MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
North Carolina lawmakers had something of a lightning round this week. They considered bills to ban DEI in schools, to loosen gun restrictions, to toughen immigration enforcement. Republicans are overriding or trying to override about a dozen vetoes on those bills, vetoes by the new Democratic governor. Now, divided government is not new to North Carolina and added to the mix, another development this week as a former governor jumped into the race for the U.S. Senate. I want to bring in Colin Campbell in Raleigh from member station WUNC. Hey there, Colin.
COLIN CAMPBELL, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Hey. So start with the current governor. This is Democrat Josh Stein. He was elected last fall, even as President Trump won North Carolina easily. The Republican-led legislature has since sent him a lot of bills high on their agenda. How has he handled them?
CAMPBELL: So Governor Stein's been quite busy with his veto stamp. We've seen immigration bills to require sheriffs and law enforcement to work more closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in deporting and detaining people. That got a veto. He's also vetoed bills to eliminate permits for carrying a concealed handgun, and he vetoed a bill that would allow lawsuits against providers of gender-affirming care for transgender people. The overrides that passed on those vetoes this week, including one of those immigration laws, were mostly because a couple of Democrats voted with Republicans, but the votes were mostly otherwise along party lines. Here, it takes about a three-fifths vote to override a veto, and they did a bunch of that yesterday, and they may come back at any time in the coming months to do some of the other vetoes.
KELLY: How does Governor Stein explain all those vetoes?
CAMPBELL: The governor is making the case that these bills are culture war issues, and he's pushing the Republican legislature to instead focus more on a state budget, which is now a month overdue in getting passed here. Here he is.
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JOSH STEIN: The General Assembly, by focusing on divisive bills that do not move this state forward, and in some instances, make our state less safe, that is the wrong priority when you have not figured out how we're going to pay our teachers, when you've not figured out how we're going to ensure people on Medicaid continue to have the health care that they need.
CAMPBELL: So that focus on economic issues and health care is a message similar to what we're hearing from other Democrats in other parts of the country dealing with these issues.
KELLY: And what do Republican lawmakers there in North Carolina have to say in response?
CAMPBELL: So they say the vetoes don't reflect the state, where, as we mentioned, Trump won three elections in a row. They point to the moderate Democrats who voted for these vetoed bills. Stein, while he was running for election, positioned himself as a moderate last year, but Senate leader Phil Berger, who's a Republican, says that's not how he's approaching these bills.
PHIL BERGER: I think it's an indication that, you know, at least as far as this legislature is concerned, which is elected by the people of the state in North Carolina, we believe that the governor that was elected by the people of North Carolina is out of step with a number of things.
CAMPBELL: So Stein won by a pretty big margin last year, but his Republican opponent had a ton of scandals that ultimately doomed his campaign. Meanwhile, the state legislature here is elected under GOP-drawn maps, and those are designed to favor their party.
KELLY: And I want to get to this latest development I mentioned. This is the former governor - former Democratic governor, Roy Cooper. He has jumped into the race for a U.S. Senate seat that is being vacated by a Republican. Give us a quick preview of the race.
CAMPBELL: So that puts a lot of the issues we've been discussing front and center. Cooper and Stein both have similar politics, and Cooper dealt with a lot of these same issues coming out of the Republican legislature and issued vetoes. Cooper was fairly popular as governor here, but he does face a pretty tough race. Michael Whatley, who's the chair of the Republican National Committee, he's expected to be his main opponent, and he's announcing it later this week. President Trump, just a few days ago, called on Whatley to run and said on social media that, quote, "I need him in Washington." So with those two candidates, this race is going to be a very expensive race - hundreds of millions of dollars - since it's one of Democrats' best shots at potentially flipping a Senate seat here in North Carolina and being able to expand their numbers in Congress.
KELLY: Colin Campbell with WUNC in Raleigh - thank you, Colin.
CAMPBELL: Thanks, Mary Louise. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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