NC’s new governor: GOP response to Stein’s big speech will be given live
On Wednesday night, Democratic Gov. Josh Stein will make the most important speech of his administration so far: the State of the State Address to the General Assembly, which controls what bills may become law.
Also new on the job this year is Republican House Speaker Destin Hall. He’ll give the Republican response to Stein’s speech, and he’s giving his rebuttal live, which is a change from recent history.
Good morning and welcome to the Sunday Under the Dome newsletter, which focuses on our new North Carolina governor. I’m Dawn Vaughan, The News & Observer’s Capitol bureau chief.
I asked Hall a few days ago what we could expect from his response to Stein’s State of the State.
“Well, I don’t know yet, because I’m not going to record it before. I’m going to do it after. I’m going to ‘do it live,’ as Bill O’Reilly once said,” Hall said. He quipped that’s not the full quote from when O’Reilly hosted “Inside Edition.”
Hall is going to listen to what Stein has to say first before deciding what to say on behalf of Republicans in the General Assembly. Both Stein’s speech and Hall’s response will be aired by PBS North Carolina.
“I think that the people of the state deserve an actual response to it. So we’ll see what what he says,” Hall said, adding that he imagines Stein will focus on things he’s talked about before, so he has a general idea.
“We’ll give a thorough, respectful response,” Hall said.
Tracking Helene recovery
One thing that has been important to both Stein and Hall, as well as the legislature as a whole, is the recovery of Western North Carolina after Helene. Not just long-term recovery, but recovery that needs to happen now, like rebuilding homes.
So I also asked Hall about the Gov Ops subcommittee on hurricane response, which is focused on not repeating the mistakes of the state’s Eastern North Carolina hurricane response under former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, which included several years-long delays in homes being rebuilt and requests for more money to finish the job.
“I know they’re laser-focused on trying to put guardrails in place to make sure that never happens again in our state,” Hall said.
While Hall is critical of Cooper, he is not of Stein. The new governor’s office launched an online dashboard this past week to track Helene recovery progress. You can see updates at wncrecovery.nc.gov.
State Auditor Dave Boliek, a Republican, launched a Helene dashboard last month to track progress, too. That’s at auditor.nc.gov/helene.
“I don’t want to say anything against the current governor, because he’s just in there, and I appreciate the work he’s doing on it,” Hall said about Stein.
“We’re going to work with him in good faith. I know he agrees that the process has got to be changed, and so ... part of it is working with him figure out the best way to change that process,” he said.
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Stein told reporters on Tuesday that Helene recovery is going to be “long, hard, slow work, but we are committed to doing that work as quickly and as well as we can, and that dashboard is insight into how we’re doing, because we want folks to be able to evaluate our work.”
Beyond Helene recovery, what Stein says in his speech Wednesday, and what Hall and other Republicans say in response, will set the tone for the rest of the legislative session. There are at least four more months to go.
Stay informed about #ncpol
Coming up Monday on our Under the Dome podcast, I’m joined by politics reporters Avi Bajpai and Kyle Ingram. We talk about General Assembly action expected this week on legislation about DEI in K-12 schools and attorney general powers, as well as the State of the State.
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