2025 North Carolina legislative session
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| 2025 North Carolina legislative session |
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| General information |
| Scheduled session start: January 8, 2025 Scheduled session end: November 5, 2025 |
| Leadership |
| Senate President Rachel Hunt (D) House Speaker |
| Elections |
| Next Election: November 3, 2026 Last Election: November 5, 2024 |
| Previous legislative sessions |
| 2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 |
| Other 2025 legislative sessions |
In 2025, the North Carolina General Assembly was scheduled to convene on January 8 and adjourn on November 5.
The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Republicans won a 30-20 majority in the Senate and a 71-49 majority in the House. The Democratic Party controlled the governorship, creating a divided state government. At the start of the 2025 session, North Carolina was one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.
Leadership in 2025
North Carolina State Senate
- Senate president: Rachel Hunt (D)
- Majority leader: Paul Newton (R)
- Minority leader: Sydney Batch (D)
North Carolina House of Representatives
- Speaker of the House: Destin Hall (R)
- Majority leader: Brenden Jones (R)
- Minority leader: Robert Reives (D)
Partisan control in 2025
- See also: State government trifectas
North Carolina was one of 12 divided state governments at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.
North Carolina was also one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.
The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the North Carolina General Assembly in the 2025 legislative session.
North Carolina State Senate
| Party | As of January 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 20 | |
| Republican Party | 30 | |
| Total | 50 | |
North Carolina House of Representatives
| Party | As of January 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 49 | |
| Republican Party | 71 | |
| Total | 120 | |
Regular session
The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.
Legislation trackers
- See also: Legislation Trackers
Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:
Standing legislative committees
A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.
At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 61 standing committees in North Carolina's state government, including 18 state Senate committees and 43 state House committees.
Senate committees
- Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee
- Appropriations on Agriculture, Natural and Economic Resources Committee
- Appropriations on Department of Transportation Committee
- Appropriations on Education/Higher Education Committee
- Appropriations on General Government and Information Technology Committee
- Appropriations/Base Budget Committee
- Commerce and Insurance Committee
- Education/Higher Education Committee
- Health Care Committee
- Pensions and Retirement and Aging Committee
- Redistricting and Elections Committee
- Rules and Operations of the Senate Committee
- Senate Appropriations on Health and Human Services Committee
- Senate Appropriations on Justice and Public Safety Committee
- Senate Finance Committee
- Senate Judiciary Committee
- Senate State and Local Government Committee
- Senate Transportation Committee
House committees
- Agriculture Committee
- Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee
- Appropriations Committee
- Appropriations on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources Committee
- Appropriations on Capital Committee
- Appropriations on Education Committee
- Appropriations on General Government Committee
- Appropriations on Information Technology Committee
- Appropriations on Transportation Committee
- Banking Committee
- Commerce and Job Development Committee
- Disaster Recovery and Homeland Security
- Education - Community Colleges Committee
- Education - K-12 Committee
- Education - Universities Committee
- Election Law and Campaign Finance Reform
- Energy and Public Utilities Committee
- Environment Committee
- Ethics Committee
- Families, Children, and Aging Policy Committee
- Federal Relations and American Indian Affairs Committee
- Health Committee
- House Appropriations on Health and Human Services Committee
- House Appropriations on Justice and Public Safety Committee
- House Finance Committee
- House Redistricting Committee
- House Transportation Committee
- Insurance Committee
- Judiciary I Committee
- Judiciary II Committee
- Judiciary III Committee
- Judiciary IV Committee
- Local Government - Land Use, Planning and Development Committee
- Local Government Committee
- Marine Resources and Aqua Culture Committee
- Military and Veterans Affairs Committee
- Pensions and Retirement Committee
- Regulatory Reform Committee
- Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House Committee
- State Government Committee
- State Personnel Committee
- UNC Board of Governors Nominations Committee
- Wildlife Resources Committee
Legislatively referred constitutional amendments
In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.
The methods by which the North Carolina Constitution can be amended:
The North Carolina Constitution provides two mechanisms for amending the state's constitution—a legislative process and a state constitutional convention. North Carolina requires a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) for voters to approve constitutional amendments.
Legislature
A 60% vote is required during one legislative session for the North Carolina General Assembly to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 72 votes in the North Carolina House of Representatives and 30 votes in the North Carolina State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.
Convention
According to Article XIII of the North Carolina Constitution, a two-thirds (66.67%) vote vote of both chambers of state Legislature is required to place a constitutional convention question on the ballot. A simple majority vote is required for voters to approve the question. Any amendments proposed by a constitutional convention also require voter approval.
Historical partisan control
The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of North Carolina.
North Carolina Party Control: 1992-2025
Fourteen years of Democratic trifectas • Four years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.
| Year | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| Senate | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
| House | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
Historical Senate control
Republicans won control of the North Carolina State Senate in 2010. In 2024, they won a 30-20 majority.
The table below shows the partisan history of the North Carolina Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.
North Carolina State Senate election results: 1992-2024
| Year | '92 | '94 | '96 | '98 | '00 | '02 | '04 | '06 | '08 | '10 | '12 | '14 | '16 | '18 | '20 | '22 | '24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 39 | 26 | 30 | 35 | 35 | 28 | 29 | 31 | 30 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 21 | 22 | 20 | 20 |
| Republicans | 11 | 24 | 20 | 15 | 15 | 22 | 21 | 19 | 20 | 31 | 32 | 34 | 35 | 29 | 28 | 30 | 30 |
Historical House control
Republicans won control of the North Carolina House of Representatives in 2010. In 2024, they won a 71-49 majority.
The table below shows the partisan history of the North Carolina House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.
North Carolina House of Representatives election results: 1992-2024
| Year | '92 | '94 | '96 | '98 | '00 | '02 | '04 | '06 | '08 | '10 | '12 | '14 | '16 | '18 | '20 | '22 | '24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 78 | 52 | 59 | 66 | 62 | 59 | 63 | 68 | 68 | 52 | 43 | 46 | 46 | 55 | 51 | 49 | 49 |
| Republicans | 42 | 68 | 61 | 54 | 58 | 61 | 57 | 52 | 52 | 67 | 77 | 74 | 74 | 65 | 69 | 71 | 71 |
| Other | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Analysis
Adopted legislation, 2011-2024
In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.
See also
| Elections | North Carolina State Government | State Legislatures | State Politics |
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External links
Footnotes
