Long Session Adjournment

A North Carolina General Assembly annual work period that stretched 14 months while a state budget was finalized and district maps were redrawn twice essentially concluded last Thursday (March 10th) with passage of a clean-up bill and backing of a resolution supporting Ukraine. The legislature sent NC Governor, Roy Cooper, an omnibus measure that included both technical and substantive changes to items contained in the current two-year state government budget and other recently approved legislation. Provisions included helping more businesses with a COVID-19 economic recovery grant program, a pay raise for more home-healthcare and personal care workers covered by government health programs to $15 per hour, and expanding a federal crop loss program. Changes to how money for local capital projects are distributed were also included in the omnibus legislation.

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Short Session Schedule 

The NC legislative long session may have formally ended, but the adjournment resolution gives the General Assembly an option to hold three days of meetings in early April and again in early May.  Specific dates for these special meetings, in addition to criteria for business, are provided in the resolution. Monday, April 4th through Wednesday, April 6th and Wednesday, May 4th through Friday, May 6th are the dates the legislature may meet to take up veto override bills, appointment and nomination bills, redistricting litigation, election laws for concurrence, adoption of conference reports, impeachment bills, resolutions, and joint resolutions on adjournment resolutions. Short session will convene on Wednesday, May 18th. Normally, the NC General Assembly gavels in for short session around the end of April or very early part of May. This year, however, with the primary date pushed back to May 17th due to redistricting, short session will have a delayed start. As a result, House and Senate leadership are telling members to anticipate a condensed, or true “short” short session. An official schedule has yet to be determined. For the next two months, members are back in their respective districts, a number that are newly drawn, utilizing this short break to campaign and raise funds. Members of the NC legislature are not allowed by state law to fundraise while in session – given the length of this recent long session, members are anxious to make-up for lost time.    

Redistricting Review

On Wednesday, February 23rd, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld voting maps finalized earlier in the day by a trial court, a ruling likely to give Democrats a boost in this year’s elections. The decision paved the way for candidate filing to resume after a long delay. The trial court, which included two Republicans and one Democrat, signed off on redrawn state House and Senate boundaries that state lawmakers on February 17th, but the court went with a Congressional map of its own, crafted with the help of independent redistricting experts it hired known as "special masters." Under the legislature's redraw, Republicans could have had a 10-4 advantage in an election year that was bad for Democrats, though four of the 14 districts were competitive. Under the trial court’s approved congressional map, Republicans have a 7-6 advantage, with the 13th district being the only highly competitive race, according to Chris Cooper, a Western Carolina University political scientist who testified on behalf of voting groups last month. Both legislative maps reduce the GOP's prospects of recapturing veto-proof control of either chamber compared to the November maps.

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Republicans currently hold a 69-51 seat advantage in the NC House, a 28-22 seat advantage in the NC Senate, and an 8-5 advantage within the Congressional Delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives. Links to the newly enacted NC legislative and Congressional maps are provided below:

• N.C. State House
• N.C. State Senate
• N.C./Congressional 

Battleground North Carolina

North Carolinians who care about the balance of power in Washington and Raleigh now have a clearer picture of the state’s most consequential races. Here are 7 NC political races to watch. 

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BREAKING: Case Not Closed

North Carolina legislators are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on a legal theory that could have massive implications for elections around the country — and that several justices have already said they’re open to. It’s related to the gerrymandering case the legislature recently lost when the court denied an appeal from GOP leaders. But even though the legislature lost that fight, The News & Observer reported last week, there is a good chance the court will take up the new appeal that has now been filed. 

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