Steinburg, Hanig win seats for N.C. Senate and House; Four Constitutional Amendments Pass By JOY CRIST

Election results came in late Tuesday night for North Carolina, and Republicans won big across the board on both county and state levels. Republicans Bob Steinburg and Bobby Hanig beat Democrat candidates D. Cole Phelps and Tess Judge for seats on the North Carolina General Assembly, while incumbent Dare County Board of Commissioner Jim Tobin won over challenger Rosemaire Doshier for the District 1 Board of Commissioners (BOC) seat. Democrat Ervin Bateman defeated Anne Petera for the At-Large seat on the BOC, one of the lone local Democrat wins in Tuesday night’s election.

On the state level, Democrats won enough seats in the General Assembly to break the existing “supermajority” of Republicans – a three-fifth majority – which had allowed Republicans to block Governor Cooper’s vetoes since he took office in 2017. However, Republicans maintained their majority in the state House and Senate, with estimated majorities of 66-55 and 29-21 come January.

Two of the six proposed amendments to the state constitution appeared to fail as of Wednesday morning at 7 a.m., with 2683 of 2706 precincts reporting results.

The two amendments that failed included the proposed constitutional amendment to change the process for filling judicial vacancies by the Governor, and the establishment an eight-member Bipartisan Board of Ethics and Elections Enforcement in the Constitution to administer ethics and elections law. The amendment requiring voters to provide photo identification before voting in person, and the amendment to reduce the income tax rate in North Carolina to a maximum allowable rate of seven percent (7%) both appeared to pass.  

Total election results as of 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning are as follows.