By Richard Fausset

New York Times

ATLANTA >> Congressional Republicans in the Obama era have largely been defined by their insistence on standing in front of the administration and yelling stop. Democrats call them the party of “no.”

But in state legislatures, Republicans are finding both rewards and peril in being a vigorous party of “yes” when it comes to promoting conservative social issues. This year, in many of the 30 state legislatures under full Republican control, lawmakers continued to pass a number of new expansions of gun rights and groundbreaking restrictions on abortion. Perhaps most controversially, they also approved bills that opponents say would allow for discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender people.

For social conservatives, the legislative wins are a bright spot in an otherwise troubling health report for the Republican Party.

But the risks were also evident this week in North Carolina, as a furor erupted over a new law that prohibits local anti-discrimination protections for gay, bisexual and transgender people and restricts transgender bathroom use. More than 90 chief executives, including Tim Cook of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, have objected to the new law.

Big business opposition to such laws became a key talking point for Democrats in the Mississippi Senate on Wednesday night, as they argued against a bill that would, among other things, let public employees decline to issue same-sex marriage licenses. But the measure passed and, after a procedural vote from the Republican-controlled State House — which already approved a version of the bill — it will head to the governor’s desk for a signature.

Democrats are hoping that such Republican stands on social issues, while politically helpful to state lawmakers in their heavily conservative districts, may underscore the Democratic contention that Republicans have veered too far to the right to win some statewide elections, keep their control of both houses of Congress and win back the presidency. The stakes are particularly high at a time when the Republican presidential primary brawl and Donald Trump’s candidacy have the potential to turn off women, independents and others whom Republicans need to succeed nationally.

“The national Republican Party is trying not to lose three presidential elections in a row,” said William Boone, a political scientist at Clark Atlanta University. “The local guys are trying to maintain their right and sometimes far-right positions to be re-elected at the local level.”

North Carolina is an example of a legislative success that can come with big risks. Corporate opponents of the new law include Bank of America, the state’s largest employer. Three governors and a number of big-city mayors have banned official state travel to North Carolina. Private business travelers have canceled plans to visit. The ACLU and other groups have brought a legal challenge in federal court.

The Republican governor, Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor who ran for office promising a practical-minded, pro-business administration, was forced into a defensive crouch this week. He accused critics of a “vicious nationwide smear campaign” against the state, while the campaign of Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat who plans to run against McCrory this fall, started a “Shame on McCrory” website.

“Your new discrimination law won’t just hurt LGBT North Carolinians and their families — it will damage our economy and harm North Carolina’s national reputation,” the site declares, addressing the governor. “Repeal this shameful law now.”

Chris LaCivita, a Republican strategist working for McCrory’s campaign, said Tuesday that the law was a common-sense effort to protect the privacy of people in public restrooms. He said that it was likely to be welcomed by parents — and to be a political hit.

“There’s a basic expectation of privacy that everyone has,” he said, adding, “We’ll side with parents against Democrats and, quite frankly, against a lot of the out-of-state interests, any day of the week.”

A similar legislative drama, one with a different outcome, played out in neighboring Georgia, where a second-term Republican governor, Nathan Deal, who was under no re-election pressure but tremendous pressure from big businesses, announced Monday that he would veto legislation meant to protect opponents of same-sex marriage.

In Virginia, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, vetoed a bill on Wednesday passed by Republican legislators that was meant to protect opponents of same-sex marriage.

In South Dakota, the Republican governor, Dennis Daugaard, recently vetoed a bill that would have forced transgender students in public schools to choose a bathroom based on their birth gender.

In North Carolina, the blowback is already merging with a broader Democratic Party argument that the state’s Republican leadership is out of touch with the mainstream. It is an argument that Democrats are likely to deploy not just in the governor’s race, but also in the presidential election, particularly if Republicans nominate Trump or his main rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Democrats are smelling similar opportunities to engage in culture-war arguments in other places where Republicans dominate state government, but a Democratic presidential candidate may have a shot against Cruz or Trump. These include Indiana, which, like North Carolina, President Barack Obama won in 2008, but lost in 2012. Last week, the Republican governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, signed a law approved by the Republican-controlled legislature that holds doctors liable if a woman has an abortion solely because of objections to the fetus’ race, sex or a disability like Down syndrome.

Pence’s Democratic rival, John Gregg, lost to Pence by three percentage points in the 2012 election. On Thursday, Gregg, who calls himself “personally pro-life,” nonetheless denounced Pence’s decision to sign the bill.

“Like so many other policies put forth by Mike Pence and the Republican legislature, this does nothing but further damage our state’s reputation and divide our people,” he said in a statement.

In Florida, the second-term Republican governor, Rick Scott, is not facing re-election, but this, too, is seen by many in politics as a state up for grabs in the presidential contest. Florida Democrats were quick to pile on Scott’s signing of a bill on Friday barring state funding for facilities that perform abortions.

The incremental expansion of abortion restrictions and pro-gun legislation has a long history. Jennifer Baker, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm, said that 13 pro-gun bills have been enacted as state law this year, with 11 more awaiting the signatures of governors.

“I think the overwhelming majority of Americans support law-abiding gun owners’ ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights, and I think that’s reflected in the fact that lawmakers in state legislatures across the country are passing pro-Second Amendment legislation,” she said.

But the continued passage of such measures is encouraging to social conservatives who are otherwise worried about the Republican Party. Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, said Tuesday that the party “is at risk of coming apart at the seams.”

Successive waves of socially conservative state laws, he said, have been helped along by the Tea Party movement that swept many conservative candidates into state government in 2010.

With subsequent Republican-guided legislative redistricting, he said, “You’ve got much more conservative state legislatures that are more reflective, really, of the constituency.”

The difference between Washington and the statehouses, he added, was palpable: “Quite frankly, you can get stuff done at the state level that you can’t get done here.”

© 2016 The New York Times Company