NC Democratic Lawmakers Could Face Primary Challenges After Veto Override Votes

Some North Carolina Democrats are pushing back against lawmakers who voted in favor of Republican bills to override vetoes from Governor Josh Stein.

Representatives Carla Cunningham, Naseef Majid, Shelly Willingham and Cecil Brockman are now under fire for those votes.

“I don’t think it’s representative of the future of the Democratic Party, quite frankly, in North Carolina,” Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said.

Since the votes, calls are popping up for the lawmakers to be primaried, meaning they would have a challenger in the primary election and potentially be voted out. Across the hall from the House floor in the General Assembly, top Democratic senators say they are not surprised.

“The bills that they overrode made us less safe, and that is on them, and if they want to put their head on the pillow tonight and say that that’s what they decided to do for whatever reason they voted for that, that is literally a consequence they’ll have to deal with if they get a primary,” Senator Sydney Batch said.

But Republican House Speaker Destin Hall, who claimed the veto overrides as a win, says his caucus will stay out of primary challenges.

“Members have varying reasons for why they may take a vote at a given time; it ranges from just simply what their belief is, to how likely they think a bill is to pass, to other negotiations they’re having on other matters,” he said.

Clayton says now their job is to tell voters exactly who they are voting for.

“Representatives are elected by their districts, and we have to make sure we’re educating their districts on how they’re voting, whether that be Republicans or Democrats, because we want people that are going to stand up for the values that this party stands for,” she said.

Representative Cunningham also got a lot of heat for a floor speech she gave about immigration. Other lawmakers have since said she should apologize.

Written by Deana Harley