The government of North Carolina is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. These consist of the Council of State (led by the Governor), the bicameral legislature (called the General Assembly), and the state court system (headed by the North Carolina Supreme Court). The state constitution delineates the structure and function of the state government. North Carolina has 13 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and two seats in the U.S. Senate. Recent changes in North Carolina politics include the change to a majority Republican legislature after the 2010 elections.
The state has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1980, with the exception of 2008, when Barack Obama narrowly carried it. Four years later it returned to the Republican column, giving its electoral votes to Mitt Romney. In 2012 the state also elected its first Republican Governor and Lieutenant Governor, Pat McCrory and Dan Forest, in more than two decades while also giving the Republicans veto-proof majorities in both the State House of Representatives and State Senate. Several U.S. House of Representatives seats also flipped control, with the Republicans controlling nine seats to the Democrats' four. Unemployment benefits were reduced with the state opting out of the federal unemployment compensation scheme. Funding for education and social services was reduced.
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