How do you get Republican voters to the polls in a difficult political climate? Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are hoping a slate of up to seven constitutional amendments might do the trick.
Multiple polls nationally and in North Carolina show low enthusiasm among Republican voters, President Donald Trump’s approval rating sagging, and Democratic candidates up and down the ballot widening their leads over GOP rivals as the midterm election approaches.
“They’re probably seeing the winds of the political mood of the state against them,” said political scientist Michael Bitzer, director of the Center for Politics and Public Service at Catawba College. “The standard is that registered Republicans always overperform in terms of turnout, and they will need that historic turnout advantage to blunt what is obvious in the mood of the state and the country against the Republican party.”
In 2018, when a similar set of circumstances led Republicans to put six constitutional amendments on the ballot designed to appeal to conservatives, including a 7% income tax cap, photo voter ID, and a constitutional right to hunt. Four passed and two didn’t.
State House and Senate Republicans still lost their supermajorities, but the blue wave could have been worse than it was, said Bitzer. “Ours was fairly muted in comparison to what the national and other state dynamics were like.”
Eight years later, North Carolina Republicans are returning to the 2018 playbook, loading up the 2026 general election ballot with a raft of similar proposals aimed at boosting conservative turnout.
NC Republicans unveil new constitutional amendments on income tax, voter ID
One constitutional amendment has already been approved for the November ballot — a provision that would require mail-in voters to include photo identification with their ballot. It’s already state law, but this would add it to the constitution. That was passed at the end of 2024.
As of May 19, 2026, there are six others under consideration. All six were heard in committees within a 24-hour span. And more could be filed at any time because constitutional amendments are exempt from rules that limit the bills legislators can consider during the short session.
Two proposals would limit taxes. Senate Bill 1080 would lower the state’s constitutional cap on the income tax rate from 7% to 3.5%. The state’s income tax rate is already slated to drop to 3.49% in 2027, so it wouldn’t actually lead to lower taxes, but it would keep state lawmakers in the future from raising it again without first getting voters to approve it.
The second, House Bill 1089, would require lawmakers to “enact a property tax levy limit” to rein in county governments’ ability to raise property tax rates. However, it lacks specifics about what the limit might be.
NC committee votes to put ‘right to work,’ ‘right to farm’ amendments on 2026 ballot
Two other proposals would put existing state laws in the state constitution. Senate Bill 1081 would create a constitutional right to “engage in farming and forestry.” The right to farm was written into state law in 1979. Senate Bill 1082 would enshrine the state’s 1947 right to work law. In committee hearings Monday, the sponsors of those bills were unable to come up with any actual threats to the existing laws.
The final two would further limit the governor’s appointment powers. House Bill 144 would allow voters, rather than the governor, to select the members of the State Board of Education. They would be elected by congressional district, with the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction becoming the board chair.
House Bill 443 would spell out the process by which the governor can replace an elected member of the Council of State in case of a vacancy. The party of the departing official would nominate three potential replacements, and the governor would select one.
Bitzer told NC Newsline some of these are likely policy priorities that Republican leaders want to accomplish now in case they lose control of one or both legislative chambers in November. Constitutional amendments are not subject to the governor’s veto.
When it comes to enacting conservative policy objectives, “the most stable and hardest to change is a constitutional amendment,” he said.
Constitutional amendments require a vote of three-fifths in the House and Senate. Senate Republicans hold the 30 seats they will need to approve any amendment favored by the leadership, assuming they’re all present on the same day.
“Let them be worried:” NC Dem Carla Cunningham on the upcoming legislative short session.
House Republicans are one vote shy of the 72 votes they need, but have proven themselves adept at finding votes across the aisle. Former Mecklenburg Democrats Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed have left their party and are now unaffiliated. And with the state budget still under negotiation, the $2 billion surplus this year could give Republican leaders more room to trade a project earmark for a Democratic vote.
Once they reach the ballot, amendments need only a simple majority to become law. The income tax cap amendment on the ballot in 2018 passed with 57% support, reflecting some crossover support among Democrats, Bitzer said. The same could be true in 2026.
“The tax issues — the property tax, the income tax — hearing those as limitations or caps, I think, will resonate with the public initially,” Bitzer said. “How the fight over that is framed will be, I think, a crucial voter education piece.”
While critics of the proposals have accused Republicans of turning the constitution into a “political tool” to boost their electoral prospects, Bitzer sees it as along the same lines as the extreme partisan gerrymandering — “gerrymaxxing,” he calls it — throughout the South.
“We’re taking politics and moving it to the extremes, so why not make constitutions into political tools in this hyper-polarized environment?” Bitzer said. “Welcome to North Carolina in 2026.”
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