Suburban Women Promise Extremist Politicians Will Be Met at the 2024 Ballot Box

As NC Republicans inch closer to passing two election-related bills that could cause chaos and suppress votes, the state program director for Red Wine & Blue, a coalition of suburban women, delivers them a warning: “See you at the ballot box in 2024!”

The Republican supermajority in the North Carolina House might have delayed their vote to pass Senate Bill 749, but make no mistake, they’re still planning to pass it. 

Election officials said that SB 749—which would overhaul the state’s boards of elections—would create chaos and deadlock if it becomes law, harming people’s faith in the integrity of elections. 

The GOP also previously delayed an attempt to override Governor Cooper’s veto of SB 747, which would result in more voter suppression by requiring all mailed ballots to arrive by Election Day, erasing the current three-day grace period popular with voters and ensuring thousands of valid ballots are thrown out. The bill would also ban county boards of elections from accepting outside funding to pay for election-related expenses, without increasing state funding. 

This is yet the latest set of horrible bills passed by the Republicans now that they have a supermajority in our state legislature—thanks to Rep. Tricia Cotham’s betrayal of voters in District 112 in Mecklenburg County. 

Voters elected Cotham, trusting that she continued to share their values, which she espoused during the previous five terms in which she represented them in the legislature. But Cotham switched her party affiliation three months after taking office this year, giving the GOP the weapon they are using to demolish democratic values we North Carolinians are accustomed to having. 

RELATED: Cooper Vetoes Bill That’s an ‘All-Out Assault on the Right to Vote’

The imposed abortion ban, the continuing decimation of public schools with hundreds of millions of dollars moved to private and charter schools; the discriminatory laws against the LBGTQ+ community, the so-called “parents’ rights” law which pits teachers, parents and students against each other, and other draconian laws they’ve passed have left many of us wondering if they even believe in our democracy.

Well, the 20,000+ North Carolina women in Red Wine & Blue do believe in our democracy and the freedoms that come with it! 

The freedom to make our own decisions about our health care and who we choose to love; the freedom to ensure our next generation of leaders ALL receive a quality education that prepares them for the changing world; and the freedom to decide who will represent us in our government by ALL of us having equal access to the ballot.

We, along with the majority of North Carolinians, have expressed our displeasure with the direction these legislators are taking our state, and our desire to see North Carolina continue to be a welcoming, thriving community for ALL its citizens. To those legislators who have refused to listen and are trying to take away our freedoms, we say, “See you at the ballot box in 2024!”