North Carolina

Republicans hold 71 of 120 House seats and 30 of 50 Senate seats. 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.

On November 3, 2026, North Carolina votes for a U.S. senator, members of Congress and state legislators. There is no governor’s race until 2028 (North Carolina governor). See what is on the ballot nationally and check your registration.

Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined 18 lawsuits against the Trump administration in 2025, and his office says they protected more than $1.5 billion. In March 2025, the state Senate passed Senate Bill 58, which would bar him from suing a president over executive orders; as of January 2026, the House had not voted on it.

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Four Democratic Votes and the 2025 Veto Overrides

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 (Mecklenburg), Shelly Willingham (Edgecombe), Nasif Majeed (Mecklenburg), and Cecil Brockman (Guilford). Ballotpedia now lists Cunningham and Majeed as independents.

Speaker Destin Hall keeps the remaining six vetoed bills on the calendar through a technique called the “veto garage.” He can call an override vote on any of them through the end of the 2026 session, including on a day when enough Democrats are absent.

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Jeff Jackson’s Lawsuits and Limits on the Attorney General

Jackson’s office took part in 18 lawsuits against the Trump administration in 2025. His office says the cases protected more than $1.5 billion in federal funding that agencies had tried to withhold or cut.

$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.

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North Carolina’s 2025 Congressional Map

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.

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Who Uses North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarships

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

~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.

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The Leandro School Funding Case

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.

In April 2026, in a 4-3 decision, the North Carolina Supreme Court vacated the 2022 funding order in Leandro v. State, reversed every Leandro ruling since 2017 and dismissed the 32-year-old case with prejudice. The constitutional right to a sound basic education was not overturned.

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

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SB 153 and State Agency Agreements With ICE

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 of Mecklenburg, then a Democrat, 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.

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What You Can Do in North Carolina

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 lawmakers crossed party lines. Cunningham, Willingham, Majeed, and Brockman, all Democrats at the time, 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.