On Monday, Nov. 16, Republican District 59 Rep. Jon Hardister (R-Guilford) was reelected the House majority whip by his fellow Republicans.
The majority whip is number three on the leadership team after the speaker and majority leader.
Hardister faced a tough challenge in his reelection bid from Democrat Nicole Quick. District 59 was a seat the Democratic Party thought it could pick up and as result pumped over $1 million into the District 59 House race.
That’s an enormous amount of money to spend on one race for a state House seat, and it becomes even larger when all that money is spent on a losing race. Hardister won with 52.3 percent of the votes over Quick with 47.7 percent
Despite the efforts to win back a majority in the North Carolina legislature, the Republicans will maintain at least a 69-51 advantage in the state House, gaining four seats in the 2020 election. The Republicans also maintained a majority in the state Senate. One reason the Democratic Party threw so much money into state House and Senate races is that the election districts for the state legislature and the US Congress will be redrawn in 2021 based on the 2020 census figures.
It has been predicted that North Carolina will gain an additional seat in Congress, giving the state 14, and, with majorities in both the state House and Senate, Republicans will make the decisions on the new districts.
Hardister has served in the legislature since 2012 and as majority whip since 2016.
The House Republican Majority also nominated Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) for a fourth term as speaker. The speaker is elected by the entire House, so Moore won’t officially be elected speaker until the General Assembly is called into session in January 2021. But since the Republicans have a sizable majority the election by the House is largely pro forma. In serving his fourth term as speaker, Moore will tie the record for the number of legislative terms holding that office.
The Republican members of the state House also elected Rep. John Bell (R-Wayne) to return as House majority leader and Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus as deputy majority leader.
In face of this, in order for the Coop to be re-elected, it follows that many don’t like President Trump.
Well, duh, but if anyone paid attention, he got much of his agenda enacted. Do you want a gold old boy making everyone happy, or do you want a tough SOB who gets stuff done?
The electorate is not paying attention.
I’d rather be happy and it depends on how you define “stuff”. I think there’s a better word to use there, and it doesn’t smell very good.
Does it sound like “merde”?