastern North Carolina.
Butterfield told The News & Observer earlier this month that he had planned to run for reelection and wanted “to run under a fair map.”
But as state lawmakers worked to redraw North Carolina’s congressional districts it became clear that Butterfield, along with another Democrat, U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, were at risk of losing their seats.
Lawmakers were required to redraw the districts this year after the release of census numbers that earned North Carolina an additional 14th Congressional District.
The map handily gives Republicans eight districts and Democrats three. It also includes two districts whose voters tend to lean slightly to the right.
But Butterfield’s hometown was placed into the 2nd Congressional District, which lawmakers drew with just a slight lean to the left, making it an easy district for Republicans to flip.
Several lawsuits accusing lawmakers of gerrymandering the maps have already been filed.
This would not be the first time Butterfield’s family has experienced redistricting that cost them a political seat.
Butterfield’s website explains how he watched his father be removed from local office in the 1950s in a surprise redistricting while his father was out of town.
In a segregated city, Butterfield’s father spent 50 years working with Black residents in East Wilson and helping many who had never been able to afford dental care.
To help register Black voters, his father formed the Wilson branch of the NAACP. He was then elected to the Wilson City Council, becoming the first Black member since Reconstruction.
Butterfield’s website said his father’s work with the Black voters angered the other council members who held an emergency meeting to recreate the city council with only at-large seats. The move meant that the entire city voted for the candidates and diluted the Black vote.
His father lost his position on the city council, which created in Butterfield a desire to become a lawyer focusing on civil rights.
Butterfield attended North Carolina Central University where he, too, helped Black voters register.
In 1965, after the passing of the Voting Rights Act, he organized a march from the North Carolina Capitol to the Wilson County Courthouse to encourage voter registration. That same year he helped workers at Duke University, where he interned, demand better worker rights.
While his college career was interrupted when the U.S. Army drafted him and stationed him at Fort Bragg, Butterfield later finished his law degree.
Butterfield worked as a civil rights lawyer and provided legal services to low-income people. He made a name for himself winning several voting rights cases.
Eventually he became a Superior Court judge, serving for 13 years before he was appointed in 2001 by Gov. Mike Easley to serve on the North Carolina Supreme Court.
He lost his reelection in 2002 and then was reappointed as a Superior Court judge for two more years before he retired in 2004 to focus on a congressional run.
He won 71% of the vote and became a congressman, where he has served ever since.
Butterfield has since served on the Agriculture, Ethics, Armed Services and Energy and Commerce committees as well as several subcommittees.
State Sen. Don Davis, a Pitt County Democrat, had said this week he could run for Congress in the newly drawn 2nd District if Butterfield decides not to run for another term.
“It would be a great loss for Eastern North Carolina if he was to decide not to run,” Davis said. “I fully support him in any decisions that he would make, but I would share that if the congressman decided not to run, then I will likely announce ...” Davis did not finish the statement.
A spokesperson for former state Sen. Erica Smith said she has been approached by people on Capitol Hill about running for Butterfield’s seat if he retires and said that that is an option her team is exploring. Smith is currently running for U.S. Senate, but two other Democrats have dominated fundraising in the race.
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