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North Carolina Republican Party | |
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| Chairman | Jason Simmons |
| Senate President (pro tempore) | Phil Berger |
| House Speaker | Destin Hall |
| Founded | 1867; 158 years ago (1867) |
| Headquarters | 1506 Hillsborough St, Raleigh, NC 27605 |
| Student wing | North Carolina Federation of College Republicans |
| Youth wing | North Carolina Federation of Young Republicans North Carolina Teenage Republicans |
| Membership(2025) |  2,285,822[1] |
| Ideology | Conservatism |
| National affiliation | Republican Party |
| Colors | Red |
| Council of State | 5 / 10 |
| Seats in theNorth Carolina Senate | 30 / 50 |
| Seats in theNorth Carolina House of Representatives | 71 / 120 |
| U.S. Senate | 2 / 2 |
| U.S. House of Representatives | 10 / 14 |
| State Supreme Court | 5 / 7 |
| Election symbol | |
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| Website | |
| www | |
TheNorth Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP) is the affiliate of theRepublican Party inNorth Carolina.Michael Whatley was the chair from 2019 until his election as national chair in March 2024. It is currently the state's dominant party, controlling 10 of North Carolina's 14U.S. House seats, bothU.S. Senate seats, majorities in both of itsstate legislative chambers (3/5supermajority in theNorth Carolina Senate), and a majority on thestate supreme court.
The party was established in 1867, in the aftermath of theAmerican Civil War. Gaining support from the newly enfranchisedfreedmen, Republicans were briefly successful in state politics, dominating the convention that wrote theConstitution of North Carolina of 1868 and electing several governors.[2] AfterReconstruction, Democrats returned to power, oftensuppressing the black vote by violence andelectoral fraud. Republicans had success in the 1890s when they joined forces with thePopulist party in an "electoral fusion." They gained enough seats in the legislature to control it in 1896, and electedDaniel L. Russell as governor in 1896.[3][4]
Although Republicans first nominated a candidate for President of the United States,John C. Fremont, in 1856,[5] the party was not established in North Carolina until 1867, after theAmerican Civil War. With the help of the newly enfranchisedfreedmen, Republicans were briefly successful in state politics, dominating the convention that wrote theConstitution of North Carolina of 1868 and electing several governors.[6] AfterReconstruction, Democrats returned to power, often suppressing the black vote by violence and fraud. Republicans had success in the 1890s when they joined forces with thePopulist party in an "electoral fusion." They gained enough seats in the legislature to control it in 1896, and electedDaniel L. Russell as governor in 1896.[7][8]
To prevent this kind of challenge, after Democrats regained control of the state legislature, in 1900 they adopted a constitutional suffrage amendment which required prepayment of apoll tax and an educational qualification (to be assessed by a registrar, which meant that it could be subjectively applied), and lengthened the residence period required before registration. Agrandfather clause exempted from the poll tax those entitled to vote on January 1, 1867, which limited exemptions to white men.[9] These barriers to voter registration caused a dramatic drop in the number of African-American voters in the state by 1904, although they constituted one-third of the population.[10] An estimated 75,000 black male citizens lost the vote.[11][12]
With North Carolina a one-party Democratic state of theSolid South following the disfranchisement of blacks, North Carolina Republicans struggled to survive as a party during the first half of the twentieth century. African Americans were virtually excluded from the political system in the state until the late 1960s. In 1928 Republicans carried the state's electoral votes for president (for candidateHerbert Hoover).[13] White members of the Republican Party generally lived in the Piedmont near Charlotte and Winston-Salem, and the mountains in the western part of the state. In 1952Charles R. Jonas was elected to Congress from the western part of the state as the first Republican since before theGreat Depression. He was joined in 1962 byJim Broyhill. From this base, and nearly winning the electoral votes for the state in the Presidential elections from 1952 to 1960, the party began to grow.
As in other southern states, in the late 20th century, white conservatives began to shift from the Democratic Party to the Republican one, especially after national Democratic leaders supported theCivil Rights Act of 1964 and theVoting Rights Act of 1965. White conservatives first voted for Republican presidential candidates. From 1968 through 2004, the majority of North Carolina voters supported Republicans in every presidential election, except 1976, when favorite son DemocratJimmy Carter was elected from Georgia.[citation needed] When they re-entered the political system, African Americans shifted their alliance from the Republican to the Democratic Party, which had national leaders who had supported the civil rights effort and legislation enforcing their constitutional rights as citizens.
In 1972, Republicans became competitive in statewide elections for the first time since 1900:James Holshouser was elected Governor of the state, andJesse Helms, a former Democrat who held office for a long time, was elected to the U.S. Senate.[14]Jack Lee, who was elected state party chairperson in 1977, is widely credited with unifying the North Carolina Republican Party in this period.[15][16]
The parties were generally competitive, with the state's voters split between them, through much of the rest of the 20th century.
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2021) |
Theelections of 2010 led to Republican control of both houses of theNorth Carolina General Assembly for the first time since 1896[17] when it had gained success in a fusionist campaign with thePopulist Party.
When the Republican-controlled legislature conducted redistricting in 2011, it established districts biased in favor of Republicans. As a result, although more voters chose Democratic congressional candidates in the state in 2012, Republicans won a majority of the seats.[18] The district maps have been challenged in several lawsuits for racialgerrymandering, and the maps were struck down by a state court in 2019.[19]
In 2012, Republicans retained control of the legislature and elected two Republicans,Pat McCrory andDan Forest, asGovernor andLieutenant Governor, respectively. Most of the otherCouncil of State offices (the Governor and Lieutenant Governor areChairman and Vice Chairman, respectively) were won byDemocratic candidates. (The other Republicans areCherie K. Berry,Commissioner of Labor andSteve Troxler,Commissioner of Agriculture.)
In February 2021, the North Carolina Republican Party censured SenatorRichard Burr after he voted to impeachDonald Trump for his role in inciting a pro-Trump mob tostorm the U.S. Capitol.[20] The next month, the party did not censure House RepresentativeMadison Cawthorn amid numerous accusations of sexual harassment, as well as exposure of false and baseless claims that he had made about himself.[20]
In 2016, North Carolina Republicans passed laws to ordertransgender people to use bathrooms according to theirsex assigned at birth. On March 23, 2016, Governor McCrory signed thePublic Facilities Privacy & Security Act (commonly known as House Bill 2 or HB2), described at the time as the mostanti-LGBT legislation in the United States.[21][22][23][24] It eliminated anti-discrimination protections forgay,transgender, andintersex people and forbids cities to re-establish such protections.[25] It also required people who enter government buildings to use only the restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates.[25] While some transgender people alter the gender marker on their birth certificates, others have not yet done so or cannot do so, and this law would have prevented them from using the restroom consistent with thegender identity in which they live.[25] However, on March 30, 2017, the portion of the law regarding bathroom use was repealed, and asunset provision of December 1, 2020 was applied to the ban on local governments passing antidiscrimination laws.[26][27]
At the state party's annual convention in June 2023, delegates voted to censure U.S. SenatorThom Tillis for his support of same-sex marriage. TheNorth Carolina Republican party platform opposes same-sex marriage.[28]
The party controls six of the ten statewideCouncil of State offices and holds a 3/5supermajority in theNorth Carolina House of Representatives and in theNorth Carolina Senate. Republicans also hold both of the state'sU.S. Senate seats and 7 of the state's 14U.S. House seats.
Republicans have controlled both of North Carolina's seats in theU.S. Senate since2014:
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| This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(March 2023) |
Out of the 14 seats North Carolina is apportioned in theU.S. House of Representatives, 10 are held by Republicans:
Republicans control five of the ten elected statewideCouncil of State offices:
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