RALEIGH – One year ago yesterday, House Republicans committed one of the most heinous acts of partisan politics in history of the North Carolina General Assembly. With barely half of House lawmakers present and “more legislators off the floor for a vote since 2010,” GOP lawmakers sunk to a new low – even for the legislature that “wrote the playbook on power grabs.”

At the time, the political ambush was dubbed “a dark day for democracy,” a year later, we now know what happened with the GOP deception, and how their corrupt leadership acted behind the scenes:

Speaker Tim Moore orchestrated the plan to hold the vote without Democrats present and Former Representative David Lewis falsely informed Democrats that there would be no voting on the morning of 9/11. Concurrently, Republican Whip Jon Hardister texted Republican members to tell them to be present at 8:30AM. When it came time for the ambush, Republican Campaign Chair John Szoka counted the heads on the morning of 9/11 and suggested that they could hold the vote and win. Speaker Tim Moore then proceeded with the vote even over Democratic objections to the deceit and abuse of procedure.

Instead of negotiating on the budget and holding the override vote democratically, Republican legislators used “trickery and deception” to create “lasting damage to the legislative process” and erode trust in our government.

Representative Graig Meyer has released the following statement:

“One year ago, on the anniversary of 9/11, Jon Hardister, John Szoka, Tim Moore and every House Republican failed North Carolinians when they deceived the public and Democratic legislators with a secret vote to ram through their State Budget loaded with pork and lacking adequate education funding or Medicaid expansion.

In the year since, almost nothing has changed. The GOP Culture of Corruption continues to underfund public education and ensure more than a half a million North Carolinians don’t have access to affordable health care, even as we live through a global pandemic which has killed more than 3,000 North Carolinians.  Their actions cast a dark cloud over the General Assembly, and the lack of remorse solidified a gross disrespect for North Carolinians and the strength and tradition of our democracy.”