Gov. Susana Martinez will no longer give a scheduled speech to the North Carolina Republican Party.
Martinez was scheduled to speak at the party’s state convention but canceled; according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, a spokesman for the governor cited a scheduling conflict.
Originally, the party scheduled Martinez to speak at the convention next month. Martinez is the head of the Republican Governors Association and frequently makes out-of-state trips. Recently, Martinez was the guest of honor at the New York Republican Party gala. She was largely ignored, however, and overshadowed by the three remaining Republican candidates for president who attended the gala.
Join @Gov_Martinez at @NCGOP's state convention this year! You won't want to miss it! https://t.co/KAyj8zDTz9 #ncpol
— NCGOP (@NCGOP) April 5, 2016
A tweet announcing Martinez’s participation in the convention.
The North Carolina trip would have come at a time where the state is facing intense backlash after Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed a law that barred transgender individuals from using any bathroom but that of their birth gender.
Update: Martinez says she will campaign for McCrory, according to the Associated Press.
McCrory called the state legislature into a special session just to pass the bill so he could sign it into law; during the regular session, a filibuster by some Democrats meant the bill did not pass. The legislation passed in just a day.
Many call the law discriminatory and it has had an effect on the state’s bottom line. PayPal announced they would no longer put a global operations center in Charlotte because of the law. Multiple cities and states banned official travel to the state.
Santa Fe is one of those cities that banned official travel to North Carolina because of the law; the city’s mayor, Javier Gonzales, is openly gay.
The most high profile examples, to some, are the cancellation of concerts by Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam. They both cited the discriminatory nature of the law as a reason to not perform in the state.
