Though I was born and raised in New York, I've spent a lot of time in North Carolina. I attended law and graduate school at Duke University. I met my wife there. And it is where my kids both attended college.

As a practicing attorney, I have litigated and won critical cases involving North Carolina. In 2013, I was part of the legal team that challenged North Carolina's voter suppression law — one that the court of appeals found targeted Black voters "with almost surgical precision."

It was in that context that I first met my personal hero, the Rev. William Barber — a pastor who led the Moral Monday movement, a multiracial movement for voting rights. No one has had a greater influence on my approach to democracy than he has.

In 2020, I helped make voting easier for North Carolina voters facing the pandemic. One of my most significant Supreme Court victories — Cooper v. Harris — overturned a racial gerrymander and replaced it with a fair congressional map.

When North Carolina Republicans tried to advance a fringe right-wing theory to strip the state courts of the power to strike down anti-voting laws, it was my law firm that represented the lead plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court, blocking that from happening. That case — Moore v. Harper — remains to this day a landmark victory for voting rights.

I have worked on post-election challenges at all levels of government and was involved in the only do-over in a federal election in our nation's history. It took place right in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District.

My work in North Carolina is not solely a function of personal affinity. It is fair to say that no Republican-controlled legislature has been more hostile to voting rights than North Carolina's.

Over the years, its legislators have been among the most aggressive in suppressing voting rights and gerrymandering maps. Indeed, given the close partisan breakdown in the state, Republican lawmakers are keenly aware that their own power is the result of those extreme measures.

Now, in the lead-up to the midterms, as they face a reckoning with voters, Republican lawmakers are at it again.

In a 36-page bill called "An Act To Make Various Changes Regarding Election Laws," state Republicans have proposed various bans and barriers that would make it harder for voters to reach the polls.

Among the provisions is one that would give right-wing vigilantes greater power to challenge a person's right to participate in early voting. Another would bar state election officials from publicly encouraging people to vote. A third would require military and overseas voters to clear additional hurdles, forcing them to submit photo identification with their mail-in ballots.

Why would lawmakers want to allow more challenges to their constituents' voting rights? Why do they seek to keep citizens in the dark and uninformed about upcoming elections? Why are they going out of their way to disenfranchise military voters?

Sadly, it is because Republican lawmakers know that to win in November, they need to make it harder for people to vote and easier for Republicans to cheat. Like Trump, the state Republican Party has given up on trying to persuade voters or even turn them out. Instead, they are focused on disenfranchising them.

If this bill passes, it would be devastating for North Carolina's elections. Luckily, North Carolina has a Democratic governor, and Gov. Josh Stein is sure to veto it.

But that doesn't change the fact that North Carolina Republicans have proposed similar bills before, and they will do so again. Without Democrats in office to stop them, bills like this one will pass.

This bill is not the only way Republicans in North Carolina are scheming to hurt voters.

The state is handing over sensitive voter information to the Trump administration — information that could lead to voter purges targeting Democrats and minority voters. ICE agents were recently given access to voter files in North Carolina, while the Republican majority on the North Carolina State Board of Elections rejected a proposal to prepare the state for ballot seizures and ICE agents at polling locations.

The good news is that we have a proven track record of defeating Republican efforts to rig elections and undermine results. After the 2024 election, Republicans in North Carolina tried to steal a state Supreme Court seat by disenfranchising more than 100,000 voters.

But we fought back. And we won.

That does not mean the fight ahead will be easy or the results guaranteed. Every voter suppression law must be met with aggressive litigation. Efforts to keep voters in the dark must be met with the bright light of accurate information.

We must all prepare now. Candidates, lawyers and advocates must do their part. But ultimately, the people of North Carolina must once again overcome these obstacles and, through their votes, move North Carolina forward from GOP control.

As the Rev. Barber said: "I am asking you to believe that democracy is not just an idea, but democracy and justice are on the ballot."