What comes after the blue wave in North Carolina?

A blue tsunami crashed into battleground and deep red Republican territory alike on Tuesday night, a clear response to an economy that many feel frustrated by and a strong rebuke of the Trump administration.

In North Carolina, Democrats picked up seats that were considered reliably red before or had even been gerrymandered by GOP leaders. In a district covering part of Mecklenburg County, a Democrat and first-time political candidate, LaKesha Womack, even unseated one of North Carolina’s most powerful politicians, Republican Tim Moore — in a U.S. House district he redrew to be more GOP-friendly before running for the seat. 

But what do all the Democratic wins across the ballot actually mean for the country, the state and Greater Charlotte? What comes next? 

What does this mean for the state Supreme Court and Appeals Court? 

Democratic Justice Anita Earls won another term on the North Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday night, defeating Republican challenger Sarah Stevens. 

The court still has a 5-2 Republican majority. Tuesday’s results don’t change that partisan composition — but with Earls’ seat preserved, the stage is set for Democrats to potentially retake control of the court in 2028, when three Republican justices are up for reelection. If that happens, a Democratic-majority court could revisit and overturn some of the rulings by the current conservative court. 

The Appeals Court tells a similar story. The three Democrats running for the Appeals Court won: incumbents John Arrowood and Toby Hampson, and Christine Walczyk. While the appellate court is still heavily Republican, with 12 Republicans and three Democrats, the midterm results ensure those three Democratic seats remain blue. 

It also sets a foundation for Democrats to win more seats on the court in the future — and bring more partisan balance to the court. Cases that are brought before the Court of Appeals are reviewed by a rotating panel of three judges; with a mostly Republican court, many cases are heard entirely by members of one party. 

Eric Heberlig, political science professor at UNC Charlotte, said that Tuesday’s results are also a signal to the Republican majority on the court that they may have overreached in some of their controversial decisions. 

Heberlig also said that if the anti-Trump political climate is similar when Republican judges are up for reelection, some may consider retiring rather than fighting a difficult race. 

And since power has shifted in the General Assembly, the dockets themselves could also change.

“If there’s not really any controversial legislation that gets out of the legislature and signed by the governor, there’s less opportunity for the courts to jump in and bless something that’s a big power shift,” Heberlig said. 

What does this mean for the General Assembly? 

Republicans have controlled the state House since 2010. But power shifted Tuesday night; Democrats needed 61 seats out of 120 for a majority, and picked up 70. 

In the state Senate, Republicans still have a slight majority, but only by two seats. Democrats broke the Republican two-thirds majority that has been used to override many of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s vetoes — like when they overrode his veto of a bill that bans diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in state agencies and public education and another bill that requires local law enforcement to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

The Democratic majority in the state House limits the GOP’s ability to pass legislation on party lines. But it doesn’t necessarily mean Democrats will be able to easily or quickly achieve the goals they campaigned on — like more funding for public education or reducing private school tuition subsidies, increasing healthcare accessibility and affordability, and addressing the cost-of-living crisis. They’re still constrained within the limits of the state budget — which roughly half of Democrats didn’t support — and will need to find funding for their legislative priorities in the next budget cycle. 

Democrats will also be limited because of two measures that North Carolina voters approved this week: constitutional amendments that cap both the state income tax rate and the property tax rate that municipalities can impose. 

Lawmakers in Raleigh often mandate that local governments enact certain policies without giving them the money required, leaving municipalities to find the funds within their own budgets. Democrats worry the amendment limiting local governments’ ability to raise property taxes will prevent them from generating enough revenue to meet local needs, like funding schools or infrastructure improvements. 

Still, voters approved the amendments by a comfortable margin, even as many of them also voted Democrats into office to fund priorities like education and healthcare. 

“Democrats are going to be stuck with this agenda that is going to cost money, without the revenue stream that’s going to allow them to do it,” Heberlig said. “Voters will say, ‘You promised us X. Why haven’t you done it?’ And Democrats can say, ‘Well, you undercut our ability to actually do it.’”  

Heberlig said this was partially because voters don’t pay as much attention to referendums as they do candidates. But the real reason they passed is because the election was a rejection of the status quo — and voters viewed the referendums as an opportunity for change. 

“They were not voting for Democrats as much as they were voting against Republicans,” he said. “One of the things that frustrates them is their taxes going up. They think the government is corrupt and unaccountable. So putting a limit on their government’s funding — that’s a way to protect yourself against an establishment you think isn’t working for you. It’s totally contradictory in terms of policy, but that assumes that voters are voting based on policy, which often they’re not.” 

What does this mean for Mecklenburg County leadership in Raleigh? 

Tuesday’s results keep the vast majority of Mecklenburg County’s representation in Raleigh blue. All the Democrats running for reelection were successful by comfortable margins. 

Races that were expected to be nail-biters didn’t end up that way, like the race between Democrat Woodson Bradley and Republican Stacie McGinn. Bradley eked out a win in 2024, when the entire country saw a rightward shift, with just 209 votes more than McGinn. But in their rematch on Tuesday, Bradley finished with 58.88% of the vote and McGinn 41.12%. 

Republican Tricia Cotham is also headed home. After Cotham switched her affiliation from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 2023, she became the deciding vote on several pieces of conservative-led legislation, like the 12-week abortion ban. Democrat Ken McCool is taking her spot in the General Assembly. 

When the new legislators are sworn into office in January, Mecklenburg County will only have one Republican in the General Assembly, Vickie Sawyer, who fended off a challenge from Democrat Raygan Angel. Sawyer added the amendment in the state budget that punishes municipalities for not restoring support for the controversial Interstate 77 toll lane project. 

But, Heberlig says, in their special post-election session, the Republican majority could try to gerrymander more districts across the state in its favor before newly elected Democrats take office.

Beyond North Carolina 

After Tuesday night, some voters and political analysts are saying President Donald Trump is a lame duck. Heberlig says he doesn’t believe this is exactly true. 

While Democrats will certainly try to check the president’s power, he has been “creative” in finding ways to enact his agenda, Heberlig said — often bypassing congressional approval for many of his actions, even as Republicans currently control both chambers of Congress and usually vote how he directs them to.

Similarly, Heberlig doesn’t believe the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement is entirely gone, as some are saying after Tuesday’s rout. He says that even if Republicans change their messaging in hopes of winning back disillusioned voters, the MAGA movement was still borne from the Tea Party — which “isn’t going anywhere.” 

“That’s basically the core of the Republican Party,” Heberlig said. “Their messaging [going into 2028] could be consistent with the populist message that Trump has articulated, but one that’s more in sync with things that will actually deliver concrete economic benefits to lower income or rural voters.” 

Still, newly elected Democrats in the House and Senate are hoping to keep the momentum they had on Tuesday and harness it for the 2028 presidential election, with pledges to rein in the Trump administration, conduct congressional investigations and remove some of his cabinet members. 

Rachel Black is a reporter and writer for The Election Hub. Reach her at rachel@theelectionhub.org.

The Election Hub is a project of the Civic Knowledge Initiative, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Charlotte that makes it easy for every citizen to find, understand and act on reliable information about their local government and elected officials.