North Carolina’s conservative business lobby has already sounded the alarm bells that the state’s Republican Party is becoming too extreme. But elected Republicans in North Carolina don’t sound too worried.
“Many of the races we were watching turned for candidates that do not share our vision for North Carolina,” the state’s Chamber of Commerce said in a statement following Super Tuesday — a sentiment that hearkened back to the 2016 backlash over an anti-trans bathroom bill signed by former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. The fallout fractured the state and ultimately helped usher Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper into office.
Now the chamber is citing candidates like Michele Morrow, Republicans’ nominee for state superintendent of public schools, who has promoted QAnon conspiracy theories and called for the death of Democrats like former President Barack Obama and Cooper. Her election to the chamber is a “startling warning of the looming threats to North Carolina’s business climate.”