NC Democrats to watch next year as GOP says it expects to have ‘working supermajority’
Republicans have passed more than two dozen bills into law over the objections of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper since Rep. Tricia Cotham switched parties in 2023, giving the GOP a supermajority by a single seat.
Now, as a new two-year session is about to begin, Republicans are again one seat shy of total control. That means if they want to pass bills that could be vetoed by incoming Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, Republicans will need support from at least one of the Democrats in the House who have records of bucking their party on certain bills and voting with the GOP.
Republicans, for their part, are confident they’ll have support from a few Democrats on at least some bills next year.
During a news conference the day after last month’s election, incoming House Speaker Destin Hall said there were a number of House Democrats who he believed would be open to supporting Republicans on “specific policy items,” ensuring that the GOP has a “working supermajority” in the House.
With Republicans having to bridge a one-vote gap in the House next year, the few Democrats who are frequent swing voters will likely be able to exercise more influence, since without their support, GOP leaders won’t be able to pass bills that get vetoed by Stein.
Most of these Democrats have more influence in the legislative process than others in their party, through their relationships with GOP leaders, their appointments as chairs of certain committees, and their involvement in the budget process.
Here are some of the Democrats who have frequently voted with Republicans in the past, and may continue to support some GOP bills next year.
Shelly Willingham — Edgecombe County
Rep. Shelly Willingham, a Democrat from Rocky Mount, drew attention at the beginning of 2023 when he joined House Speaker Tim Moore and other Republicans in sponsoring legislation to impose stricter penalties for rioting that had previously been vetoed by Cooper.
Willingham didn’t just support the bill, which had been a top priority of Moore’s; as a primary sponsor, he presented it to lawmakers during committees and defended it from skeptical members of his own party.
The bill ended up getting more Democratic support than it had in the past, and Cooper allowed it to become law without signing it.
Willingham frequently voted with Republicans on other major bills, including most recently, the GOP’s mini-budget that combined $463 million in funding for private school vouchers with a measure requiring sheriffs to cooperate with immigration authorities that had been a longtime priority for Republicans.
In January 2023, at the beginning of this two-year session, Willingham explained his approach to legislation in an interview with The News & Observer.
“If it’s an issue that will affect my district, and if it’s a positive thing, I’m going to support it, whether it comes from our caucus, or comes from the Republican side,” Willingham said at the time. “So, my first consideration is what’s best for my district.”
Besides Rep. Michael Wray, another frequent swing-voting Democrat who lost his reelection bid to a primary challenger, Willingham voted with Republicans during this two-year legislative session more than any other Democrat.
Other Democrats aren’t far behind, but Willingham topped the list among Democrats who sought reelection and won, voting with the GOP majority 83% of the time, according to voting statistics available on the General Assembly’s website.
During this session, he was also one of a few Democrats given a committee chairmanship, serving as one of the chairs of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee.
Carla Cunningham — Mecklenburg County
Rep. Carla Cunningham, a Charlotte Democrat, also frequently supported GOP bills this session, voting with Republicans 79% of the time.
When Republicans passed the controversial mini-budget this fall, Cunningham joined Willingham and Wray in voting for the bill.
During the House vote to override Cooper’s veto of the bill, Cunningham said she was breaking ranks with her party because the bill contained “essential investments in areas like education, public health, community support and public safety” such as cooperation with immigration authorities, Medicaid rebates and funding for community colleges.
Cunningham added that even though she was “critical” of private school vouchers, she couldn’t “in good conscience” vote against “critical funding” for other programs that would help her constituents.
“For me, it’s a matter of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” she said.
Like other swing-voting Democrats, Cunningham also voted for last year’s GOP budget that contained several top Republican policy priorities, but also triggered Medicaid expansion.
A longtime advocate for expansion, Cunningham’s campaign said earlier this year on its website that the budget, which “required a great deal of compromise,” was “a major victory for the people of North Carolina,” and would “make a real difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who have been struggling without health care coverage.”
Garland Pierce — Scotland County
Rep. Garland Pierce, a Wagram Democrat, is another swing vote in the House who has often voted with Republicans.
In addition to voting for the GOP budget last year and the budget adjustment bill this year, Pierce’s support for two GOP abortion bills in 2019 and 2021 fueled speculation that he could be open to supporting new abortion restrictions Republicans were drafting in early 2023.
When anti-abortion activists and faith leaders who were pushing Republicans to consider a stricter 6-week ban instead of a 12-week ban came to the Legislative Building to lobby GOP lawmakers, Pierce joined Moore and other Republicans to address the group.
On the morning of the vote on the 12-week measure Republicans ultimately put forward, Pierce told The News & Observer he still hadn’t decided how he was going to vote, and said he would make a final decision after carefully reviewing the full bill and hearing the debate on the House floor.
Pierce ultimately joined every other Democrat in voting against the bill.
A few weeks earlier, when Republicans advanced a bill preventing transgender female athletes from playing on girls’ sports teams in middle school, high school and college, Pierce, Willingham, and Wray were the only Democrats to side with the GOP and vote for it.
When the bill was changed and returned for another vote in June, Pierce voted against it. Ultimately, after Cooper vetoed the bill, Pierce joined Republicans in voting to override his veto.
He told The N&O after that override vote that in between his votes against the bill and against upholding Cooper’s veto, he spoke with constituents in his district who expressed different opinions on the issue of whether transgender athletes should be allowed to play on women’s sports teams, compared to the rest of his party.
“I was surprised by some of the folks who did not support the position of the Democrats on that bill,” Pierce said. “Very surprised. And some of these were Democrats.”
Overall, during this two-year session, Pierce voted with Republicans 77% of the time.
Cecil Brockman — Guilford County
Rep. Cecil Brockman, a High Point Democrat, rounds out the list of swing-voting Democrats to watch next year.
Brockman, along with Pierce, Cunningham, Willingham, and Wray, faced significant criticism from within their party after they voted in favor of the GOP’s budget last year.
Youth leaders in the party said at the time that they were “outraged” and “sad” to see several Black Democrats “engage in the back-slapping game of closed-door politics that’s been ignoring communities of color across NC for decades.” (Brockman, Pierce, Cunningham and Willingham are Black.)
In a statement responding to the youth leaders, Brockman defended his support for the GOP budget, noting that it included $29 million for the “majority poor Black district” he represents. Brockman said the youth leaders should “grow up,” telling them: “You might not like it, but I’m willing to work with (the) majority and try to find common ground.”
Tensions escalated when two Democratic candidates decided to challenge Brockman and Wray, and the Young Democrats of North Carolina endorsed challengers James Adams and Rodney Pierce.
Brockman ended up narrowly winning his primary, but Wray lost his seat to Pierce, who will succeed him when next year’s session begins in January.
After the primary, which saw another Democrat, Sen. Mike Woodard of Durham, also lose to a challenger, Brockman told The N&O he believed that Wray’s defeat was meant to send a message to himself and other swing-voting Democrats.
He said he wasn’t fazed by the warning to “fall in line,” and would continue supporting legislation he thinks is best for his district, as his constituents expect him to.
“It boils down to the fact that people just cannot live with the fact that there’s disagreements (between) us,” Brockman said in an interview. “But I’m sorry, you’re going to have to live with the fact that you may have disagreements with me, you’re not going to scare me; I’m not scared over these results.”
