Rachel Maddow warns GOP’s sinister ‘pilot project’ now ‘embraced’ as a national model

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow spent Monday evening describing how Republicans used North Carolina as a "testing ground" for underhanded tactics to strip power from elected Democrats, following the announcement that former Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) will run for Senate, bolstering Democrats' candidate roster for the 2026 midterms.

"This man has been through some things, some things that qualify him, perhaps uniquely, for this moment in Washington," said Maddow. "He has served in North Carolina. He has not served in Washington. But he brings an experience, a level of political experience to Washington. If he wins this race, which is, again, perhaps uniquely suited to this moment."

After his first win in 2016, Maddow noted, unseating incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, "Republicans turned North Carolina into kind of their anti-democracy pilot project ... very first thing Republicans in the legislature did was they started stripping powers from the governor's office. Oh, the governor is going to be a Democrat now. Well, then, no more powers for the governor. Republicans basically said to North Carolina voters, 'Sure, okay, maybe you can elect a Democrat, but if so, we will not allow that Democrat to wield the powers of this office.'"

Republicans specifically targeted Cooper's powers to control elections, she noted, passing laws to give the legislature more and more power over the state election board. Then, when another Democrat succeeded Cooper in 2024, "Republicans in the legislature passed a law that moved control of the state elections board from the governor's office to the state auditor's office," one of the only major statewide offices Republicans controlled, even though it has nothing to do with elections.

"What started in North Carolina has really been embraced as a model by Republicans in other states," said Maddow. "North Carolina has essentially been a testing ground for Republicans in terms of small-d democratic disempowering of the opposite party. And Roy Cooper has been their prime target when it comes to taking power and then seeking a sort of autocratic breakthrough, you know, using the power of government to stay in power yourself and to deny the ability to govern to your political opponents."

All of this, Maddow concluded, means that "if Roy Cooper, in fact, wins this Senate race in North Carolina, he's going to bring some highly relevant experience to Donald Trump's Washington from North Carolina."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

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