Republican Recap 11/9/18 | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Election Day has come and gone. Some good things happened, some didn't. There will still be a few recounts that will take probably place in Guilford, Mecklenburg, and New Hanover. Before we jump into the news, let's go over the election results. Disclaimer: these results are not official until the statewide canvass on November 27.

ELECTION RESULTS

    CONGRESS

    Despite millions of dollars in outside ads from liberal special groups, Nancy Pelosi was unable to purchase a Congressional seat in NC. Of the three races that received the most national attention, Reps. Holding and Budd cruised. Dan McCready conceded yesterday, and that means the Ninth will be represented by Congressman-Elect Mark Harris. Congrats to all the candidates for simply outworking their liberal challengers. However, make no mistake: Pelosi and national Democrats will come after those seats again.

    NC SENATE

    Voters returned Republicans to a 29-21 majority. Still outstanding are Sens. Trudy Wade and Michael Lee. Both are within the 1% margin that allows a candidate to ask for a recount, and Lee only trails by 38 votes. If they win, the Senate retains its supermajority. If you're in those areas, stay tuned for ways you can help observe. There were races that were certainly closer than expected, so we need to either shore up those seats or look at flipping back ones we narrowly lost.

    NC HOUSE

    Currently, the House stands at a 66-54 Republican majority. Rep. Bill Brawley leads his opponent Rachel Hunt by 52 votes despite being vastly outspent. It's critical that Rep. Brawley, one of the best financial minds in the GA and one of the architects of the STI legislation, return to Raleigh to represent the 103rd. The silver lining, like the Senate races, is that there were some seats that we came close to flipping. Two examples: Ken Fontenot came within 500 votes of flipping Jean Farmer-Butterfield and Joey Davis within 1000 votes of Ken Goodman. Time to step up the pressure on those Democrat representatives.

    STATEWIDE JUDICIARY

    Unfortunately we did not pull through in any of these races. Democrat plant Chris Anglin did his job in the NC Supreme Court race. The total number of voters would have led Barbara Jackson to a win. It's disappointing, sure, but here's the next step: Republican Justice Paul Newby is up in 2020. We need to start working right now to inform voters and start researching his potential opponents. After Newby, we have a chance to remove every single Democrat from the Supreme Court: Democrats Ervin, Beasley, and Hudson are all up in 2022, Morgan is up in 2024, and then Earls in 2026. There will be ample opportunities to take back the NCSC and increase our majority on the Court of Appeals. Start planning now.

    CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

    The opposition considers losing four of six a win. Not sure what the color of the sky is in that world, but voters overwhelmingly passed the right to hunt and fish, Marsy's Law, the maximum income tax cap, and voter ID. The General Assembly comes back after Thanksgiving to put forth the enacting legislation for these amendments. While the other two amendments were defeated with millions in ads from liberal dark money groups (the ones they love to hate), Democrats might regret defeating the Bipartisan Board and the Judicial Merit Selection amendments when Republicans take back the Governor's Mansion.

    LOCAL RACES

    Republicans had some success on the local front, although you probably won't read or hear about it in the media. Several counties now have Republican majorities on their county commissions for the first time, even more have Republican Sheriffs for the first time, and the youngest county commissioner in the state was elected in Lee County - Arianna Del Pazzio, a 24-year-old conservative woman.

    For counties that are in urban or suburban areas, we did not do well at all. Republicans need to learn to compete in urban areas and retake suburbia in order to grow the party for the future. How we can do that will certainly be part of the discussion and local county parties should absolutely brainstorm how we can do so. Sooner rather than later, the people in these areas will undoubtedly grow frustrated with the increased cost of living due to higher taxes and increased regulation that will come with Democrat rule. We should be prepared to jump on that opportunity.

    Contact: Jeff Hauser

      North Carolina Republican Party     communications@nc.gop