North Carolina Senate Committee Meeting Today to Discuss Bill Moving Presidential Primary to March

This morning the North Carolina Senate Judiciary (I) Committee is holding a meeting, and on the docket is the bill to shift the Tarheel state's presidential primary up to the first Tuesday in March. S 440 would create a separate presidential primary election, splitting it from the primaries for state and local offices on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May. The added costs associated with that new election will work against this bill passing in a, like many others, cash-strapped state. That said, this same bill has been proposed repeatedly over the last few sessions under Democratic control to no avail. Now that the Republican-sponsored bill faces a Republican-controlled General Assembly, the story may be slightly different.

A move to March 6 would put North Carolina on the same date as neighbors, Tennessee and Virginia, and a host of other southern/border states that have moved or are close to moving (Alabama, Missouri and Oklahoma).

No vote is expected on the bill today.

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