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Politics|North Carolina G.O.P. Brushes Aside Democratic Governor to Expand Power
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/11/us/politics/north-carolina-republicans-power.html
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After cloaking a bill that strips key powers from Democrats as hurricane aid, the state’s Republican-controlled legislature overrode a veto from Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, to pass it into law.
By Nick Corasaniti and Eduardo Medina
Nick Corasaniti reported from Asheville, Canton, Waynesville and Leicester, N.C., and Eduardo Medina from Raleigh and Durham, N.C.
Dec. 11, 2024Updated 5:55 p.m. ET
Republicans in North Carolina muscled through a sweeping expansion of their own power on Wednesday, overriding the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that will give the G.O.P. increased control over elections, judicial appointments and whether its laws stand up in the courts.
Perhaps most striking was how Republicans did it: They titled the legislation “Disaster Relief” but filled it with measures that had nothing to do with aid for areas devastated by Hurricane Helene and instead eroded the power of top state Democrats. Just 13 of the bill’s 131 pages dealt directly with the storm.
Republicans moved swiftly to pass the bill last month, only for Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, to veto the legislation. Republicans then moved to overcome his veto in the final weeks of their single-vote supermajority in the House, where they lost key seats in November. Even as Donald J. Trump carried the state, Republicans fell short in several other top races, including for governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
The override vote, which passed by 72 to 46 along party lines, follows four years of efforts by Republicans nationwide to gain greater control over the mechanics of elections, a push initially fueled by Mr. Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential contest.
State Representative Tim Moore, the departing Republican speaker of the House, said openly before the vote that the bill was meant to help his party win future elections.
“This action item today is going to be critical to making sure North Carolina continues to be able to do what it can to deliver victories for Republicans up and down the ticket and move this country in the right direction,” Mr. Moore told the Trump ally and conservative podcaster Stephen K. Bannon on Wednesday.
