Democrats’ efforts to break the Republican veto-proof majority in the legislature appear to have yielded one additional seat.
Multiple seats flipped parties in the N.C. House, but each party’s gains were largely offset by losses.
In Granville and Vance counties north of the Triangle, Republican Rep. Frank Sossamon appears to have narrowly lost to Bryan Cohn, a Democrat who serves on the town commission in Oxford. And in the Wilson area, Democrat Dante Pittman finished ahead of Republican Rep. Ken Fontenot.
But in Cabarrus County, Democratic Rep. Diamond Staton-Williams to Republican Jonathan Almond, who works in a financial role for a Smithfield’s barbecue franchise.
Democrat Beth Helfrich flipped an open seat in northern Mecklenburg County that’s currently held by a Republican, but Republican Mike Schietzelt flipped an open seat in northern Wake County currently held by a Democrat.
And party-switching Rep. Tricia Cotham, R-Mecklenburg, appears to be holding onto her seat, but the race could be headed for a recount.
House seats in other competitive districts stayed with the same party: Republican Reps. Bill Ward and Allen Chesser were re-elected, as was Democratic Rep. Lindsay Prather, who faced a strong challenge in the only competitive legislative race in the Asheville area.
In the Senate, incumbent Republican senators in competitive districts won reelection, keeping the 30 GOP seats needed to override a veto next year from Gov.-elect Josh Stein. Two close races likely headed for a recount in Wake and Mecklenburg counties will determine if Republicans expand their Senate majority.
From 2019 through 2022, Republicans held a majority in the House and Senate but their numbers fell short of the veto-proof threshold.
During that time, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed 47 Republican bills on topics ranging from immigration enforcement to gun regulations, and none of those vetoes were overridden.
The GOP came one seat short of a supermajority in the 2022 election, prompting House Speaker Tim Moore to declare his party had won a “working supermajority” — an expectation that he could get at least one moderate Democrat to cross party lines on an override. That same dynamic could be at play in 2025 in the House.
The bipartisanship proved unnecessary a few months later in the spring of 2023 when longtime Democratic Rep. Tricia Cotham announced she would switch parties and become a Republican. She’s since become a reliable vote for the GOP on nearly every issue, and most of Cooper’s vetoes for the past two years have been overridden.
The results of that power shift include a ban on most abortions after 12 weeks, a loosening of gun sales regulations and new restrictions on transgender people in sports.
