Election Day is still a week away,
but lots of folks are ahead of the game.
That's right.
We've already had more than a million
people vote in North Carolina.
Let's keep it going.
Amanda asked people if they voted.
She clearly has, right?
Katie told people this morning to go vote.
And there, of course, is the sticker.
Yes. And Alex echoed that.
She said go for the love of God.
Please vote.
Well, this election has serious implications.
In our state, in the legislature,
Republicans are just a few
seats shy of a super majority.
And if they get that supermajority,
that means that they have the votes
to override any governor veto.
With that in mind, in the House,
they just need three seats.
In the Senate they need two.
And if they get those five seats overall,
they flip to have that supermajority.
A supermajority would give state
Republicans more or less total control
over what happens in the state.
They can pass any bill they want,
and Governor Cooper's veto would
essentially become meaningless.
The governor has blocked some key
agenda items since taking office, too.
In fact, he's actually vetoed more bills
than any governor in state history.
North Carolina governors have used the
veto power more than 110 times since
199776 of those came from Governor Cooper.
He first took office, Republicans had a
supermajority SO23 of those were overridden.
So why don't we take a look back at some
of the big vetoes from Governor Cooper?
These three dealt with masks,
guns in school and also
control and abortion access.
At the beginning of the year,
Cooper vetoed the free the SMILES Act.
Now this would have prevented schools from
implementing a mask mandate, and he said no.
He wanted the option there.
Last year, the V he vetoed a bill that would
have loosened the state's gun control laws.
The bill would have eliminated the
need for a permit.
Before buying a pistol,
he says gun permit laws reduce deaths and
the availability of guns to commit crimes.
The permit requirement goes
back more than 100 years now.
He also vetoed a bill that would
have banned women from getting
abortions because their children had a
prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.
Cooper argued the bill would have
made it difficult for patients
to get medical information.
Right now, Cooper's veto stands
between Republicans running the
state however they see fit.
We spoke with the UNCG.
Political science professor,
he says Republicans gaining a supermajority.
It takes away the veto power but
it does not make Cooper powerless
legislatively. Yes.
And the governor really has the only
power he has at this point is the veto.
So yes it would render him pretty much it
would take him off the scale legislative.
But you got to remember he's got
the bully puppet bully pulpit.
He can go around and talk, you know,
to different places in the state.
And and try to promote his
policy perspectives and see
if that can temper things.
You know given the history the
Republicans if they take back
the supermajority in both in
both chambers they're going to do
they're going to push forward their.
Their policies that they've been
wanting to do since he's been vetoing
them. So what are some of those policies?
All the experts we talked with expect
Republicans to target abortion
access if they want a supermajority.
It'd be the first chance since
Roe V Wade got overturned.
After that, there's a bunch of other
classic Republican priorities. I
think they're going to use the,
the economic issues to move
forward on some tax abatement.
Again, you know, some of the lowest taxes.
I think you'll see them move forward.
That I think you'll see them cut back
on some spending and some key areas.
I don't think education
being one of those places.
I think that might free up the education
market so to speak and make the,
the voucher programs and the and
the home schooling and the and the,
the other type of choice
schools much more available,
prevalent throughout the state.
Well, there's several other big state races,
including state Supreme Court.
Right now, Democrats have
a four to three majority.
There are two seats up for grabs.
If Republicans take them both,
they get that majority.
Our expert says he thinks the
Supreme Court race is the one that
could make the biggest difference.
The Supreme Court races really is
compelling and interesting because
this is something that nobody pays
attention to this down ballot.
But it's going to, it's going to make
a difference in some really big cases
that are pending and one obviously
was moved up based on politics.
I think you know the Democrat controlled
Supreme Court moved up the case to hear it
when it really didn't need to be heard.
And so you see the politics are
handled both sides and I think
you'll see it whoever prevails.
So those two, those two Supreme Court.
Places are going to be very pivotal,
obviously, to what happens.
All right. So that's a lot to take
in and to process to make sure that
you're ready for Election Day,
we want you to text the word vote to
336-379-5775. We're going to
send you back a link to our
North Carolina election guide.