The silent tsunami

We wrote repeatedly that the 2025 mid-term election was unusually quiet. We now know why. North Carolinians were seething mad at the way things were going and the avalanche of early vote demonstrated they couldn’t wait to voice their angst.

In Congress Republicans lost because they were so busy trying to hold onto their jobs that they weren’t doing their jobs of providing checks and balances in government. In North Carolina the opposite was the case. Republicans lost control of the state House and came within two votes of losing the Senate because they thought they were the only ones to make decisions and, in their grab for power, were unwilling to accept input from anyone else.

We heard the pollsters and pundits predicting a blue wave was coming, but this doubting Thomas was skeptical. Turns out, it wasn’t a wave. It was a tsunami. However, Democrats need to be cautioned to understand the outcome was no so much that they had greater ideas and proposals, but the repudiation was because of the strong undertow against Donald Trump.

This much is true: For all the shenanigans North Carolina’s Republican led legislature pulled to trying to rig the elections, their efforts backfired.

They violated our Constitution by gerrymandering congressional districts between the decennial census, an action designed to defeat 1^st District congressman Don Davis. He won anyway. But their efforts almost defeated 3^rd District congressman Greg Murphy who won by a meager 233 votes after the legislature added the largely Democratic voters they took away from Davis to his district.

And the backfire was highlighted in other ways. Because of their gerrymandering Republicans held a 10-4 plurality in the North Carolina delegation. They gerrymandered their way to 10 because they couldn’t figure out how to get 11. Voters didn’t care. If current vote totals stand, the delegation will be 10 Democrats and 4 Republicans.

Democrats held the re-election of the Supreme Court seat and won all three of the Court of Appeals races.  

What conclusions can be drawn from this election? For starters, North Carolinians spoke clearly that they were disgusted, disillusioned and distrustful of current conditions. They are smart enough to recognize policies passed to favor the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. They don’t like it when tax dollars are used to dismantle public schools and given to private schools where mostly wealthy kids attend. North Carolinians respect a balance of power between the administrative, legislative and judicial branches and will strike out when they believe it is being destroyed. In short, voters in our state demonstrated the decency of a people we have always thought ourselves to be.

This was the year of the Unaffiliated voter. Most of them don’t like either party, but they only have two choices. They may not have liked voting Democratic, but they would not vote Republican. Clearly we need to do more to allow easier ballot access to unaffiliated candidates. The added competition would be great for everyone. If unable or unwilling to make ballot access easier, perhaps it truly is time for a viable third party.

Turns out the pollsters were pretty accurate in many cases. Roy Cooper’s 20-point margin was largely predicted. What had not been evident was that Roy had coattails that helped other Democrats win.

To the extent possible, North Carolina needs to enact campaign finance reforms. If you ever gave a political contribution to either a candidate or party your inbox was deluged constantly by pleas for donations. We got to the point where we were ready to vote against the next one that made a nauseous plea. Candidates take heed: voters are fed up with the way you raise money.

But let’s not forget there are two more months for incumbents to wreak havoc in North Carolina.

As soon as results are finalized, they will call themselves into special session and will not, as Dylan Thomas once wrote, go “gently into that good night.” Count on retributions in their final days – against incoming House Speaker Robert Reives, Democrats and others they perceive as enemies. And don’t be surprised if Pro Tem Senator Phil Berger doesn’t respond somehow.

Look for this special session to give Auditor Dave Boliek even more powers than he now has. Boliek may end up with about as much power as the governor, something the writers of our Constitution never envisioned and would not condone. It is possible to see them enact more tax cuts and ignore current funding problems of the state health plan, retirement plan, public safety officers, public schools and infrastructure. They are sitting on a bank account of about $6 billion and it will be interesting to see how and if they spend it down before Democrats take charge.

Come January it will be a new day in North Carolina and the nation.

Tom Campbell is a Hall of Fame North Carolina broadcaster and columnist who has covered North Carolina public policy issues since 1965.  Contact him at tomcamp@ncspin.com