North Carolina lawmakers are not expected to take up legislation again until after the Nov. 3 election. That leaves lawmakers with unfinished legislation to act on after voters have chosen the next General Assembly, but before the current legislature’s terms expire at the end of the year. Because of this, election results are a key factor in shaping the post-election session.
The General Assembly’s final scheduled sessions run Nov. 16-19 and Nov. 30 through Dec. 18, giving lawmakers several weeks after Election Day to finish their remaining work.
“It has not been unusual in recent years for the North Carolina General Assembly to reconvene for a post-election session,” said Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation senior political analyst. “Ever since Republicans took control of both legislative chambers in 2011, there has been a mindset that lawmakers should not simply leave Raleigh during the summer and let the executive branch do what it will until the following year.”
Under the adjournment resolution approved before lawmakers left Raleigh, the November sessions are limited to certain categories. Those include veto overrides, legislative and gubernatorial appointments, constitutional amendments, conference reports negotiated between the House and Senate, and bills awaiting one chamber’s agreement to changes made by the other.
Kokai said lawmakers already have several clear priorities waiting for them, but the scope of the November session will largely depend on the election results.
“We already know that lawmakers will want to try to override as many gubernatorial vetoes as possible, and there might be some other pieces of legislation that didn’t quite reach the finish line before work ended this summer,” Kokai said. “But election results clearly will dictate how active the post-election session is likely to be.”
How far Republican leaders go beyond that unfinished business will depend on the makeup of the General Assembly voters choose on Election Day.
“If the partisan breakdown of the 2027 General Assembly looks similar to the current legislative lineup, then action in the post-election session could be relatively limited,” Kokai added. “But if Democrats make significant gains on Nov. 3, then Republicans are likely to push for measures that could withstand a gubernatorial veto now but would be much less likely to do so next year.”
House Democratic Leader Robert Reives, D-Chatham, warned that significant Democratic gains could prompt Republicans to use the period between Election Day and the beginning of the 2027 session to lock in policies or make additional changes to executive power.
“I’m not a fan of lame duck sessions, and it’s not about who’s in power or who’s not in power, but to me, in November the electorate speaks, and so if you don’t like what the electorate’s saying, then coming in November and December and thwarting what they’re trying to do, I just don’t agree with,” Reives told reporters on the House floor. “I don’t think that’s good government.”
Reives pointed to the end of 2016, when Republican lawmakers returned after the election and approved legislation that reduced the authority of incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and made changes affecting incoming Attorney General Josh Stein and the Department of Justice.
“I thought that was the meanest thing I had seen somebody do … making him fire people before he even got in office,” Reives said. “So yeah, it’ll get bad. It will be bad if a lot of Democrats win in November.”
House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, dismissed concerns that returning after the election is unusual or intended to circumvent the results.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve come back in November one way or the other, whether we’re going to maintain a supermajority after that January or not,” Hall told reporters. “Members of this body are elected for two years, and that runs through December, and so we’ll take advantage of that entire term.”
One of the main tasks awaiting lawmakers in November will be reconsidering bills vetoed by Stein.
There are currently four vetoed bills awaiting action when lawmakers return in November. They include House Bill 377, a wide-ranging courts package; House Bill 958, an elections measure that would shorten early voting for primaries from 17 days to 10; House Bill 437, which addresses drug-free zones and unauthorized public camping; and Senate Bill 50, which would allow permitless concealed carry.
Republicans remain one vote short of a veto-proof majority in the House. The chamber has 71 Republicans, 47 Democrats, and two unaffiliated members. If all 120 members are present, Republicans need at least one vote from outside their caucus to override a Stein veto.
“Those non-GOP votes are unlikely to support measures that have absolutely zero bipartisan prospects,” Kokai said. “But Democrats should not count on any help from the members they helped oust in this year’s primaries. If the legislature approves measures with support from Reps. Carla Cunningham, Shelly Willingham, or Nasif Majeed, those measures are pretty likely to become law.”
Cunningham and Majeed, both former Democrats, switched their registrations to unaffiliated after losing Democratic primaries this year. Willingham remains a Democrat but also lost his primary.
The adjournment resolution also allows the legislature to take up existing conference reports — negotiated compromises between the House and Senate on bills that did not make it across the finish line before lawmakers left Raleigh.
That could bring lawmakers back to the debate over intoxicating hemp products. House Bill 328 remains unresolved after the Senate voted 37-6 in July for a conference report that would sharply restrict the products, but House leaders declined to take up the measure before leaving Raleigh.
Hall said before adjournment that the existing proposal was unlikely to pass the House Republican caucus, but he planned to assemble a smaller group of lawmakers to continue working on the issue. That could set up another attempt to reach an agreement when lawmakers return in November.
Several bills also remain in conference and could return for final votes in November, including measures dealing with state budget adjustments, Medicaid funding, education policy, health and human services, criminal law, alcohol regulations, health care costs, and title fraud prevention.
Because conference reports cannot be amended once they reach the floor and instead receive an up-or-down vote, bills already in conference could give Republican leaders a vehicle to package and advance broader legislative priorities before their current majorities potentially shrink in 2027.
Ultimately, the Nov. 3 results will determine how much of the unfinished agenda lawmakers pursue — and how far Republican leaders try to go before the current General Assembly leaves office.
