RALEIGH, N.C. – Democrats in North Carolina were celebrating big wins in the swing state after the November election, including victories in races for governor and other top statewide offices. But the political high didn’t last long.
Republican lawmakers are stripping away some core powers of the newly elected officials through a series of wide-ranging changes, anticipating that the result of a yet-to-be-called state legislative race will cost them their veto-proof majority next year. Critics say the moves, which were rushed through without any chance for public comment or analysis, undermine the voters and are simply undemocratic, but they have few options for undoing them.
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“Let us speak plainly: This bill is nothing more than a desperate power grab,” said Courtney Patterson, vice president of the NAACP's North Carolina chapter.
Among the changes, which were included in a bill that also addressed Hurricane Helene relief, are stripping the incoming governor of the authority to appoint members to the state elections board and instead giving that responsibility to the state auditor — a job won by a Republican last month. The measure also weakens the ability of the governor to fill vacancies on the state court of appeals and the state supreme court. It prohibits the attorney general from taking legal positions contrary to the legislature’s and weakens the powers of the state school superintendent and lieutenant governor.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein, who will succeed Cooper next month, have already filed a lawsuit against Republican lawmakers, saying many portions of Senate Bill 382 violate the state constitution. The Republicans' actions in North Carolina are the latest example of how majority parties in some states have tried to undermine representative democracy in recent years, using extreme gerrymandering to expand their hold on power or trying to undercut officeholders of the opposing party or ballot initiatives that passed in statewide elections.
“This is not how healthy democracies work," said Steven Greene, a political science professor at North Carolina State University. “You don’t lose and decide you’re going to change the rules because you don’t like that you lost. It’s corrosive of the basic principles of democracy.”
Greene said he was disappointed but not surprised by the effort he describes as part of a familiar playbook. In 2016, hundreds of people protested and more than two dozen were arrested after Republicans passed a bill that stripped powers from Cooper's incoming administration during a special session.
Republicans point out that Democrats acted to weaken executive branch positions after voters elected the state's first GOP governor in the 20th century, in 1972, and the century's only GOP lieutenant governor in 1988. North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger blamed Democrats’ “blatant partisanship” for necessitating the changes, which came just weeks after voters chose Democrats for the top statewide positions.
“The new measures in Senate Bill 382 actually balance our three branches of state government so that North Carolina remains on a positive trajectory, free from Democratic Party and liberal activist obstruction,” he said in a statement earlier this month.
While Democrats have won many top statewide offices for several election cycles, Republicans maintain a tight grip on the other two branches of government in North Carolina. Republicans have control of the legislature and hold at least a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court, where any dispute over the power-stripping legislation could ultimately land.
Since winning control of North Carolina’s legislature in the 2010 elections, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly drawn voting districts to their favor, just as Democrats had done when they were in charge. That has helped Republicans retain a firm hold on power in the legislature while also triggering protracted court battles over redistricting.
The current legislative districts are advantageous to Republicans. The GOP won about nine more state House seats this year than would have been expected based on their average share of the district votes, according to an Associated Press analysis using a mathematical formula designed to detect gerrymandering.
“North Carolina is very much a purple state,” said Melissa Price Kromm, executive director of North Carolina for the People Action. “... But our legislature has been gerrymandered to allow for a Republican supermajority that makes these nefarious attacks on our democracy possible. It’s baked into the system.”
Meanwhile, an extremely tight race for a state Supreme Court seat has sparked a legal battle over the potential removal of tens of thousands of ballots. With the incumbent Democratic justice clinging to a narrow lead, the Republican candidate's challenge includes objecting to ballots from voters whose registration lacks driver’s license or Social Security numbers. His attorneys argue that makes them incomplete.
“North Carolina voters see that the same folks who are trying to overturn the results of the state supreme court race are the same people who are trying to change the way our elections are handled, the way powers and government functions are handled,” said Julia Hawes, communications director at the statewide advocacy group Democracy North Carolina. “A lot of us have been watching these power grabs and attempts to overturn the will of the people for over a decade.”
In several other states, lawmakers also have made attempts to nullify some results of the November election. In Missouri, Republicans are taking initial steps to curtail voter-approved abortion protections by introducing a new constitutional amendment to restrict abortion access. Massachusetts Democrats are exploring options to alter the auditing process after voters overwhelmingly approved giving the state auditor the authority to watchdog the Legislature.
During last week's veto override in the North Carolina House, over 100 demonstrators chanted “Shame” and “People power” as they were escorted out of the chamber's gallery. Two days before, hundreds marched to the Legislative Building to deliver documents opposing the bill.
Rep. Cynthia Ball, a Democrat and member of the election law committee, criticized Republicans for not making the bill public earlier, not offering a public comment period and tucking such a significant power shift into legislation that included storm relief.
"Our democracy is threatened more and more when things are done behind closed doors,” she said.
Della Hann, 64, traveled the 2 1/2 hours to Raleigh from her home in Southport to demonstrate when the Senate agreed to override Cooper’s veto of what she called “a horrible bill.”
The legislation, she said, is “not for the people of the state. It’s for the people sitting in that room to keep their power.”
Kromm, of North Carolina for the People Action, said watching crowds gather in protest offered hope and said her group would be focused on educating voters so they can hold lawmakers accountable.
“The sheer number of people who turned up showed that people in North Carolina care about what’s happening in our legislature, and they don’t give up without a fight," she said. "They know authoritarianism thrives on complacency and that we must stand together and refuse to let this assault on democracy go unanswered.”
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Fernando reported from Chicago. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, and David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed to this report.
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