A new day in the NC House?

The North Carolina House recently produced something that was once unheard-of: agreement. Nearly forming a consensus, three-quarters of House members voted to advance the chamber’s version of the state budget. The budget heads to the Senate with momentum. This emergence of bipartisanship in the House could transform North Carolina politics.

The comity that accompanied the budget vote represented a significant change in procedure and partisanship in the House. Under former Speaker Tim Moore, Republicans used the budget to coerce Roy Cooper into acquiescing to the legislature’s authoritarian machinations. This year’s budget process lacked that cynicism. Instead of a setting a trap for the governor, the body’s members created a budget that drew support from Governor Josh Stein. That Stein—a progressive whose politics reside a clear click to the left of Cooper’s—would support a Republican-authored budget shows how the House has moved away from Moore’s partisan, polarizing leadership.

House members approached a full consensus on the most important legislation of the year. This suggests a seriousness to signs of bipartisanship. In the past, bipartisan votes tended to emerge only on legislation that either was utterly uncontroversial or simply not very significant. Medicaid Expansion was such a striking achievement precisely because it departed from this norm. By contrast, under the leadership of Speaker Destin Hall and Minority Leader Robert Reives, the House came together on the chamber’s most significant statement on the direction of North Carolina government.

Prodded by a disciplined Democratic caucus, the Republicans seem to be evolving into more of a governing party. This year’s budget contains few volleys at the state’s legacy of progress. In fact, it even begins to address some of the damage that 14 years of anti-government policies have done to government in our state. House members want to raise starting teacher pay (and by more than the typical token margin) and delay the next round of damaging tax cuts. The budget seems to represent a move away from relentless conservative fervor.

Accordingly, the bill may indicate a shift in the ideological role of the House GOP. For over a decade, observers could rely upon House Republicans to echo the blaring cacophony that always emanated from a radicalized Senate. Democrats had few options but to white-knuckle it, hoping that Moore or now-Senator Tom Tillis would water down the Senate’s extremism before approving the inevitable rubber-stamp. I don’t want to issue premature judgments. But it at least appears possible that Republicans could begin playing more of an independent role relative to the Senate.

If these salutary trends continue, the new-model House could transform state politics. Supported by Reives, Governor Stein would gain a genuine governing partner in his inevitable confrontations with Phil Berger’s Senate ideologues. Progressives could hope to influence policy in a positive way, rather than capping their aspirations at the governor’s veto pen. The Democrats—and the governor—would be relevant again.