Here’s what happens if there’s a U.S. Senate vacancy from North Carolina this year
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr is under federal investigation for his sale of stocks in February before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States and led to huge stock market losses and massive unemployment.
Burr, a North Carolina Republican in his third term in the Senate, stepped down as chairman of the intelligence committee last week while the matter is being investigated by the Department of Justice. The move came one day after FBI agents reportedly took his cell phone. Burr asked that the Senate Ethics Committee investigate the issue as well.
He said he “relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision” — and not information he learned through the intelligence and health committees on which he sits — about selling stocks worth up to $1.7 million. Further, an attorney said he did not coordinate the sales with anyone, including his brother-in-law, a Trump appointee who sold up to $280,000 worth of stock on the same day.
Burr said he intends to fulfill the rest of his term, which expires in January 2023.
But what happens if there is a vacancy before the 2020 election?
Republican incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis is running for re-election against Democratic nominee Cal Cunningham in what is expected to be a close election that could determine which party controls the Senate. Another Senate race in North Carolina would be an unexpected twist.
If there is a vacancy it will be filled in accordance with a state law passed largely by Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly in 2018, as part of a series of bills to limit the governor’s power. The majority of Democrats voted against the measure. The bill became law without the signature of Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat elected in 2016.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it,” state Rep. Jason Saine, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, emailed The News & Observer at the time when asked if he knew whether Burr or Tillis might step down before the end of their terms.
The quote — from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” — could prove oddly prescient. Two years ago, it would have been hard to predict a global pandemic leading to a federal investigation involving a senator.
Under the previous law, Cooper could appoint “a person affiliated with the same political party” as the outgoing senator. That would give Cooper wide latitude to choose any Republican, perhaps a moderate or someone without designs on keeping the seat into the future.
Under the law passed in 2018, Cooper must choose from “a list of three persons recommended by the State executive committee of the political party” of the outgoing senator. That gives Republicans, in this case, a much tighter grip on who get the seat.
“An insurance policy to make sure an opposing party governor doesn’t appoint someone that would be ‘weak’ in a general election,” is how Michael Bitzer, a politics professor at Catawba College, described the proposal.
North Carolina is one of six states that require the governor to appoint a replacement from the same party, joining Arizona, Hawaii, Maryland, Utah and Wyoming. Hawaii and Maryland also require the governor to choose someone from a list of choices provided by the political party of the vacating senator.
The interim senator appointed by Cooper would serve until the next election — in this case either November or in 2022.
Depends on the timing of the Senate vacancy
If the vacancy occurs more than 60 days before the Nov. 3 general election:
• The executive committee of the NC GOP provides Cooper a list of three candidates. Cooper chooses one to serve as senator until a permanent replacement is elected.
• Each of the executive committees of the five parties with ballot access in North Carolina (Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian and Republican) nominates a candidate to appear on the ballot in November, according to Gerry Cohen, a member of the Wake County elections board and a North Carolina election rules expert.
There would be no primary nor a so-called “jungle primary,” in which multiple candidates from parties appear on the same ballot, as is happening in Georgia now.
If the vacancy occurs less than 60 days before the Nov. 3 general election:
• The interim appointee, picked by Cooper from the list of three candidates given by the NC GOP, would serve until the 2022 general election.
Seat up again in 2022
In either case, an election for a new six-year term would be held in November 2022. There would also be an election at the same time among the candidates on the ballot to fill the remaining six weeks of the Burr’s term (the time between the general election and the swearing in of the new Senate).
Burr has said on numerous occasions that he would not run for a fourth term in 2022. Several prominent Republicans have already expressed some level of interest in running for the Senate in 2022, including U.S. Reps. Mark Walker and George Holding, former Gov. Pat McCrory and North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore. The 2022 race for an open seat is also expected to draw strong Democratic candidates.
Both North Carolina U.S. Senate seats were on the ballot in 1950 and 1954 due to the deaths of senators.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 8:24 AM.
