Last North Carolina legislative races get finalized, confirming GOP loss of veto-proof control

Source: AP

Updated 6:26 PM EST, January 6, 2025


RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina General Assembly elections were finalized Monday as officials issued certificates to the winners in three close legislative races from November that later became subject to recounts and formal protests. This ministerial action by election administrators also confirms that Republicans have lost their veto-proof control of the legislature — the result of outgoing state Rep. Frank Sossamon losing to Democrat Bryan Cohn by 228 votes.

The certificates issued for Cohn and other Democrats — Terence Everitt and Woodson Bradley for contests for the Senate — mean they shouldn’t have trouble getting seated with others elected to the 2025-26 General Assembly session on Wednesday’s opening day. Certificates for the others were issued weeks ago.

With Sossamon’s defeat, Republicans will retain 71 of the 120 House seats. That’s one seat short of the necessary three-fifths supermajority for veto-proof control. The GOP had held 72 seats since April 2023, which allowed Republicans to override then-Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes at will as long as they remained united.

Now that the Democrats have 49 House seats, the veto stamp of new Democratic Gov. Josh Stein could be more effective during the next two years in blocking GOP measures that he opposes.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-legislature-close-elections-certification-90d64110f324f216da21f1aed3a1ac3c