North Carolina

Republicans hold 71-49 in the House and 30-20 in the Senate. The Senate majority is veto-proof. The House majority is one seat short, but four Democrats defected in July 2025 to override eight of Governor Josh Stein’s 14 vetoes. Six more vetoed bills sit in the “veto garage,” eligible for override votes through the end of 2026.

Attorney General Jeff Jackson filed roughly 20 lawsuits against the Trump administration and won every resolved case, recovering more than $1.5 billion. The legislature responded with Senate Bill 58 to make him the only AG in the country banned from suing a president.

---

Four Democrats handed the supermajority back

Governor Stein vetoed 14 bills in his first year. On July 29, 2025, Republicans overrode eight of them in a single day. They needed Democratic votes in the House to reach the three-fifths threshold. They got them.

Four Democrats crossed over on one or more votes: Carla Cunningham (D-Mecklenburg), Shelly Willingham (D-Edgecombe), Nasif Majeed (D-Mecklenburg), and Cecil Brockman (D-Guilford).

Bill	What it does
SB 50	Permitless concealed carry for adults 18+
HB 193	Concealed carry in private schools
SB 153	NC Border Protection Act. Mandatory 287(g) agreements, sanctuary city ban
HB 318	Requires jails to hold prisoners on ICE detainers
HB 805	Defines sex by biological attributes. Bars state funds for gender-transition care in corrections
SB 266	Repeals Duke Energy carbon reduction mandate
SB 254	Charter school changes
SB 416	Shields donor identity from disclosure

Speaker Destin Hall keeps the remaining six vetoed bills on the calendar through a technique called the “veto garage.” He can call a vote any time enough Democrats are absent. That threat runs through the end of the 2026 session.

---

Jeff Jackson won every case and the legislature wants to gut his office

Jackson filed roughly 20 lawsuits against the Trump administration in his first year. Courts ruled in his favor in every resolved case. His office recovered more than $1.5 billion in federal funding that agencies had frozen or diverted.

$1.5 billion recovered in federal funds for education, healthcare, disaster relief, and food assistance

The Republican response was Senate Bill 58, filed February 5, 2025. SB 58 bars the AG from filing “any action” or advancing “any argument” that would invalidate a presidential executive order. It also blocks him from joining multi-state lawsuits, filing amicus briefs, or challenging legislation passed by the General Assembly.

When Senator Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe) asked what would happen if Jackson defied the ban, Senator Tim Moffitt (R-Henderson) answered directly.

If SB 58 becomes law, Jackson would be the only state attorney general in America prohibited from suing a president over executive orders.

---

Trump ordered the gerrymander and the court let it stand

North Carolina is the third state, after Texas and Missouri, to redraw congressional maps at Trump’s explicit request. The House voted 66-48 and the Senate 26-20 on October 22, 2025. The governor has no role in redistricting.

The map left 12 of 14 districts untouched. It moved Black voters out of District 1 and into District 3, dropping the Black voting-age population in CD-1 by nearly eight percentage points. District 1 had elected Black representatives continuously since 1992. Rep. Don Davis, the state’s only Black congressman, was drawn into a district Trump would have carried by 55% in 2024.

The NC NAACP, Common Cause, and individual voters challenged the map in Williams v. Hall. A three-judge federal panel denied the injunction in November 2025. The judges acknowledged “disparate impact on black voters” but found that “the direct evidence shows that the 2025 redistricting was motivated by partisan purposes,” not racial ones. The plaintiffs dropped the suit.

The target outcome is an 11-3 Republican congressional delegation, up from 10-4. The map is cleared for the 2026 elections.

---

Vouchers subsidize families already in private school

In 2023, the legislature removed income caps from the Opportunity Scholarship program and allowed families already in private schools to apply. The result was predictable.

~90% of voucher recipients were already attending private school when they applied

The state spent $432 million on 80,470 voucher students in 2024-25. Only 6,710 students, about 8.3%, actually left a public school. Private schools responded to the new money by raising tuition.

Funding is locked in by a 15-year statutory schedule that increases automatically unless the legislature passes new legislation. The projected cost by 2033 is more than $7 billion. For context, North Carolina is the only state legislature in the country that has not adopted a budget for 2025-26.

---

Thirty-two years of fighting for school funding, dismissed

In 1994, five low-wealth counties sued the state, arguing their students were denied adequate education despite high local tax rates. In 1997, the NC Supreme Court agreed that every child has a constitutional right to a “sound basic education.” In 2002, a judge ordered specific remedies. In 2022, the Democratic-majority Supreme Court ordered a $1.75 billion fund transfer to implement them.

Then the 2024 elections flipped the court’s majority from Democratic to Republican.

Democratic lawmakers renewed their push for Leandro funding three weeks after the dismissal, during the April 2026 short session. The legislature has not acted.

---

Local police are now immigration agents

SB 153, the North Carolina Border Protection Act, requires the Highway Patrol, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Public Safety, and the Department of Adult Correction to enter 287(g) agreements with ICE. It bans sanctuary policies statewide, blocks government benefits for undocumented residents, and prohibits the UNC system from becoming “sanctuary universities.”

Governor Stein vetoed the bill on June 20, 2025. The override succeeded five weeks later.

130+ people detained by ICE and CBP in Charlotte on November 16, 2025, the most arrested in a single day in NC history

HB 318, a companion bill, requires sheriffs to check immigration status for specified criminal charges. Judges must determine citizenship and can order 48-hour ICE holds. Rep. Carla Cunningham (D-Mecklenburg) was the only Democrat to vote yes.

School attendance dropped across Durham public schools as immigrant families feared any contact with authorities. An immigrant mother reported carrying her passport at all times in case she was stopped by federal agents.

---

Protect yourself right now

1. Check your voter registration. The 2026 congressional maps are in effect. Verify your registration and confirm your new district at ncsbe.gov.

2. Know which Democrats defected. Cunningham, Willingham, Majeed, and Brockman voted to override vetoes on guns, immigration, and gender identity. If one of them represents you, call their office and ask them to sustain the remaining vetoes.

3. Track the veto garage. Six vetoed bills remain eligible for override votes through the end of 2026. Follow the NC General Assembly calendar to know when votes are scheduled.

4. Support the AG’s lawsuits. Jeff Jackson’s office has recovered $1.5 billion in frozen federal funds. SB 58 would end that. Call your state senator at 919-733-4111 and ask them to oppose it.

5. Show up at school board meetings. Voucher enrollment is approaching 100,000 and public schools are losing funding with no reinvestment mechanism. Your local board needs to hear from parents before the 2026-27 school year begins.