I have been surprised to learn that my comments — submitted online and made in person to the NC General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Redistricting Committee calling for the creation of a Sandhills-based congressional district with a core group of counties consisting of Cumberland, Hoke, Scotland, Moore and Robeson — have been used by Republican Senate Co-Chair Warren Daniel in an attempt to justify the maps that were adopted by the General Assembly that splits these five counties into three different congressional districts.

There were numerous bipartisan speakers at the UNC-Pembroke and Fayetteville Technical Community College September hearings who spoke in favor of a Sandhills district. I am perplexed by the silence from the Moore County Republican Party with regard to being included in a congressional district that keeps a community of interest whole rather than splitting the community into three congressional districts.

Sen. Daniel shows how geographically challenged he is by claiming that Congressional District 8 is a Sandhills-based district, even though southeastern Mecklenburg, all of Union, Stanly and Anson counties are included in the district.

These are issues that will now be decided by the courts, but here again the NC General Assembly has not done right by the people of North Carolina. My comments only asked for a true Sandhills region, not a Democratic or Republican Sandhills region.

The voters should decide who will represent the Sandhills in Congress, not the General Assembly.

Maurice Holland, Jr., Chair

Moore County Democratic Party