CHAPEL HILL — N.C. Although the legislature and governor work less than a mile from each other, their relationship is often less than amiable.
Last Wednesday, the House voted to override the Governor’s veto for the first time this session, repealing handgun permits in the state. It’s the first time they have successfully overridden the governor’s veto since 2018.
⅗ of each chamber must vote to override the veto for it to pass. In the Senate, that’s 30 out of the 50 seats, and in the House, it’s 72 out of 120.
The Senate already has 30 republicans, and as of today, the House has 72. The news broke last night that once-Democrat Tricia Cotham re-registered as Republican.
Issues like abortion and the Parent Bill of Rights, that have historically always been vetoed by the governor, can now be passed into law without any democrat approval.
House Minority Leader Robert Reives condemned the move… saying Cotham campaigned as a supporter of abortion rights and gun safety, and called for her to resign.
“Those constituents deserved to know what values were most important to their elected representative. Because of that, the appropriate action is for her to resign so that her constituents are fairly represented in the North Carolina House of Representatives,” Reives said in a statement.
WUNC political analyst Jeff Tiberii says that we might not see many controversial bills because Republican leadership remembers what happened last time they had supermajorities.
“They got a lot of their agenda done, but at the same time, they got in trouble with state and federal courts,” Tiberii said. “They saw dozens, literally dozens of bills that they enacted upended by the courts for being unconstitutional.”
Republicans have already shown that they are willing and able to override Governor Cooper’s veto. How Democrats in the state will respond is yet to come.