Nineteenth century Although Republicans first nominated a candidate for President of the United States,
John C. Fremont, in 1856, the party was not established in North Carolina until 1867, after the
American Civil War. With the help of the newly enfranchised
freedmen, Republicans were briefly successful in state politics, dominating the convention that wrote the
Constitution of North Carolina of 1868 and electing several governors. After
Reconstruction, Democrats returned to power, often suppressing the black vote by violence and fraud. Republicans had success in the 1890s when they joined forces with the
Populist party in an "electoral fusion." They gained enough seats in the legislature to control it in 1896, and elected
Daniel L. Russell as governor in 1896.
Twentieth century To prevent this kind of challenge, after Democrats regained control of the state legislature, in 1900 they adopted a constitutional suffrage amendment which required prepayment of a
poll tax and an educational qualification (to be assessed by a registrar, which meant that it could be subjectively applied), and lengthened the residence period required before registration. A
grandfather clause exempted from the poll tax those entitled to vote on January 1, 1867, which limited exemptions to white men. These barriers to voter registration caused a dramatic drop in the number of African-American voters in the state by 1904, although they constituted one-third of the population. An estimated 75,000 black male citizens lost the vote. With North Carolina a one-party Democratic state of the
Solid South following the disfranchisement of blacks, North Carolina Republicans struggled to survive as a party during the first half of the twentieth century. African Americans were virtually excluded from the political system in the state until the late 1960s. In 1928 Republicans carried the state's electoral votes for president (for candidate
Herbert Hoover). White members of the Republican Party generally lived in the Piedmont near Charlotte and Winston-Salem, and the mountains in the western part of the state. In 1952
Charles R. Jonas was elected to Congress from the western part of the state as the first Republican since before the
Great Depression. He was joined in 1962 by
Jim Broyhill. From this base, and nearly winning the electoral votes for the state in the Presidential elections from 1952 to 1960, the party began to grow. As in other southern states, in the late 20th century, white conservatives began to shift from the Democratic Party to the Republican one, especially after national Democratic leaders supported the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965. White conservatives first voted for Republican presidential candidates. From 1968 through 2004, the majority of North Carolina voters supported Republicans in every presidential election, except 1976, when favorite son Democrat
Jimmy Carter was elected from Georgia.When they re-entered the political system, African Americans shifted their alliance from the Republican to the Democratic Party, which had national leaders who had supported the civil rights effort and legislation enforcing their constitutional rights as citizens. In 1972, Republicans became competitive in statewide elections for the first time since 1900:
James Holshouser was elected Governor of the state, and
Jesse Helms, a former Democrat who held office for a long time, was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Jack Lee, who was elected state party chairperson in 1977, is widely credited with unifying the North Carolina Republican Party in this period. The parties were generally competitive, with the state's voters split between them, through much of the rest of the 20th century.
Twenty-first century The
elections of 2010 led to Republican control of both houses of the
North Carolina General Assembly for the first time since 1896 when it had gained success in a fusionist campaign with the
Populist Party. When the Republican-controlled legislature conducted redistricting in 2011, it established districts biased in favor of Republicans. As a result, although more voters chose Democratic congressional candidates in the state in 2012, Republicans won a majority of the seats. The district maps have been challenged in several lawsuits for racial
gerrymandering, and the maps were struck down by a state court in 2019. In 2012, Republicans retained control of the legislature and elected two Republicans,
Pat McCrory and
Dan Forest, as
Governor and
Lieutenant Governor, respectively. Most of the other
Council of State offices (the Governor and Lieutenant Governor are
Chairman and Vice Chairman, respectively) were won by
Democratic candidates. (The other Republicans are
Cherie K. Berry,
Commissioner of Labor and
Steve Troxler,
Commissioner of Agriculture.) In February 2021, the North Carolina Republican Party censured Senator
Richard Burr after he voted to impeach
Donald Trump for his role in inciting a pro-Trump mob to
storm the U.S. Capitol. The next month, the party did not censure House Representative
Madison Cawthorn amid numerous accusations of sexual harassment, as well as exposure of false and baseless claims that he had made about himself. It was being held up in court but was unanimously upheld at the U.S. District Court gaining another Republican seat. ==Party platform==