Union-Bulletin: “North Carolina evenly split its U.S. House delegation in Tuesday’s midterm election, with Democrats and Republicans each winning seven of the 14 seats up for grabs.
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“The Republican Party has made a significant investment in judicial elections the last two cycles, and it has paid off,” said Bob Orr, a former Republican justice on the N.C. Supreme Court who has become a critic of his former party in the last few years. “For better or worse, whether you like it or not, they have put together a strong slate of candidates, with a lot of funding, and they have won.”…
“There will be two Presidential, two U.S Senate, two governors and three General Assembly elections before @NCDemParty has even a chance to flip the soon to be @NCGOP state Supreme Court,” tweeted Dallas Woodhouse, the former executive director of the state Republican Party, on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the Democratic majority on the N.C. Supreme Court struck down Republicans’ original congressional map — which would’ve likely given the GOP a 10-4 advantage in congressional races here even with less than 50% of the statewide vote — as unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering.
The court replaced it with a map drawn by a group of outside experts that included Orr. Heading into Tuesday night it appeared likely to lead to an 8-6 advantage for Republicans. But in the end, Democrat Wiley Nickel pulled off an upset against Republican Bo Hines in a toss-up district in the Raleigh suburbs.
The eventual 7-7 split in U.S. House races came as Republican Ted Budd won the state’s U.S. Senate race with approximately 50.7% of the vote.
Republican leaders view that as unacceptable.”