Our hearts are heavy and our thoughts are with our fellow North Carolinians who have been impacted by the catastrophic devastation of Hurricane Helene. While those affected are currently focusing on survival and recovery efforts, we have also received questions about Helene’s impact on voting.

We are heartened to see that the North Carolina State Board of Elections is already sharing their plans to make sure all impacted voters can still vote in this election. They have created a dedicated website to answer questions and share updates here: ncsbe.gov/Helene. We will continue to monitor this information to share with our community, and extend our sympathy and support to Western North Carolina.

What’s at Stake this November?

We know we’re stating the obvious here, but this wouldn’t be an Anti-Extremism Voting Guide if we didn’t call out the extremist at the top of the ticket. This November, we aren’t just voting for president and governor! We’re voting on who will lead the North Carolina General Assembly; our local school, library and township boards; and the North Carolina Supreme Court and Appellate Court.

Local races have a huge impact on our everyday lives and sometimes are decided by just one or two votes. Really, we’ve seen it happen! That’s why it’s so important for us to get everyone we know to the polls.

During this election cycle, it will be vital for North Carolinians to elect officials up and down the ballot who will protect our rights.  We know we’re stating the obvious here, but this wouldn’t be an Anti-Extremism Voting Guide if we didn’t call out the extremist at the top of the ticket. Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz are leading the fight at the national level to protect our freedoms. The choice is clear which presidential candidate will protect our rights.

Let’s elect candidates who share our values –and send a clear message for what we expect from our elected leaders in 2025 and beyond!!

Break the Supermajority in the General Assembly

If you’ve been in North Carolina the last few years, you’ve seen the impact that just one elected leader can have on our government. In the 2022 midterms, we successfully prevented extreme Republicans from gaining a supermajority in the State Assembly by just one seat in the House. Just three months later, we were shocked when Democratic Representative Tricia Cotham betrayed her constituents – and the entire state – by switching her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican with devastating consequences for North Carolinians.

When Cotham switched her party representation, she gave the GOP the supermajority they needed to override Governor Cooper’s veto against some of the most repressive legislation we’ve seen in North Carolina. Since Cotham switched parties, the GOP has passed:

• A restrictive 12-week abortion ban.
• A school voucher program that diverted over half a billion dollars from our public school system.
• Voter suppression laws that will all but ensure that extremists stay in power for decades.

Breaking this supermajority is a top goal for Red Wine & Blue North Carolina. We’ll be working hard with a broad coalition of North Carolina based groups to turn out the millions of voters we need to show up in November, including the inconsistent and reluctant voters in our own families and communities.

Fair and Balanced Courts

Republican extremists reversed the North Carolina Supreme Court ruling on the Leandro Case.  If you’re not familiar with the Leandro Case, it is a lawsuit filed 30 years ago against the North Carolina General Assembly, which failed to perform its constitutional duty to provide adequate funding to ensure a basic public education for all North Carolina’s children. The ruling ordered the General Assembly to fund Leandro, which was a step towards justice for our children, the majority of whom get their education in our public schools.

After the GOP secured a majority on the North Carolina State Supreme Court in 2022, they reversed the earlier Leandro rulings, which delayed funding for our children and their education. This year, one North Carolina Supreme Court seat is on the ballot and we have the opportunity to prevent the GOP from increasing their majority on the court by re-electing Justice Allison Riggs. Justice Riggs was a civil and voting rights attorney before being appointed to the NC Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. She has proven that she’ll uphold our rights to fair voting districts, safe and healthy environments, and our children’s right to public education. It is also important that we elect Appellate Court judges who will make rulings based on sound legal reasoning instead of extreme ideologies. We can count on Judges Carolyn Thompson, Ed Eldred, and Martin Moore to be such judges.

Vote Against Unnecessary Changes to our State Constitution

There’s a misleading proposed amendment to our state constitution on the ballot this year. The exact language that you will see on your ballot is: “Constitutional amendment to provide that only a citizen of the United States who is 18 years of age and otherwise possessing the qualifications for voting shall be entitled to vote at any election in this State.”

But it’s already against the law for non-citizens to vote in elections. This is true for the entire country AND it’s already explicitly stated in the North Carolina state constitution. The current language of the state constitution says “every person born in the United States and every person who has been naturalized, 18 years of age,” as long as they meet other qualifications. The change is unnecessary.

Whether you’re a native North Carolinian or new to the state, we all deserve to have a voice in our government, which is why the NC state constitution clearly states that all citizens, including naturalized ones, have the right to vote. Now MAGA Republicans are proposing this unnecessary and misleading amendment to sow mistrust in our elections and stoke anti-immigrant fear. But North Carolinans are smart, and we know when someone is trying to manipulate us.

MAGA Republicans know that if they sow this fear and mistrust, putting this amendment on the ballot will get their supporters out to vote, and while they vote for this amendment, they will vote for extremists across the entire ballot. We can’t let them get away with it.

Our elections are secure. Only citizens can vote. We need to vote against this amendment and against scare tactics and fear mongering.