NC Republican won’t run for re-election in redrawn district

A pair of Republican women will depart the N.C. General Assembly at the end of their terms.

One appears to be a victim of the latest round of political mapmaking. Republican state Rep. Susan Martin, a Republican from Wilson, announced on Monday that she won’t seek re-election.

Martin’s announcement comes three months after GOP state lawmakers redrew maps and placed Martin in the same district as incumbent Democrat Jean Farmer-Butterfield – a district whose voters supported Hillary Clinton by 52 percent to 46 percent. And it comes a week after a mapmaking expert appointed by judges released a proposal to redraw legislative districts with no changes to that proposed district.

“I ran in 2012 because we needed a fresh voice in Raleigh. Now it is time for someone else to add their new voice,” Martin wrote in an e-mail announcement.

Martin touted her votes on juvenile justice reform, eliminating the estate tax, debt reduction and establishing the whirligig as the official state folk art among her accomplishments.

Sen. Cathy Dunn of Davidson County cited health issues in telling The High Point Enterprise that she, too, will bow out when her term ends.

Martin and Dunn aren’t the first to bow out. Republican Sen. Bill Cook of Beaufort County this August said he wouldn’t seek re-election in a redrawn district that now includes incumbent Democratic Sen. Erica Smith-Ingram. GOP Sen. Chad Barefoot of Wake Forest said the same month that he won’t run again.

North Carolina Democrats are winding up for a big push to regain influence in state politics.

Gov. Roy Cooper is a Democrat but the state House and state Senate are controlled by Republicans, meaning they have the votes to pass their agenda and override Cooper if he vetoes legislation. Democrats need four House seats or six Senate seats to gain the ability to uphold Cooper’s vetoes on their own.

It’s unclear how the decisions by Martin and Dunn will affect Democrats’ effort to break Republicans’ supermajority. Dunn leaves a district that leans Republican.

Martin is one of several legislators that now share a district with one of their legislative peers. Robert Howard, spokesman for the N.C. Democratic Party, said Martin “sees the writing on the wall” that Republicans will face challenges in the next couple years.

Martin, a three-term incumbent, won her most recent election by fewer than 200 votes.

“New, non-partisan districts and a political climate fueled by people’s frustration with GOP attempts to rig the system will make even the most gerrymandered Republican districts competitive,” Howard said in an email.

Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the N.C. GOP, says the party expects to pick up a seat in a new district near Martin’s in the Wilson County area.

“I don’t think it changes much in terms of our electoral prospects because I believe an open (new) district in that area leans Republican connected to this one. So based on numbers it’s likely a wash,” Woodhouse wrote in an email.

But the party will miss Martin nonetheless.

“She really has been one of our up and coming leaders and no doubt we had our eyes on her for statewide office when the time was right,” he said. “We certainly hope electorally her final chapter is not yet written.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2017 at 10:52 AM with the headline "NC Republican won’t run for re-election in redrawn district."