Husser, associate professor of political science and director of the Elon University Poll, shared his insights on the state legislative races and the N.C. Supreme Court races.
Republican victories in N.C. Supreme Court races on Tuesday could have big policy implications, with Republicans in the majority in the state’s highest court for the first time since 2016, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Elon University Poll Jason Husser told WFMY News 2.
“What that means is when there are controversies, usually originating in the legislature around issues like education, abortion, voting rights, they will eventually make it to the state Supreme Court in some capacity or another, and the court is more likely to favor the Republican party,” Husser told the media outlet.
Husser’s comments were during a segment by the local CBS affiliate diving into the results of the midterm elections in North Carolina on Tuesday, Nov. 8, which also featured a slew of state legislative races as well as a race for a U.S. Senate seat.
Republicans failed to gain a supermajority in both chambers of the N.C. General Assembly, which could have provided the ability to override vetoes by Gov. Roy Cooper on a party-line vote. However, Husser noted, such a supermajority could still be attained for certain pieces of legislation.
“There are Democrats who have broken with Cooper regularly and voted with Republicans. We will likely see some of that, not in every piece of legislation put on some pieces of legislation. We could even have the potential of (a) Democrat chang(ing) party, and the Republicans would have the supermajority,” said Husser. “What I think is the most likely outcome though is that on pieces of legislation that are really important to Republicans, they will find one Democrat at least willing to join with them and that Democrat will have a tremendous amount of influence at the state level.”