This is what minority rule looks like
We knew it was coming and it did:
The North Carolina legislature banned most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy Tuesday evening, voting to override the veto of Gov. Roy Cooper (D), while a similar measure heads to a final vote in Nebraska in the coming days.
“It won’t stop here. NCGOP has repeatedly referred to this legislation as a ‘first step’. Stay engaged. And thank you to everyone who came today and sent messages of support. It means more than you know,” tweeted Rep. Lindsey Prather, a Buncombe County Democrat.
North Carolina Republicans mustered the bare minimum of votes needed for the three-fifths override with the help of “partisan gerrymandering and an inexplicable recent party switch by a previously pro-choice lawmaker,” writes Stephen Wolf at Daily Kos:
North Carolina’s legislative districts have been gerrymandered to favor Republicans to varying degrees ever since the GOP swept into power in the 2010 midterms. Because the governor lacks veto power over redistricting, the courts have been the only bulwark against Republican gerrymandering, leading to an endless cycle of litigation as the GOP’s maps would get struck down, replaced, and challenged once again.
While the courts blocked the initial maps Republicans passed after the 2020 census, GOP lawmakers responded by adopting slightly tamer gerrymanders that were used in 2022 while litigation proceeded. Despite Republicans’ modest victories in last year’s statewide elections for the U.S. Senate and other contests, Republicans came close to winning veto-proof majorities in the legislature under these revised lines, securing three-fifths of all seats in the Senate and one shy of that mark in the House.
Democrats had reason to hope the future might look different, however, after the state Supreme Court issued a landmark opinion in December ruling that partisan gerrymandering violated North Carolina’s constitution. The court consequently struck down the GOP’s state Senate map, ordering it to be redrawn for 2024. (It did, however, uphold the state House map, where the GOP’s gerrymander was more subtle.)
But that ruling did not stand for long. After flipping control of the court last year, the new Republican majority issued an unprecedented decision last month that reversed the court’s four-month-old ruling and decreed that state courts could not police partisan gerrymandering. That now gives GOP lawmakers a blank check to re-gerrymander the state from top to bottom.
You already know about Rep. Tricia Cotham and her party-switching.
North Carolina Democrats are hardly blameless. The Democratic legislative caucuses’ and state party’s candidate recruiting efforts that (as I explained previously) “were robust in 2018 and 2020 fell apart in 2022 …. They left 14 of 50 state Senate seats and 30 of 120 state House seats uncontested, likely harming turnout for the U.S. Senate and down-ticket races.” Turnout by younger voters that was solid in other states flagged in North Carolina in 2022. Democrats lost control of the state Supreme Court to Republicans. They failed to retain enough seats to sustain a Cooper veto with a cushion. Cotham happened. And here we are.
N.C. Democrats’ new state chair, Anderson Clayton, was in the building with activists Tuesday night. “Abortion activists were denied access to the gallery because anti-abortion folks had the galleries ‘reserved’ for them,” Clayton tweeted.
After the vote, Clayton, who ran on reversing the recruiting failures of 2022, launched a tweet thread:
In 2024, North Carolina Democrats will ensure every voter knows where their leaders stand on the issue of choice, bodily autonomy, and health care. We will continue to fight to elect candidates that stand up for reproductive freedom in North Carolina. #ncpol
Tonight, Republicans sent a message to North Carolinians that they don’t trust them to make their own health care decisions. SB20 is dangerous legislation that puts politicians in the middle of deeply personal health care decisions.
It abandons the medical advice of doctors who urged lawmakers to stop this ban. It will have devastating impacts on abortion access, putting up medically unnecessary barriers to reproductive care and for many – it may impact their access altogether.
It is shameful to see Republicans flip-flop and betray their constituents to toe the party line. It’s even more shameful to see their gloating faces as folks exited the gallery knowing that this bill will kill people in our state. They should be ashamed.
They won’t be. This legislation is unpopular, as the New York Times reported Monday:
A Meredith poll in February showed that 57 percent of respondents supported the state’s current 20-week ban, or would expand it. Another 35 percent wanted the procedure restricted to 15 weeks or less.
This is what minority rule looks like. Donald Trump won North Carolina in 2020 by 1.3 points. The current congressional delegation is 7-7 Republicans and Democrats. To maximize their advantage, the NCGOP will hold off revealing their re-gerrymandered 2024 maps (already drafted, to be sure) until the filing period opens in December. Expect a 10-4 Republican congressional majority (at best) and even harsher state district maps.
Since her election, Clayton has been barnstorming the state generating excitement among younger voters. Daily Kos is already raising money for the state Democratic Party to help with field organizing. Clayton will need the financial help to support candidates and local committees stop the state from becoming North Florida.
“Unless better people get involved with politics, politics doesn’t get any better,” Clayton told Pod Save America this week.