"Does North Carolina have a law where Congressmen are required to live in the districts they represent?" — Dome reader mdougyr

No. No state does.

The U.S. Constitution is the sole arbiter of qualifications for U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and president, said Don Wright, general counsel for the State Board of Elections. That means no state laws can further limit who can run.

Article I, Section 2 lays out the qualifications:

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.

As Wright notes, that does not say anything about districts.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones of Farmville was elected in 1994 while living outside the Third District, although the boundary was later redrawn to include his home.

Vernon Robinson of Winston-Salem and Rory Blake of Charlotte both ran unsuccessfully outside their districts in 2006. As with other candidates, they were criticized for not living in the district, but they were not barred from running.

The same is not true for state lawmakers, however.

Under Article II, Sections 6 and 7, state senators and representatives must reside in their districts for at least one year before being elected. 

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