The North Carolina General Assembly convened the 2022 short session Wednesday, May 18 after the longest long session in state history concluded in March. Both the Senate and the House would like the short session to stay short, especially after the marathon timeframe of the long session and for those who will be campaigning for the General Election in November.
Christian Castelli has won the Republican primary for North Carolina’s 6th U.S. Congressional District with 36% of the vote. Lee Haywood — the nominee from the 2020 contest — came in second with 34% of the vote. Castelli will now go on to face Democrat incumbent Rep. Kathy Manning in the general election in November. The Triad-area seat leans Democratic overall. Even with a strong Republican wave year expected, it is still considered a longshot possibility for Republicans.
State Sen. Ralph Hise of Mitchell County secured reelection in Senate District 47 after narrowly snagging a victory over fellow incumbent state Sen. Deanna Ballard of Boone. Hise secured 50.65% of the vote compared to Ballard’s 49.35%. The primary was one of the most closely watched in the state because of its unusual matchup —...
Incumbent state Sen. Norm Sanderson of Pamlico County will represent the Republican Party on the fall ballot after defeating fellow incumbent state Sen. Bob Steinburg of Edenton. Sanderson won 56% of the vote to Steinburg’s 44%. The new Senate District 1 includes large portions of coastal North Carolina, including Dare, Hyde, Pamlico, and Carteret counties....
A tale of two Sandys has come to an end as controversial candidate Sandy Smith has won over Sandy Roberson in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District GOP primary race. With all 270 precincts reporting, Smith had 13,571 votes or 31% compared to Roberson’s 11,563 or 27%.
It was bound to happen. The percentage of adults working from home has fallen significantly from its pandemic-era peak. Nevertheless, telecommuting has established itself as a lasting and consequential fact of modern life. Before COVID struck in early 2020, the share of full paid workdays performed at home by Americans aged 20 to 64 was...
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cheri Beasley says in a recent campaign ad, “In the Senate, I’ll never stop fighting to make North Carolina safe.” A new anti-Beasley ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee calls that promise into question. NRSC unveiled the ad titled “Victims” on Friday, four days before Beasley was expected to win...
Sen. Josh Kimbrell (R-Spartanburg) deserves a lot of credit for proposing Amendment 32 to the South Carolina budget. It requires libraries to forgo purchasing “sexually explicit” materials for children. Senator Kimbrell proposed the amendment after hearing complaints from parents in his district about materials their children saw in public libraries. It isn’t just his district, either,...
Not surprisingly, the leak of a draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ignited a firestorm of protests and media coverage. Most of the media coverage—and all of the protests—have focused on the reasoning and outcome of the draft. But there’s another aspect to the story: the apparent erosion of confidentiality and trust at the Supreme...
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cheri Beasley says in a recent campaign ad, “In the Senate, I’ll never stop fighting to make North Carolina safe.” A new anti-Beasley ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee calls that promise into question. NRSC unveiled the ad titled “Victims” on Friday, four days before Beasley was expected to win...
According to data from the N.C. Board of Elections, 577,232 voters cast a ballot early, with 290,226 of those voters requesting a Democrat ballot and 284,568 voters requesting a Republican ballot, giving Democrats a 50.3% to 49.3% edge. But for context, in 2020, 68% of early ballots requested were for the Democratic primary.
Update 10:42 p.m.: Cook Political Report calls NC11 GOP primary for Edwards over Cawthorn. Reports that Cawthorn has called to concede. Update 10:15 p.m.: Decision Desk HQ calls NC11 GOP primary for Edwards over Madison Cawthorn. Update 10:01 p.m.: Trey Allen, Donna Stroud, and Michael Stading comfortably winning GOP judicial primaries. Update 9:56 p.m.: DeVan...
Judicial races decided in the fall will have a significant impact on the future of North Carolina, but as is often the case, these races are mostly flying under the radar of voters. That’s doubly true for a handful of key primaries in judicial races to be decided May 17. This year, two seats on the seven-member N.C. Supreme Court and four judges on the 15-member Court of Appeals are up for grabs.
Next week voters will finally decide which Republicans and which Democrats will be on the general election ballot. As part of the important spring cleaning at “The Woodshed” here are some final thoughts going into the primary day, and what we will be watching. The Delay Hurt Voters It is hard to identify exactly what races...
Dr. Terry Stoops, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, discusses Locke’s proposed Parents’ Bill of Rights. Stoops offered these comments during the May 10., 2022, edition of Spectrum News 1’s “Capital Tonight.”
Donna King, Carolina Journal editor-in-chief, discusses the shocking leak of a U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion in a high-profile abortion case. King offered these comments during the May 6, 2022, edition of PBS North Carolina’s “Front Row with Marc Rotterman.”
Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation senior political analyst, discusses the success of candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump in Ohio’s Republican primary elections. Kokai offered these comments during the May 6, 2022, edition of PBS North Carolina’s “Front Row with Marc Rotterman.”
Mark Martin, dean of the Regent University School of Law and former chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court, discusses the leak of a draft opinion in a high-profile U.S. Supreme Court abortion case. Learn more here: “Leaked opinion signals overturn of abortion law, jeopardizes integrity of SCOTUS.” Martin offered these comments during a May...
Greg Wallace, professor of law at Campbell University, discusses the leak of a draft opinion in a high-profile U.S. Supreme Court abortion case. Learn more here: “Leaked opinion signals overturn of abortion law, jeopardizes integrity of SCOTUS.” Wallace offered these comments during a May 3, 2022, interview with Mitch Kokai.
Supply chain issues, the rule of law, and basic economic policies are all unraveling under President Biden's leadership.
Regardless of your position on the abortion debate, we can all agree that progressives have backed themselves into an ideological corner. It is entirely of their own doing. They have lost their collective moral authority on body autonomy. After the U.S. Supreme Court leak of a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, progressives...
Today’s progressivism is a bore. The constant demand for more and more government spending places progressivism on a path toward destruction. Debt, inflation, and a diminished existence for the citizenry — that’s all the result of constant cries for more and more spending and government action. Shouldn’t we be asking more profound questions about what...
Editor’s note: This piece was first published at American Institute for Economic Research. “Misleading,” it says, with an exclamation point inscribed within a red triangle. “Learn about the science behind COVID-19 vaccines and how health officials say they work. Find out more. This Tweet can’t be replied to, shared, or liked.” It’s the current warning...
Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation senior political analyst, discusses the New York Times’ column warning about America’s “free-speech problem.” Kokai offered these comments during the March 25, 2022, edition of PBS North Carolina’s “Front Row with Marc Rotterman.”
Canadian professor, author, and psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson on Thursday offered a non-political and largely academic lecture on the psychology of beauty, dreams, and purpose. The reaction from city officials and activists to the address at the Durham Performing Arts Center was night-and-day from the one leading up to his appearance four years earlier. It...
As the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine continues to escalate, North Carolina’s local Ukrainian population is rallying to bring attention to the suffering of people in their homeland and to gather supplies to help them. Donna Goldstein, co-president of the Ukrainian Association of North Carolina, finds herself at the forefront of these efforts. Goldstein has...
The fourth estate, journalism, is racing to receivership unless we can rescue it from its rapacious self. The hubris hasn’t always been this bad, this blatant, or this biased, yet it worsens daily. In the town I grew up in, Nashville, Tennessee, there were two newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s, one for the morning,...
One of the goals within our cultural wars is to push Christmas aside, to make even more room for divisive politicized agendas that tear us apart.