RALEIGH, N.C. — On Monday, the North Carolina General Assembly marked the formal conclusion of elections by issuing certificates to the victors of three closely contested legislative races from November, which had previously been subjected to recounts and official protests.

This administrative move by election officials also signifies that Republicans have forfeited their supermajority in the legislature; this shift was prompted by the defeat of outgoing state Representative Frank Sossamon, who lost to Democrat Bryan Cohn by a margin of 228 votes.
With the certificates given to Cohn and fellow Democratic candidates Terence Everitt and Woodson Bradley for their respective Senate races, they are expected to be officially seated alongside the rest of the newly elected members when the 2025-26 General Assembly session commences on Wednesday. Certificates for the remaining winners had already been issued in previous weeks.
As a result of Sossamon’s loss, the Republican Party now holds 71 of the 120 seats in the House, just one seat shy of the supermajority required for veto-proof decisions. The party had maintained 72 seats since April 2023, which previously enabled them to easily override vetoes from then-Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, provided they remained united.
Currently, with the Democrats holding 49 House seats, the assertions of authority from new Democratic Governor Josh Stein could more effectively obstruct Republican initiatives he opposes over the next two years.
The victories of Everitt and Bradley confirm that the Republicans retain 30 seats in the Senate, with Democrats maintaining 20. This distribution mirrors the partisan setup of the last two years, which enabled the GOP to have a three-fifths majority within that chamber. Everitt won against Ashlee Adams by 128 votes, and Bradley triumphed over Stacie McGinn by 209 votes.
The races involving Cohn and Everitt were not officially called until Monday, as recounts were conducted in all three of these legislative contests. Sossamon, McGinn, and Adams had collectively engaged in filing several written protests, alongside GOP state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin, disputing whether some votes cast in their elections should have been considered valid.
The outcome of the Supreme Court race remains undecided, with Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs leading Griffin by a margin of 734 votes from over 5.5 million ballots cast statewide. Griffin now holds a position as a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
In hearings conducted last month, the State Board of Elections dismissed all protests submitted by the four Republicans, concluding with formal written orders on December 27. These orders initiated a limited timeframe in which the candidates trailing in votes could seek further actions.
For the legislative candidates involved, their only recourse was to appeal to the members of the General Assembly in hopes they would adjudicate on the rightful winner of the contested seats. Otherwise, the election certificates were set to be issued on Monday.
After the second protest hearing by the State Board of Elections on December 20, McGinn and Adams conceded defeat. Although Sossamon had previously hinted at pursuing further options should a state legal ruling jeopardize his election outcome, the issuance of Cohn’s election certificate on Monday renders any future challenge to this election highly unlikely.
The “legal decision” Sossamon referenced concerns a segment of the unfulfilled election protests that the law permits Griffin to appeal to the state courts. Griffin is still attempting to disqualify more than 60,000 votes he argues were cast improperly.
Many of these ballots were submitted by voters who lacked either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number, both of which have been required in registration applications since 2004. Additional ballots came from specific military and overseas voters.
Griffin’s legal actions were recently transferred to federal court, where he has requested U.S. District Judge Richard Myers to prevent the issuance of an election certificate while legal questions associated with the voter registration and overseas ballots are resolved. Unless a stay or injunction is granted, the certificate is scheduled to be issued on Friday, appointing Riggs for an eight-year term.
However, late on Monday, Myers directed that the case be returned to the justices of the state Supreme Court, where Griffin had initially sought remedy after his appeals were dismissed during the first hearing held by the State Board of Elections.
Myers, appointed to the federal bench by Donald Trump, acknowledged that Griffin’s claims “raise unsettled questions of state law,” while the federal interest involved is “relatively tenuous.”
He emphasized that “if our system of federalism is to exist in more than name only, it means that this court should abstain in this case, under these circumstances.”
Myers’ ruling can be appealed, and attorneys representing Riggs and the state board have asserted that invalidating these votes would breach federal and state laws as well as the U.S. Constitution, effectively disenfranchising numerous voters who adhered to the established guidelines to cast their ballots.