Change, as the cliche goes, is one of the constants in life. As someone who just welcomed a third child, nobody has to prove that one to me. And working or observing the world of politics, you become even more aware of the ever-changing nature of things.
When I entered the North Carolina political scene in 2012, Robeson County was a strongly Democratic county. Barack Obama easily beat Mitt Romney that year, 58% to 41%, and about three quarters of voters were registered Democrat. But a short time later, things have completely flipped. Now all the momentum in this rural, largely Lumbee Indian county is with the Republicans, as Donald Trump won in 2024 63% to 36%.
The big news this week in Robeson County was a clear result of this trend, as three of the county’s eight commissioners switched from Democrat to Republican, flipping control of the board. In a press release, they stated that they did so to better represent their constituents, who had made a strong shift towards the Republican Party in recent years.
House Bill 2, colloquially called “the Bathroom Bill” or HB2, resulted. It blunted the Charlotte ordinance and implemented limits on future municipal nondiscrimination ordinances surrounding gender identity. It also said that in government facilities, people should use the bathroom or locker room of the sex on their birth certificates.
Nationwide outrage (largely ginned up by progressive activist groups) followed, with boycotts, protests, and countless angry calls and emails. Working for the primary sponsor, Dan Bishop — a state House member who has since been a state senator, US congressman, and now a Trump administration official — I saw it all up close.
I was reminded of it all this week, as, without much fanfare, the General Assembly sent a bill to the governor that one would imagine is every bit as objectionable to those roused to action last time.
HB 805, according to Carolina Journal’s Brianna Kraemer, “defines sex in state law based on biological attributes and bars K-12 schools from placing male and female students in the same sleeping quarters. It also prohibits the use of state funds for gender transition procedures in correctional facilities and allows individuals harmed by such procedures to sue for up to 10 years.”
What a difference a few years makes. But this week, rather than protesters with the Human Rights Campaign and Equality NC, the General Assembly had to contest with shrimping advocates filling the halls of the Legislative Building. A regulation on how close to shore they would be allowed to drop their trawling nets threatened to put an entire industry out of business. Something that generations of coastal residents had made their living doing could have been eliminated in the blink of an eye. But the pressure they exerted helped kill that bill and save their industry.
All that to say, things can change quickly in a democracy. Counties that were completely Democratic can become Republican. Bills that would cause international controversy at one time can become an afterthought a few years later. And industries that have supported communities for generations can be gone with the wave of the pen. It’s up to the people to keep an eye on our leaders and on the trends, or we may blink and the world will have changed without our voices being heard.
