Asheville Democrat Martin Nesbitt will be leading the Senate Democrats in their first session as a minority party in more than a century.
Nesbitt is currently the Senate Majority Leader. But last month’s elections put Republicans in charge of the state Senate for the first time in more than a hundred years. Nesbitt has served in the minority – he was a state House member in the 1990s, when Republicans last controlled that chamber. He says it calls for different leadership skills:
"You know, we’re not chairing the committees anymore, we’re not setting the agenda – we’re responding to the agenda now. Now, we will try our dead-level best to set the agenda when we can, but it’ll be very difficult to do that."
Nesbitt’s deputy will be Wake Democrat Josh Stein, who was elected Minority Whip. Both votes were unanimous. Forsyth Senator Linda Garrou was expected to challenge Nesbitt for the leadership, but she did not stand for nomination today.