Entering this election season, Republicans are just five seats shy of a supermajority in the state legislature, needing to gain three in the state House and two seats in the state Senate. Both parties will be pouring money and resources into races that can be viewed as potential pick-ups.
The GOP needs those seats — again, three in the House and two in the Senate — to muster the three-fifths majority of those present needed to overturn Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes. The NC GOP last had a supermajority from 2013 to 2018. During Cooper’s first two years in office, Republicans overrode him on 23 of his 28 vetoes. Since then, Cooper has sustained his last 47 vetoes.
For the North Carolina General Assembly, this fall's election is less a question of which party will have control, but rather just how dominant that power will be. A veto-proof lane could give Republicans unchecked authority. Presently, Republicans have comfortable majorities in both chambers, but they do not have so-called supermajority margins. That gives Cooper a much greater line of defense for Democratic and progressive causes.
