In order to understand legislative redistricting in North Carolina, you really have to understand some county-related requirements that are unique to the state. Variously called the Stephenson requirements, the county-grouping requirements, or the whole county provision, these restrictions limit how the State House and State Senate districts can be drawn.
Noticing the lack of a useful explanation of this mandated clustering, I created one in the form of a story map. The interactive, map-based explainer can be viewed via this link, or by clicking on the screenshot below.
