While North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race may decide which party gains control of the Senate, the midterm elections may also determine whether or not the Republican Party has control of the state government. This year, the two parties are facing off in an election that could decide the future of North Carolina’s abortion and voting rights.
All 170 legislative seats are up for election on Nov. 8, where the Republican Party is just short of the 60% supermajority required to overturn Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto power by two Senate and three House seats. While Cooper is not on the ballot, the overturning of five Democratic legislators would give the Republican Party the ability to pass any bill into law without needing Cooper’s approval.
In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, North Carolina remains one of the few southern states where abortion is not completely banned or heavily restricted. In the first week that Roe v. Wade was overturned, around 200 women from surrounding states with trigger bans on abortion traveled to North Carolina for the procedure, which prompted Cooper to sign an executive order to refuse cooperation with other state governments looking to prosecute women who had abortions in North Carolina.
Alsey Hopkins, a third-year studying history and a member of NC State’s College Republicans club, said abortion rights are certainly on the ballot this year. Hopkins said that in a poll, NC State’s chapter voted their most important issues as abortion, gun laws and education reform, in that order.
“You could almost certainly expect to see further abortion restrictions, given that seems to be very popular in the party currently,” Hopkins said.
Autumn McGuire, a second-year studying political science and the president of NC State’s College Democrats club, said she hopes the threat against women’s right to abortion will influence young people to vote.
“I hope the recent Supreme Court ruling is a wake-up call for a lot of young people realizing just how important their vote can be, and that they use that to actually take action,” McGuire said.
Alongside abortion, voting rights are also a major issue in this election. Following the results of the 2020 presidential election, Republicans across the country have introduced bills and measures intended to restrict voting rights.
Dr. Michael Struett, an associate professor and chair of political science at NC State, said the North Carolina Republican Party is especially guilty of gerrymandering and introducing measures to make voting more difficult, such as canceling early voting and limiting the number of days of early voting.
“Those measures would be likely to pass if Cooper were not in a place to veto it,” Struett said. “And what that does is it sort of ensures that the Republicans will stay in power because the people who will be most likely to vote against them will find it more difficult to vote in the future.”
McGuire said she recognizes this election presents an uphill battle for Democrats, as their main priority for this election is to keep the Republican supermajority at bay.
“I imagine being more 50/50 is our priority right now,” McGuire said. “Because [49] to 51 is not great. When it comes to passing stuff, a lot of stuff is just going to be stopped right away.”
Hopkins said Republicans are feeling hopeful for the results of this election, as issues such as inflation are attracting the attention of Republican voters.
“The energy seems to be there,” Hopkins said. “It’s not out of the question, but it is a pretty big year for the Republicans. The energy is definitely there for it.”
Prior to 2018, the Republican Party had a supermajority in the state government since 2012, where the party overrode 20 out of Cooper’s 25 vetos in the first year of his first term.
Struett said he credits the loss of the Republican supermajority in 2018 to the same anti-Trump sentiment that won Biden his presidency in 2020. Even though there was evidence of gerrymandering, Democrats were so passionately against the Trump administration that they voted in record numbers and were able to flip seats throughout the country.
“I think in the wave of anti-Trump sentiment, there was higher Democratic turnout than usual, both in 2018 and 2020,” Struett said. “That probably helped Democrats to win, even on the map which very much favors Republican interests.”
Midterm elections are notorious for attracting low voter turnout, with 52% of North Carolina’s registered voters voting in the last midterm, which garnered the largest midterm turnout since 1990. Among this low turnout, young people are especially less likely to vote.
Wake County allows same-day voting during the early voting period, which means that unregistered voters can register and vote at the same time as long as it occurs in the early voting period, which ends on the Saturday before election day.
While the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina may determine if abortion and voting rights are protected at a national level, the same can be said at the local level, in which Struett said voting in local elections is just as important as the national elections.
“It’s also very important to vote in those down ballot races, even if all you do is vote for the party that you think is likely to be closer to your representation to certain of your political beliefs,” Struett said. “The truth is we have a lot more influence in local elections. And state assembly districts are small in North Carolina, right? So if more people were routinely voting, it would make it more difficult for Republicans to try to control our legal system with a minority of the voters supporting them as they’ve been able to do in recent years.”
While there is little chance that the Republican Party will lose their influence in the state government, this midterm election will determine the extent of their influence, which will determine where the state stands on vital topics for the next two years.
Hopkins said the future of America is what is at stake in this year’s election.
“It’s a very important year for both parties and your vision of America is what’s up for vote this year,” Hopkins said. “This is really a turning point for the country this year.”
