While their senior senator, Republican Thom Tillis, is displaying a shred of decency by retiring from Congress instead of voting for Trump’s tax bill that robs from the poor and gives to the rich, the state Republicans in North Carolina have no such character. Instead, they’re continuing their efforts at politicizing elections in the state.
Their latest move? A House bill that would replace over a third of the current state elections staff jobs with political appointees.
The new state elections director, Sam Hayes, had a very Trump-ish explanation for why he needs to eliminate experienced nonpartisan staff, NC Newsline reported: “These positions would just allow me the flexibility that I need to conduct that reorganization and make sure that folks that are surrounding me, certainly my direct reports and I, are aligned on the vision for the agency as I set forward.”
That’s just code for “I want a bunch of stooges who will help continue the GOP project of undermining elections in the state.” But somehow, according to Hayes, this will also be nonpartisan. Yes, replacing nonpartisan staff with political appointees is totally nonpartisan indeed. It’s not surprising that Hayes only knows how to operate like a hardcore partisan, as his previous gig was as counsel for the GOP House speaker.
Hayes got the gig after the state elections board ousted its director in May, which the board was able to do thanks to Republicans passing a law that stripped the then-governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, of his power to appoint board members. Instead, the legislature gave the power to the state auditor, Republican Dave Boliek. Republicans had to dig deep to find a statewide elected official who wasn’t a Democrat—hence, Boliek.
State auditors oversee accounting and financial functions and often have a watchdog role over other state agencies. You’ll note that none of that has anything to do with elections. Nor does Boliek have any background in election administration, but what he does have is conservative culture war credentials. His election page brags of how he “led the fight at UNC to eliminate woke diversity and equity policies” and brought “ideological balance to the notoriously liberal campus.”
Boliek used his new power to install a GOP majority on the state election board and promptly nominated conservative conspiracy theorists. Boliek also got the power to nominate election officials for all 100 North Carolina county election boards, giving the GOP a 3-2 majority on every board. So nonpartisan!
Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court, which also has a GOP supermajority, blessed this law change even after a lower court found it unconstitutional. That same GOP supermajority also blessed the efforts of state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin in his quest to overturn his loss to Allison Riggs. Griffin’s GOP pals on the state appellate court and the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of his unhinged demand to throw out more than 68,000 legally cast votes. Griffin only backed off after a federal judge, a Trump nominee, halted his challenge.
North Carolina Republicans genuinely believe that Democrats should have no role in elections, even though their governor, Josh Stein, is a Democrat. And since they can’t win the governor’s race, they’ve had to resort to these sorts of shenanigans to upend the entire structure of elections in the state. This isn’t democracy, and it’s definitely not nonpartisan.
Campaign Action Lisa Needham June 30, 2025 at 11:30PM From Daily Kos
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