North Carolina Republicans Move to Kill Democracy in Their State

Gabi Allen | The Daily Tar Heel

North Carolina Republicans are eager to gerrymander more egregiously than even Wisconsin Republicans—and that’s saying something.

With the permission of their newly-conservative state supreme court, Republicans have redrawn their state’s (briefly) nonpartisan voting maps.

They’re now poised to seize an additional three seats in Congress, flipping the current 7-7 balance between their party and the Democrats to a lopsided 10-4.

Though both parties gerrymander, Republicans are particularly brazen with their efforts. Sweeping efforts in Wisconsin, Florida, and North Carolina are nothing new. In Alabama, their gerrymandering took a racial bent, such that even the regressively conservative United States Supreme Court blanched.

Despite its legislative makeup and newly-drawn voting maps, North Carolina is indeed a purple state: with slightly more registered Democrats than Republicans and a Democratic Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General.

A decade of Republican gerrymandering, however, netted them a near supermajority within the state legislature.

Though Governor Roy Cooper’s veto pen remained formidable for much of his second term, the defection of newly-elected Democrat Tricia Cotham to the Republican Party three months into her own term yielded the GOP a veto-proof supermajority—which they have exploited relentlessly.

The decision today by that supermajority represents another major setback for democracy in North Carolina.

Previously, a liberal iteration of the state supreme court deemed partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional and ordered the drawing of nonpartisan voting maps, resulting in the current 7-7 split.

The court flipped back to the right, however, in the midterms. This latest iteration reversed that previous ruling, giving Republicans the greenlight to proceed with their hyper-partisan maps.