I have a close friend who lives in North Carolina, and she thinks that it’s a great state, and that it’s about to get a lot more conservative because they now have Republican supermajorities that can override the governor’s veto. I have noticed a lot of good stories in the news about North Carolina, and I thought that I might collect a few stories about what they are up to.

First, this one from yesterday, reported by Life News:

Pro-Life legislators in North Carolina have introduced a bill to ban abortions on unborn babies starting at 12 weeks. While pro-life advocates were hoping for legislation to protect babies starting at conception or at least a heartbeat bill protecting them beginning at 6 weeks, the political reality of the situation prevented that.

North Carolina Republicans face an uphill battle in getting legislation approved because pro-abortion Democrat Governor Roy Cooper is certain to veto any pro-life legislation and stronger pro-life protections for babies would have a more difficult time securing the supermajority necessary to override his veto.

North Carolina Republican legislative leaders said on Tuesday there’s agreement for a 12 week bill and House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger both said they would push the pro=life legislation in their respective chambers.

Now for a couple stories about cleaning up their elections, so that Democrats can’t steal them by voter fraud.

This one from Life Site News:

With its new conservative majority, the North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday reversed prior decisions against state voting rules and a Republican-redrawn districting map, a boon to the GOP’s prospects going into the 2024 elections.

The Carolina Journal reports that the state’s highest court, on which two Democrat justices were replaced with Republicans last year, voted 5-2 to reinstate North Carolina’s 2018 law requiring photo identification in order to vote and districting maps favorable to Republicans in congressional and state legislative races, and to forbid felons from voting in state elections until they have completed their sentences.

All three rulings were issued “with prejudice,” meaning that opponents cannot challenge them again.

Nice. And how about this one from The Federalist:

After scoring significant victories in the legislature in the 2022 midterms, North Carolina Republicans are introducing legislation that would bar state and local election officials from accepting or using private money to conduct elections.

SB 89 stipulates that state and local election boards, as well as county boards of commissioners, are prohibited from accepting “private monetary donations, directly or indirectly, for conducting elections or employing individuals on a temporary basis.”

Concerns surrounding the use of private money to conduct elections became prominent following the 2020 election cycle, during which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gifted nonprofits such as the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) hundreds of millions of dollars. These “Zuckbucks” were then siphoned into local election offices in battleground states around the country to change how elections were administered, such as by expanding unsecure election protocols like mail-in voting and the use of ballot drop boxes.

To make matters worse, the grants were heavily skewed towards Democrat-majority counties, essentially making it a massive Democrat get-out-the-vote operation.

That’s how Biden was able to win the election in states where he wasn’t even competitive in the polls.

And this one, from Daily Wire:

The University of North Carolina (UNC) made a move against woke culture on Thursday, banning controversial so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements from the school’s hiring and promotion process.

The university’s Board of Governors reportedly voted Thursday to secure the ban, following pressure from Color Us United, a non-profit committed to speaking out “against those who want to divide America.”

UNC “shall neither solicit nor require an employee or applicant for academic admission or employment to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement,” the resolution said, adding that an employee or applicant can’t “be solicited or required to describe his or her actions in support of, or in opposition to, such beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles.”

A lot of this is going to hinge on who wins the governor post in 2024, and this guy (reported in The Federalist) is the guy who Republicans are running:

Mark Robinson believes Republicans and conservatives should never concede the cultural narrative, and that the party’s greatest need is to put forward those who can speak with force, conviction, and eloquence about the party’s shared values with everyday Americans. The lack of articulateness in such matters is, of course, a perennial complaint about GOP political discourse. However, if anybody is in a position to do something about it, it is the man who will be, barring incident, the first black lieutenant governor of North Carolina.

I’ve witnessed a great many politicians give a great many speeches, but I’ve seldom come across one with the natural ease and ability to combine passion and reason the way Robinson does when he gets warmed up on his favorite issues. His is a national-level talent that the GOP would ignore or sideline at its peril.

I saw a display of Robinson’s appeal last summer when he addressed a Back the Blue rally in downtown Raleigh. He electrified the audience and with a speech basically shut down the Antifa and Black Lives Matter protestors cat-calling and drumming on the periphery, striking them, at least momentarily, silent and dumbfounded.

I hope a lot of conservatives move there from blue states, and tilt the balance more. No point living in a blue state if you can get out. Don’t pay taxes to people who hate you, and your values. Just move. I like to make spreadsheets comparing all the interesting rankings of states, like fiscal solvency, state legislatures, pro-life and self-defense. According to my spreadsheets, across all measures that I care about, the two best states in the union are Florida and Tennessee.