North Carolina Republicans have so effectively gerrymandered their state that—even though the state has a Democratic governor—the hope for Democrats is not winning either chamber of the state legislature, but simply breaking the veto-proof Republican supermajorities. The importance of that task, though, can’t be underestimated, since Republicans have used their power to undermine democracy in the state time after time, and have even publicly joked about doing so. Democrats need to win four seats in the state House and six in the state Senate to thwart Republican veto power, and the good news is, prospects look good:
“If you’re a Republican and you’re not nervous, you should be,” said Carter Wrenn, a longtime GOP operative in the state who made his name working for the late senator Jesse Helms.
Even Art Pope, the wealthy GOP donor and former lawmaker who helped choreograph the Republican takeover in the state in 2010, conceded in a recent interview: “At this point in time, it looks favorable to the Democrats.”
Democrats, from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee to Indivisible to the National Democratic Redistricting Committee to NextGen America, are focusing efforts and spending in the state. Former President Barack Obama, who narrowly won North Carolina in 2008 and narrowly lost it in 2012, has endorsed four state House candidates so far. And voters seem primed to respond both to Donald Trump’s unpopularity and to state Republican moves, like attacks on education funding and the notorious anti-transgender bathroom bill, with a backlash.
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