RALEIGH, N.C. — For the first time in more than four years, North Carolina Republicans last month overrode a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
And that was before the party switch that shook up state politics and expanded Republicans’ power.
From abortion access and LGBTQ rights to gun regulations and rules for what can be taught in North Carolina schools, there are a lot of areas where Republicans once didn’t have enough votes to pass bills or were blocked by Cooper’s vetoes, but are expected to move forward now.
The road to GOP supermajorities
The successful override, of Cooper’s decision to block a major gun rights bill that immediately repealed the state’s pistol purchase permit law, handed Democrats and gun safety advocates a bitter defeat, not only because of their opposition to repealing the long-standing permit requirement, but also because the override would have failed if it wasn’t for three House Democrats who were absent when the vote occurred.
Veto showdowns between Cooper, who is serving the last two years of his second term in office, and can’t run for another consecutive term, and GOP leaders were already expected when Republicans came within one seat in last November’s elections of being able to bypass the governor.
But after former Democratic Rep. Tricia Cotham’s defection to the GOP last week, Republicans control outright supermajorities in both chambers. So, Republicans have total legislative control, but only by the exact number of votes needed — 30 seats in the Senate and 72 seats in the House — which means they’ll still need all of their caucus members, including Cotham, to vote together in order to defeat vetoes from Cooper.
And if someone in their party can’t attend a vote or disagrees with the bill, GOP leaders will continue to need the support of one or more Democrats, particularly in the House, where there are a handful of potential swing votes among moderate Democrats.
New abortion restrictions
GOP lawmakers campaigned last year vowing to pass a new abortion ban that would go further than current law, which prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of medical emergencies.
What the new legislation will look like is still unclear, however.
Two proposals emerged early on: one, a six-week ban favored by House Speaker Tim Moore and many of the more conservative members of the party; the other, a first-trimester ban that would restrict abortions after 12 or 13 weeks, favored by Senate leader Phil Berger and some of the more moderate members of the party.
Efforts to reach a consensus within the House and Senate GOP caucuses have continued since the legislature convened in January.
In that time, anti-abortion groups have lobbied lawmakers for various proposals. Hundreds of supporters of a so-called heartbeat bill that would reduce the legal threshold to six weeks traveled to Raleigh to personally urge Republicans to support the earlier cutoff as opposed to a more moderate option.
Earlier this month, Moore indicated that there aren’t enough votes to pass a six-week ban, telling WBTV that he believed a 12-week ban is what a consensus bill will most likely look like.
Passing the eventual bill will still depend on multiple factors, including whether all Republicans including Cotham end up voting for it, and whether any Democrats do so.
When she ran for another term in the House last fall, Cotham, then a Democrat, told The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer that she believed North Carolina should codify Roe v. Wade, as House and Senate Democrats proposed this year, into state law, to “affirm the right to an abortion without interference.”
Speaking to reporters last week, however, Cotham didn’t rule out supporting the GOP abortion bill, saying she would research the bill and talk to her colleagues before making up her mind.
Expanding school choice in a big way
Cotham has also expressed strong support for expanding school choice in North Carolina, and Republicans in both chambers recently proposed boosting the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program, which provides private school vouchers to eligible families.
“On issues like school choice, like charters, we have to evolve,” Cotham said during the GOP press conference last week. “And I believe that the state is changing, especially after what they saw and experienced firsthand in their home, with COVID and learning.”
“One-size-fits-all legislation is wrong for children,” she added. “It might be okay for adults, but I am about children.”
Legislation introduced in the Senate last month, which is supported by all 30 Senate Republicans, would remove income eligibility requirements currently in place, making it so that any family could receive taxpayer-funded vouchers to help send their children to private schools.
Senate Republicans touted the bill, named the “Choose Your School, Choose Your Future,” as the “largest expansion of school choice in North Carolina” since the Opportunity Scholarship program was created nearly a decade ago.
It’s not clear if the Senate’s proposal could pass both chambers, though. House Republicans, in their budget, proposed more funding for the voucher program, but with the income eligibility requirements kept in place.
Ending permit requirement for concealed carry of guns
After repealing the pistol permit law, the next item on the agenda for some Republicans is to remove the permit requirement for people who want to carry a concealed weapon, also referred to as “constitutional carry.”
House Bill 189, which was introduced by leaders of the House Freedom Caucus and other more conservative Republicans, would repeal the concealed carry permit law and lower the age for when it becomes legal to carry a concealed weapon from 21 to 18.
The bill hasn’t received any committee hearings yet, but is a top priority for gun rights groups like Grass Roots North Carolina, which have urged GOP leaders not to stop efforts to loosen gun restrictions with the pistol permit repeal, and to give the constitutional carry bill a vote as well.
In an open letter earlier this month, GRNC president Paul Valone congratulated Moore for the “historic override” of the pistol permit repeal bill, and implored him “to complete the task of strengthening the right of North Carolinians to keep and bear arms” by passing HB 189.
Valone urged Moore to give the bill an “expeditious hearing” ahead of next month’s crossover deadline for bills to pass out of one chamber and be considered in the other.
Anti-Critical Race Theory bill
Another bill where Republicans are keen to bypass Cooper’s veto is House Bill 187, a new version of legislation regulating how racism and sexism can be taught in schools, which cleared the General Assembly in 2021 but was blocked by the governor.
HB 187 passed the House in March, but in a purely party-line vote that saw no Democrats side with Republicans. Cotham, who was still a member of the House Democratic caucus, voted against the bill.
The bill is the GOP’s response to Critical Race Theory, a flash point in the national debate over the prevalence of systemic racism and what students should learn about American history.
One of the bill’s provisions states that teachers shouldn’t promote the notion that anyone “should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” based on their race or sex.
Democrats have argued that the bill is offering solutions to a problem that doesn’t exist, and that the bill’s provisions are worded too vaguely and will result in teachers censoring themselves in the classroom out of fear of getting into trouble.
When Cooper vetoed a similar bill in 2021, he said it “pushes calculated, conspiracy-laden politics into public education.”
Parents’ Bill of Rights
The Senate moved quickly, early in this year’s session, to introduce and pass a new version of the GOP’s Parents’ Bill of Rights, legislation that bans curriculum on gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality in K-4 classrooms, and requires schools to inform parents if a student changes their pronouns.
A similar bill cleared the Senate last year, but was never taken up by the House.
This year, the new version of the bill passed the Senate with a supermajority, but hasn’t yet received a committee hearing in the House.
Since neither bill was voted on by the House, it’s not clear if it would receive a similar party-line vote, or if there would be any Democratic support.
It’s also not clear how Cotham, who has been vocal in her support for the LGBTQ community in the past, would vote.
Other bills affecting the LGBTQ community
Republicans have introduced several other bills that would affect the LGBTQ community.
One would prohibit transgender females from playing on girls high school sports teams.
Others would block physicians from providing gender transition procedures to minors unless certain conditions are met, and prohibit surgeries such as mastectomies for minors, in addition to blocking doctors from giving minors puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
None of these bills have been taken up for votes yet, and many Democrats and LGBTQ rights groups have blasted the measures as dangerous attacks on LGBTQ youth and adults.
Law enforcement cooperation with ICE
Republican efforts to require sheriffs across the state to work with U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement failed when Cooper vetoed bills in 2019 and 2021.
When the legislature convened in January, one of the first bills Republicans filed was a new version of the previous bills that had been blocked.
House Bill 10 would require sheriff’s offices to notify ICE if they charge someone with certain high-level crimes and can’t determine their legal status. The offenses that would require notification to the federal agency include certain drug felonies, homicide, rape or other sex offenses, kidnapping and abduction, human trafficking, certain assault offenses or violations of a domestic violence protective order.
The bill would also require sheriffs to temporarily hold people for whom ICE has issued an immigrant detainer, which the agency uses to tell local and state law enforcement that it intends to take custody of people it has probable cause to believe are “removable non-citizens.”
The bill passed the House last month with the support of three Democrats, one of whom was Cotham. It’s expected to clear the Senate as well, and could lead to one of the next override votes if Cooper blocks it again.
