North Carolina Republican Party

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North Carolina Republican Party
Chairperson	Jason Simmons
Lieutenant Governor	Mark Robinson
Senate President (pro tempore)	Phil Berger
House Speaker	Tim Moore
Founded	1867
Headquarters	1506 Hillsborough St, Raleigh, NC 27605
Student wing	North Carolina Federation of College Republicans
Youth wing	North Carolina Federation of Young Republicans North Carolina Teenage Republicans
Membership (2022)	2,237,255[1]
Ideology	Conservatism
Political position	Right-wing
National affiliation	Republican Party
Colors	Red
Statewide executive offices	6 / 10
Seats in the North Carolina Senate	30 / 50
Seats in the North Carolina House of Representatives	72 / 120
U.S. Senate	2 / 2
U.S. House of Representatives	7 / 14
State Supreme Court	5 / 7
Website
www.nc.gop
Politics of North Carolina Elections

The North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) is the affiliate of the

History

Nineteenth century

Although Republicans first nominated a candidate for President of the United States,

To prevent this kind of challenge, after Democrats regained control of the state legislature, in 1900 they adopted a constitutional suffrage amendment which required prepayment of a poll tax and an educational qualification (to be assessed by a registrar, which meant that it could be subjectively applied), and lengthened the residence period required before registration. A grandfather clause exempted from the poll tax those entitled to vote on January 1, 1867, which limited exemptions to white men.^[6] These barriers to voter registration caused a dramatic drop in the number of African-American voters in the state by 1904, although they constituted one-third of the population.^[7] An estimated 75,000 black male citizens lost the vote.^[8][9]

With North Carolina a one-party Democratic state of the Solid South following the disfranchisement of blacks, North Carolina Republicans struggled to survive as a party during the first half of the twentieth century. African Americans were virtually excluded from the political system in the state until the late 1960s. In 1928 Republicans carried the state's electoral votes for president (for candidate Herbert Hoover).^[10] White members of the Republican Party generally lived in the Piedmont near Charlotte and Winston-Salem, and the mountains in the western part of the state. In 1952 Charles R. Jonas was elected to Congress from the western part of the state as the first Republican since before the Great Depression. He was joined in 1962 by Jim Broyhill. From this base, and nearly winning the electoral votes for the state in the Presidential elections from 1952 to 1960, the party began to grow.

As in other southern states, in the late 20th century, white conservatives began to shift from the Democratic Party to the Republican one, especially after national Democratic leaders supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. White conservatives first voted for Republican presidential candidates. From 1968 through 2004, the majority of North Carolina voters supported Republicans in every presidential election, except 1976, when favorite son Democrat Jimmy Carter was elected from Georgia.^{[citation needed]} When they re-entered the political system, African Americans shifted their alliance from the Republican to the Democratic Party, which had national leaders who had supported the civil rights effort and legislation enforcing their constitutional rights as citizens.

In 1972, Republicans became competitive in statewide elections for the first time since 1900: James Holshouser was elected Governor of the state, and Jesse Helms, a former Democrat who held office for a long time, was elected to the U.S. Senate.^[11] Jack Lee, who was elected state party chairperson in 1977, is widely credited with unifying the North Carolina Republican Party in this period.^[12][13]

The parties were generally competitive, with the state's voters split between them, through much of the rest of the 20th century.

Twenty-first century

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2021)

The

When the Republican-controlled legislature conducted redistricting in 2011, it established districts biased in favor of Republicans. As a result, although more voters chose Democratic congressional candidates in the state in 2012, Republicans won a majority of the seats.^[15] The district maps have been challenged in several lawsuits for racial gerrymandering, and the maps were struck down by a state court in 2019.^[16]

In 2012, Republicans retained control of the legislature and elected two Republicans,

In February 2021, the North Carolina Republican Party censured Senator Richard Burr after he voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in inciting a pro-Trump mob to storm the U.S. Capitol.^[17] The next month, the party did not censure House Representative Madison Cawthorn amid numerous accusations of sexual harassment, as well as exposure of false and baseless claims that he had made about himself.^[17]

Party platform

In 2016, North Carolina Republicans passed laws to order transgender people to use bathrooms according to their sex assigned at birth. On March 23, 2016, Governor McCrory signed the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act (commonly known as House Bill 2 or HB2), described at the time as the most anti-LGBT legislation in the United States.^{[18][19][20][21]} It eliminated anti-discrimination protections for gay, transgender, and intersex people and forbids cities to re-establish such protections.^[22] It also required people who enter government buildings to use only the restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates.^[22] While some transgender people alter the gender marker on their birth certificates, others have not yet done so or cannot do so, and this law would have prevented them from using the restroom consistent with the gender identity in which they live.^[22] However, on March 30, 2017, the portion of the law regarding bathroom use was repealed, and a sunset provision of December 1, 2020 was applied to the ban on local governments passing antidiscrimination laws.^[23][24]

At the state party's annual convention in June 2023, delegates voted to censure U.S. Senator Thom Tillis for his support of same-sex marriage. The North Carolina Republican party platform opposes same-sex marriage.^[25]

Current elected officials

The party controls six of the ten statewide Council of State offices and holds a 3/5 supermajority in the North Carolina House of Representatives and in the North Carolina Senate. Republicans also hold both of the state's U.S. Senate seats and 7 of the state's 14 U.S. House seats.

Members of Congress

U.S. Senate

Republicans have controlled both of North Carolina's seats in the U.S. Senate since 2014:

• Class II: Thom Tillis (senior senator)

  

• Class III: Ted Budd (junior senator)

  

U.S. House of Representatives

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (March 2023)

Out of the 14 seats North Carolina is apportioned in the U.S. House of Representatives, 7 are held by Republicans:

• NC-03: Greg Murphy
• NC-05: Virginia Foxx
• NC-07: David Rouzer
• Richard Hudson
• NC-09: Dan Bishop
• NC-10: Patrick McHenry
• NC-11: Chuck Edwards

Statewide offices

Republicans control six of the ten elected statewide Council of State offices:

• Lieutenant Governor: Mark Robinson
• Commissioner of Agriculture: Steve Troxler
• Commissioner of Insurance: Mike Causey
• Commissioner of Labor: Josh Dobson
• Superintendent of Public Instruction: Catherine Truitt
• Treasurer: Dale Folwell

• Senate President Pro Tempore: Phil Berger
  • Senate Majority Leader: Harry Brown
• Speaker of the House: Tim Moore
  • Speaker Pro Tempore: Sarah Stevens
  • House Majority Leader: Mike Hager

List of Chairs

See also

• North Carolina Democratic Party
• North Carolina Libertarian Party
• North Carolina Green Party

References