Chris Cooper, professor of political science at Western Carolina University, analyzes the early work of the 2023 N.C. General Assembly.
Does a one-seat partisan advantage in the drawing of North Carolina’s new congressional district maps amount to an extreme partisan gerrymander that is impermissible under the N.C. Constitution? That was much of the focus on the first day of a trial on the constitutionality of new congressional and legislative maps recently passed by the General...
Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed more legislation than all other North Carolina governors combined. With the past three vetoes stamped over the past three weeks, Cooper’s total comes to 57 vetoes, and the session isn’t over. The next closest was Democrat Gov. Bev Perdue, with 20 vetoes during her tenure from 2009 to 2013. Her...
A Civitas poll out Thursday, May 13, finds North Carolina voters are growing sightly in their support for Republicans in the N.C. legislature, and decreasing slightly in their support of legislative Democrats. If the election were held today, 48% of those polled said they would support the Republican candidate, up from 46 % in March....
The early returns are in. So far, Chief Justice Cheri Beasley’s election protests have flopped. The Democratic incumbent is challenging the outcome of her race against Republican Justice Paul Newby. Newby led by 366 votes before Beasley filed formal protests to elections boards in 89 of the state’s 100 counties. She’s also asked for a...
A handful of House Republicans have introduced a series of bills to limit the governor’s powers in a state of emergency, a move that’s likely to further divide politics in Raleigh, political scientists say. House Bill 1059 would prohibit the governor from preventing religious organizations from gathering in a place of worship during a state...
In politics, timing really is everything. That’s the key takeaway for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District this election season, says Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University. In December, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-11th District, announced his decision to leave Congress as the deadline for candidate filing loomed. It was critical timing and...
The General Assembly will look a bit different after the 2020 session. Twenty-four lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats — have opted not to run for re-election. Institutional knowledge will shrink as experienced lawmakers leave the General Assembly, political scientists say. But the turnover may allow new issues and ideas to take center stage. See the...
The 9th Congressional District race, one political expert says, may come down to voters’ perception of which candidate has moved closer to the center. State Sen. Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenburg, won a crowded Republican primary for the 9th Congressional District seat. Bishop got 14,361 votes, or 47.7% of the total ballots cast May 14. Just 9.68%...
Republicans want to protect their supermajority in the General Assembly. No surprise there. What does have political analysts talking is how openly GOP leaders have stated that as a goal as they draw new, court-ordered legislative maps. Earlier this year, a federal three-judge panel ordered lawmakers to scrap 28 districts that were racially gerrymandered. The...
When Roy Cooper was elected governor of North Carolina, he faced an uphill battle to fulfill any of his campaign promises. Republicans held a supermajority in the General Assembly, essentially taking away Cooper’s veto power — his main form of leverage. Then in a special session before Cooper was inaugurated, legislators passed several measures further limiting Cooper’s power. They removed the governor’s ability to appoint a majority to...
