Philip Blumel: North Carolina passes the Term Limits Convention Resolution. Boom.
Philip Blumel: Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the Term Limits movement. This is episode number 252, published on December 2nd, 2024.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: The big news today is that the North Carolina Senate passed the Term Limits Convention Resolution 29-20. Because the North Carolina House already passed the Term Limits Convention last year and North Carolina has a two-year session, North Carolina has become the ninth State to officially apply for an amendment writing convention under Article 5 of the US Constitution, limited to the subject of congressional term limits. Yes, the ninth State overall, but the third State in 2024. Tennessee and Louisiana passed the Term Limits Convention Resolution earlier this year. And don’t forget also that Florida reapproved the resolution this year to clean up some language in the resolution to make it better match the others. So all told, four State legislatures approved the TLC resolution this year. This is the most successful year for US Term Limits since we launched this project back in 2016. These resolutions are not for show. According to Article 5 of the US Constitution, if two-thirds, that is 34 States, apply for such a convention, it must be called. All states will be able to send delegates and an amendment can be hammered out and then sent back to the states for ratification. No Congress is involved.
Philip Blumel: Now we don’t think that we’ll have to wait until we meet the 34-state threshold because history suggests that when we start getting close, Congress will act. We think this is particularly likely in this case, Congress may not want term limits, but when they begin to see it as inevitable, they will want to be the ones that write it. They certainly won’t want to have the amendment written by a bunch of grandstanding State legislators who wanna run for Congress. So why was 2024 so successful? Well, it’s because success breeds success. Every new State leads to more confidence in the strategy, which in turn leads to more activists and more contributors. We now have learned the ropes and we have a well-seasoned team at US Term Limits to get the job done. And we’re already looking towards 2025 to see where the opportunities lie. We broke all our records regarding electing US Term Limits pledge signers on November 5th, this year. Pledge signers were elected to leadership in Indiana and Arizona. Some legislators elected dozens of new signers. I can’t wait to help pick out next year’s target states. Several folks here deserve shout outs. US Term Limits State chair Leigh Brown, of course. Also some of the surprise legislators to vote yes. For example, democratic Senator Mary Wills Bode, who we didn’t even have on our whip list. Thank you Mary.
Philip Blumel: Also, we should give a shout out to a legislator who didn’t even vote on the resolution today. House speaker Tim Moore. Speaker Moore carried the resolution to victory in the house last year and then called for its Senate passage today. In fact, today he was bragging about it on social media. Well here in that right, and guess what? Due to his victory on November 5th, Tim Moore is now leaving the North Carolina house and is headed to the US house. Did he sign the US Term Limits pledge to push the US Term Limits Amendment in Washington? [chuckle] Of course he did. And we’ll need him there, as state after state approve this resolution and the Congress is pressured to take action. Last but hardly least are the US Term Limits staffers and volunteers who hounded politicians to sign the pledges in support and also contacted their legislators before each committee. And finally, the floor vote. Number nine, as Yoko Ono would say, number nine, can you doubt that this movement has momentum, has a strategy that is working, has a team that keeps getting better at advancing it? We have an issue here that is supported by over 80% of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. And the time is coming when the dam is going to break and there’s going to be no stopping the rushing waters.
Philip Blumel: I referenced The Beatles a moment ago from the White Album, Revolution 9. But even more fitting is Bob Dylan’s: The Times They Are A-Changin’. As Dylan’s sang, “Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call. Don’t stand in the doorway. Don’t block up the hall. For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled. The battle outside raging will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls for the times they are a-changin’.” Well, 2024 could be the catapult. Let’s make it so, the number of states we target is limited just by resources. Please contribute to US Term Limits. Go to termlimits.com/donate, termlimits.com/donate. Our hardworking team of true believers is getting the job done and they deserve our support. And we as Americans deserve a Congress not beholden to the special interests that make their careers. We deserve competitive elections with serious candidates, not unbeatable incumbents running against gadflies and paper candidates. Termlimits.com/donate is the place to go. We showed four more times this year that this is a worthwhile investment in our country.
Philip Blumel: Next, our fun fact for the week, the newest co-sponsor of the US Senate version of the US Term Limits amendment introduced by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is: Democratic US Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin. He jumped on the bill on November 20th. True. He declined to run again for his seat and is halfway out the door, but better late than never. It’s easy to laugh, but we appreciate Senator Manchin’s symbolic act. Who knows better than Joe Manchin, how much the US Senate needs term limits? Next, in the last episode of No Uncertain Terms, we discussed the elections, which went very well for the Term Limits’ movement, but it ended with a dire statistic that reminds us why our efforts are so important. Ballotpedia reported that thus far in their compilation of the election results, which they weren’t done with, only 85, that’s 1.8%, state legislative incumbents have been defeated out of 4,678. That’s right, a 98.2% election rate for incumbents on the State level. Wow. Incumbent power is as insurmountable as ever. But wait, that is only where incumbents are on the ballot. Don’t forget that 16 states have term limits. Here’s a cheerier Ballotpedia statistic emerging from the November 5th elections, and I’m quoting now, “In 2024, 179 State legislators, 77 State senators and 102 State representatives were term-limited in 2024. This represented 3.1% of the total seats up for election in November, 2024.”
Philip Blumel: Now keep in mind there are 99 chambers throughout the country. There’s 50 states and two chambers in each, except Nebraska, which only has one. There are 16 states that have legislative term limits. So there are 31 chambers with term limits. Nebraska is one of the term-limited states. So the big picture is in the United States there are overall 1,973 state Senate seats and 5,413 state House seats. Of the Senate seats 30.9% are subject to term limits. Of the house seats, 27% are subject to term limits. Put it all together of the total 7,386 state legislative seats in the United States, 2,069 of them or 28% are term-limited. So don’t let people tell you something like, the trouble is that if we had term limits, then this or that would happen. ’cause term limits aren’t a possibility to be considered in the abstract. They exist and we know how they work and they do work. And of course, don’t let anyone tell you that term limits are a great idea that’ll never happen. They exist and they’re spreading across the country. Coming soon to a US Congress near you.
Stacey Selleck: Like the show? You can help by subscribing and leaving a five-star review on both Apple and Spotify. It’s free.
Philip Blumel: Thanks for joining us for another episode of No Uncertain Terms. The Term Limits Convention bills are moving through the State legislatures. This could be a breakthrough year for the Term Limits movement. To check on the status of the Term Limits Convention Resolution in your state, go to termlimits.com/takeaction. There you will see if it has been introduced and where it stands in the committee process on its way to the floor vote. If there’s action to take, you’ll see a “take action” button by your State. Click it. This will give you the opportunity to send a message to the most relevant legislators, urging them to support the legislation. They have to know you are watching. That’s termlimits.com/takeaction. If your state has already passed the Term Limits Convention Resolution or the bill’s not been introduced in your state, you can still help. Please consider making a contribution to US Term Limits. It’s our aim to hit the reset button on the US Congress and you can help. Go to termlimits.com/donate, termlimits.com/donate. Thanks. We’ll be back next week.
Stacey Selleck: Find us on most social media at U.S Term Limits, like us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and now, LinkedIn.
Speaker 3: USTL.