North Carolina didn’t get a blue wave. It got a red reminder

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, North Carolina Democrats were cautiously optimistic — with some even confident — that they were ready to retake power in the state legislature.

They’d eliminated the GOP’s General Assembly super-majority in the 2018 election, and they believed they could ride the 2020 tailwinds of an urban and suburban rejection of President Donald Trump. The NC Senate was poised to topple, several lawmakers told the Editorial Board, and the NC House had a 50-50 shot of doing the same.

But instead of more blue waving on Tuesday, North Carolina got a red reminder: Republicans aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

With ballots still to count and some races exceedingly close, the GOP will likely hold their Senate and House majorities — possibly even gaining in the latter. Republicans also appear ready to retain seats in Council of State races — including NC superintendent — and they are poised to sweep North Carolina’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals races.

The results left GOP leaders rightly crowing early Wednesday morning. “For the sixth consecutive election, voters made a clear choice in support of the Republican platform of low taxes, expanded school choice, and large investments in education and teacher pay,” Senate leader Phil Berger said in a statement. “The Senate Republican majority will continue to deliver on those promises.”

This also is true, however: N.C. voters gave Democrat Roy Cooper another four years as governor in what amounted to a landslide compared to other statewide races. Democrat Josh Stein looks to be headed to another term as Attorney General, and Democrats appear to have picked up an N.C. Senate seat in what now will likely be a 28-22 GOP majority.

In fact, our state government looks a lot like it did the day before the election — a Democratic governor facing a Republican General Assembly that doesn’t wield a veto-proof majority. It’s neither blue nor red — but it’s also not the kind of purple that leads to good governing.

That’s because Tuesday’s split decision was not the product of moderate voters wanting balance among North Carolina’s branches. It was the product of conservatives who vote for the candidate with an R, no matter what, and progressives that do the same. Maps may be gerrymandered and the GOP may try to suppress votes, but result after statewide result clearly showed the divided nature of North Carolina.

In other words — we’re stuck with each other.

Which, of course, is nothing new. Our state has been mired in gridlock for years, and for that not to continue, both Democratic and Republican leaders need to understand that the other side will be here a while.

Democrats should recognize that some of what Berger said Tuesday is true — North Carolinians did not reject the Republican approach to taxes and schools. Republicans, meanwhile, should realize that those same voters gave Cooper a clear thumbs up for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We believe there’s room for compromise on several significant issues. Other states with GOP leadership have found palatable ways to expand Medicaid and provide health care coverage to millions. On education, Republicans and Democrats can start by agreeing to what each has already said — that teachers deserve more money than they’re making. At the least, the governor and Republican leaders should be able to accomplish basic things like passing a budget, something other divided statehouses have managed to do.

That will take something different than the arms-folded posture we’ve seen in Raleigh. Instead of lobbing barbs with the next election in mind, we hope Democrats and Republicans recognize that an election just happened.

There was no blue wave, but there wasn’t really a red one, either. We’re stuck with each other, but we hope that doesn’t mean we’re stuck.

This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 10:10 AM.