The Speech

Oct. 21, 2025, will be lodged as a defining day in North Carolina history. On that fated Tuesday, Sen. Michael Garrett, a four-term Democrat representing Guilford County, gave what, in my view, was the most brave, eloquent and consequential speech ever delivered on the floor of the N.C. Senate. It is impossible to say, in this moment, whether THE SPEECH will spur an even greater, more astonishing, and ultimately successful crusade to restore democracy in the Tar Heel State or it will merely provide the prophet’s marking of our continued surrender of the American democratic experiment. Whichever result transpires, North Carolina will not again be as before.

From the moment the presiding officer asked, “Senator Garrett for what purpose do you rise?”, it was clear that the Senate was not in for a dose of ordinary politics. Garrett spoke for 18 minutes. The oration was masterfully crafted, not like the off-the-cuff excursions that often typify the blustery nonsense that passes for discourse in the General Assembly.

Upon its completion, Sen. Lisa Grafstein moved to “spread” Garrett’s words on the journal – making them part of the Senate record. The ever-suppressive Sen. Buck Newton opposed the motion. His fellow Republicans fell in line – exercising, once again, the G.O.P. notion of free speech. It’s no great surprise that Phil Berger and his crew wanted to do what they could to keep Garrett’s words from reaching the people of North Carolina. It is hard to admit, back home, that you’re out to destroy constitutional democracy.

Thankfully, YouTube prevails. See : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2bK5kmr1tM.

The full written text of the speech is on the internet as well. Every North Carolinian should read and listen to it. It should be distributed by Tar Heel organs of political, civil, and religious society. Advertisements pointing to its message should be posted on road signs and bumper stickers. It should be included in the readings of high school and college social studies curricula – though any teacher would, I concede, by doing so, almost certainly lose his or her job. N.C. Republicans battle to suppress the study of our racial and anti-democratic transgressions of decades and centuries ago. They really don’t want you to know about their present ones.

It is not possible to encapsulate the defining sentiments of a great, truly great, 2,200-word speech in a brief op-ed article for a newspaper. Any attempt would short-sell. Fatally. So I’m not going to try. Garrett’s effort was, of course, presented in response to Phil Berger’s re-re-gerrymandering of our congressional districts, carried out to demonstrate, rapidly, the Senate leader’s ready and replete submission to Donald Trump.

Sen. Ralph Hise explained, with at least some candor, that “the motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular, to bring an additional Republican seat” to support Trump’s demanded agenda. The House draftsman, Rep. Brenden Jones, indicated, astonishingly, that the new electoral distortion was necessary to assure that “one man does not predetermine the controls of Congress.” Reminding that Trumpism not only requires its adherents to lie about everything they do – but they must also offer the most breathtaking and hypocritical lies that can be imagined.    

I give, instead, Sen. Garrett’s opening paragraph:

“I stand before you today at a crossroads in American history. Not the kind you read about later, sanitized in textbooks with neat conclusions, but the raw uncertain kind. The kind where the choices we make in this chamber on this day will echo through generations unborn.”    

[And then] “in the eyes of history, there are moments that define nations. Moments when the soul of a country is tested. When everything that came before, every sacrifice, every principle, hangs in the balance. Historians will look back on 2025 and ask, when democracy was openly under assault. When a president demanded states rig their elections. When millions took to the streets, begging their leaders to protect their rights, what did those in power do? Did they keep the promise, or did they break the faith with every generation that bled for this republic?”

North Carolina Republican Senators squirmed and, by reflex, moved to censor.

Will Tar Heels surrender, or will they fight?

Gene Nichol is Boyd Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law and in 2015 started the North Carolina Poverty Research Fund after the UNC Board of Governors closed the state-funded Poverty Center for publishing articles critical of the governor and General Assembly.