DURHAM, N.C. — The federal court ruling on Monday declaring that North Carolina’s congressional district map was unfair to Democrats — and might have to be redrawn soon — threw the state’s politics into confusion bordering on chaos. Candidates like Linda Coleman were left struggling to understand what would come next, and how the fast-approaching midterm elections would now be conducted.

The court left open a host of possibilities. Ms. Coleman might have to run in a new Democratic primary, in a newly drawn district with voters who do not know her. Or she might find herself in an open, multicandidate election with no primary at all.

Then again, the old map and her current district, including part of Raleigh and some surrounding communities, might be left just as it is for one last election this fall.

And she may not know the answers for weeks.

“I’m very anxious about this, because we are 70 days out from the election,” Ms. Coleman said Tuesday. “We have been meeting with voters, communicating with them, getting messages out, spending money targeting specific voters we want to go after. That really puts a strain on the direction that you had charted.”