Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02) (Photo: House.gov) Whether it was his intention or not, Donald Trump has undoubtedly caused more havoc in the first few weeks of his second administration than any president in U.S. history. The sheer volume of orders, directives, memos, and PR stunts — many of them contradictory and half-baked — has given rise to…

Deborah Dicks Maxwell (Photo courtesy of the NC NAACP) Few political controversies in North Carolina loom larger right now than the effort of Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin to overturn the election he lost last fall to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs. Griffin still wants the ballots of more than 60,000 disproportionat…

Lauren Fox, Senior Director, Policy & Research, Public School Forum (Photo: ncforum.org) At the start of the 2025 state legislative session, few needs in our state stand out as more obvious and dire than the ones we see in our public schools. From teacher pay to facilities to student well-being to the way we track performance in and demand accounta…

File photo of Lynn Bonner/ Photo of State Supreme Court signage by Clayton Henkel The big political story in North Carolina right now continues to revolve around the unsettled election for a seat on state Supreme Court. Multiple recounts confirmed that the incumbent justice, Democrat Allison Riggs, was the narrow winner over Republican challenger J…

SEANC Executive Director Ardis Watkins (Courtesy photo) One group that’s suffered the most in recent years as a result of the pennywise pound foolish fiscal policies of the North Carolina General Assembly are our state employees. Thanks to massive revenue declines resulting from repeated tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, state employee sal…

Drew Ball, Natural Resources Defense Council (Photo: Screengrab from NC Newsline interview) Wind energy. Whether it’s offshore or on land, wind energy is a booming and enormously promising industry that can play a big role in ending our heroin-like addiction to fossil fuels. What’s more, because of its geography, North Carolina is extremely well-po…

Sen. Sydney Batch (Photo: NCGA) As the North Carolina General Assembly prepares to begin its 2025 session in earnest this week, Senate Democrats have a new leader. After several years at the helm, veteran Raleigh lawmaker and former state House Speaker Dan Blue recently turned over the reins to another member of the Wake County delegation — State S…

WCU political scientist Chris Cooper (Screengrab from News & Views interview) As everyone knows by now, Donald Trump is president of the United States again. And while there are obviously many Americans who welcome this news and see Trump as a victim, a hero, and someone who will somehow restore “greatness” to the nation, for millions of others, th…

Duke Health OB/GYN Dr. Beverly Gray (Photo: Courtesy of Scholars@Duke) Few policy debates received more attention in last November’s election than reproductive freedom. Strangely, however, despite widespread evidence that significant majorities favor abortion rights and the right to contraception — see for example the results of numerous ballot ini…

Attorney Eliza Sweren-Becker of the national Brennan Center for Justice (Courtesy photo) The big political news story in North Carolina right now revolves around the yet unsettled election for a seat on state Supreme Court. Multiple counts confirmed that the incumbent justice, Democrat Allison Riggs, was the narrow winner over Republican challenger…

Marco Guzman (Courtesy photo) Among the actions that the new Trump administration is expected to make a top priority in the coming days is an aggressive new mass deportation initiative targeting the nation’s millions of undocumented immigrants. It’s a plan that may sound superficially appealing to many Americans, but as we learned in a recent conve…

Logan Rockefeller Harris (Courtesy photo) For 30 years now, the nonpartisan North Carolina Budget and Tax Center has been our state’s preeminent research nonprofit in the fields of fiscal and economic policy, and in recent years one of its signature products has been the biennial Living Income Standard report. The report documents what it actually …

North Carolina League of Conservation Voters Director of Governmental Relations Dan Crawford (Photo: nclcv.org) As has been the case for several years now, at the start of 2025, no single issue poses a greater threat to the long-term well-being of North Carolinians – and indeed, all Americans — than the global climate crisis. From the economy to pu…

Duke Law Professor Brandon Garrett (Courtesy photo) There are a lot of reasons that the death penalty is almost never imposed anymore. Not only is it hugely and uniquely expensive to apply and proven to be of no use in deterring crime, but stacks of evidence also confirm it has long been applied unjustly. Tragically, the death penalty is mostly res…

Jennifer Roberts (Courtesy photo) Last week the nation paused to honor the life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter. Carter died December 29, 2024 at the age of 100, and while opinions vary as to how successful his one term in the White House was, there’s a widespread consensus that no president in American history enjoyed a more productive…

Galen Bacharier (File photo) A new year is upon us and with it, some important changes in state government. As a result of the November election, North Carolina now has several new leaders serving on its Council of State – most notably a new governor. After eight years in the governor’s mansion and nearly 40 in elected office, Roy Cooper has exited…

Kody Kinsley, outgoing secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services. (Photo: DHHS) Gov. Roy Cooper’s second four-year term as our state’s chief executive has come to a close, and if there’s one accomplishment from that period that stands out above all others it was his tireless and ultimately successful campaign to expand the state’s…

Steven Troxler, commissioner of the NC Department of Agriculture, details the damage caused by Hurricane Helene (Photo: NCGA Screengrab) If there was one story that dominated the news this past year – aside from the election – and left a lasting imprint on North Carolina, it was Hurricane Helene. The storm ravaged western North Carolina in late Sep…

Rep. Pricey Harrison (Photo: NCGA) The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina is rightfully provoking calls for more action than has been forthcoming from state and federal lawmakers, and one area in which one hopes such demands will bear fruit is in planning and prevention. Regrettably, state Republican legislative leade…

Jason Kanawati Stephany, Vice President of Communications & Public Policy at Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina This year’s election may have come and gone, but one thing that hasn’t gone anywhere in North Carolina this year is hunger. Especially since congressional Republicans blocked the reauthorization of some key social safety net pr…

Stateline Reporter Alex Brown (Photo of offshore wind project by John Moore/Getty Images) As the world races to reduce fossil fuel use and carbon pollution in order to combat the climate change crisis, one enormously promising source of non-polluting energy is offshore wind. Indeed, numerous East Coast states are counting on offshore wind projects …

Alexandra Sirota (Photo: NC Budget & Tax Center) A new law enacted by North Carolina Republican legislators that purports to be about Hurricane Helene relief is, for the most part, anything but. Rather than providing desperately needed relief and recovery dollars to devastated families and businesses, Senate Bill 382 is a 131-page power grab bill t…

Erica Palmer Smith (File photo) North Carolina remains plagued by a destructive child care crisis that has left many families without options and numerous providers hanging on by a thread. And while basic concerns for children and families should provide plenty of incentive for state leaders to tackle the problem, a new report compiled by experts a…

David Daley (Courtesy photo) Over the last several years, few authors have done a better job of digging below the surface to chronicle what’s really going on in American politics – and in particular, the relentless brand of legal and policy hardball played by the Republican party – than David Daley. Daley’s best known book – which featured the prov…

Meredith College Poll director David McLennan (Photo courtesy Meredith.edu) The 2024 election is now receding quickly in the rear-view mirror, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still interesting and important to understand what voters were and are thinking and, here in North Carolina, that’s where public opinion surveys like the Meredith College Poll …

Energy and Policy Institute Research and Communications Manager, Sue Sturgis (File photo) It’s a great tragedy of our time that the global climate change crisis did not emerge suddenly or as a surprise. Indeed, a powerful new report from the nonprofit Energy and Policy Institute highlights the fact that scientists and energy industry leaders foresa…

Rev. Rob Stephens speaks during a press conference in Raleigh. (Photo: Greg Childress) The weeks following last month’s election have been anything but quiet in the state legislature. As has become a kind of perverse post-election tradition when Democrats manage to win a few statewide offices or narrow the margin in the state House and Senate, Repu…

North Carolina Justice Center’s Health Advocacy Project policy advocate Rebecca Cerese (File photo) The past few years have seldom been a time for celebration in the world of North Carolina policymaking. In numerous subject areas, the state legislature has enacted regressive laws that promote inequality, segregation, and a less sustainable planet. …

Common Cause of North Carolina executive director Bob Phillips (File photo) For more than a decade now, despite our state’s impressive record of honest and accurate elections, Republican legislators have passed bill after bill to make casting a ballot harder and more complex for voters and counting them more challenging for election officials. As N…

Sen. Julie Mayfield (Photo: NCGA) The state legislature returned to Raleigh in late November for a post-election lame duck session, and while most observers had expected lawmakers to focus on overriding a gubernatorial veto of a bill to expand school vouchers and force sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration officials, along with a third rou…

Janet Singerman and Dr. Kristi Snuggs, co-leaders of the North Carolina Child Care Resource and Referral Council (Courtesy photos) No industry in our state is, at once, both so critically important and so grievously undervalued as early childhood education. While everyone from the chamber of commerce, to parents, to economists and academics agrees …

U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (NC-13) (Courtesy photo) The election of Donald Trump to a second term in the White House has caused a great deal of consternation for many Americans. While all caring and thinking people cling to hope that Trump will concentrate on governing and refrain from the acts of political vengeance and ideological extremism that he f…

Davidson College Political Scientist Susan Roberts (Courtesy photo) Across the United States, elected leaders, analysts, pundits, and millions of average Americans are reflecting on and trying to make sense of Donald Trump’s victory in the recent presidential election. This is especially the case in North Carolina, where despite Trump’s win in the …

El Pueblo director Iliana Santillan (File photo) One group of North Carolinians for whom the election is likely to have a significant impact is the immigrant community. With President-elect Trump promising a wave of mass deportations and our state legislature plowing ahead with legislation to force local sheriffs to partner with federal immigration…

Galen Bacharier (File photo) While a tiny handful of races have yet to be officially called, we now know the results of the vast majority of contests in the 2024 election and topping the list in North Carolina, of course, is the governor’s office, where attorney general Josh Stein will soon be sworn in as North Carolina’s 76th chief executive. Earl…

Reporter Lisa Sorg (File photo) Donald Trump’s second administration is poised to soon do a great deal of damage in several important areas – including health care, education, reproductive freedom, immigration, foreign policy and the economy. That said, when it comes to the damage that will be truly irreparable, no pledge looms darker or more omino…

Mary Ann Wolf (Photo: Public School Forum) Yet another area in which the recent general election is likely to have major impacts is public education. Here in North Carolina, education advocates are hopeful that the combination of a new governor and a slightly different state legislature could lead to a boost in public school funding – something tha…

Congresswoman Deborah Ross (NC-02) (Photo: House.gov) The 2024 election is now mostly in the rear-view mirror, and as we all know by now, huge change is in the offing thanks to the return of Donald Trump. Trump’s election would appear to bode ill for a host of important and successful federal government initiatives of recent years on such matters a…

Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper (Screengrab from video recording) Even though North Carolinians gave the state’s electoral votes to Donald Trump, last Tuesday was, in many ways, a status quo election in our state, in which very little has changed in the way the two major parties are controlling key levers of pow…

Jason Kanawati Stephany, Vice President of Communications & Public Policy at Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina This year’s election may have come and gone, but one thing that hasn’t gone anywhere in North Carolina this year is hunger. Especially since congressional Republicans blocked the reauthorization of some key social safety net pr…

Karen Brinson Bell, NC State Board of Elections (photo: Screen grab from virtual press conference) Tuesday is Election Day and the beginning of the end of what’s been an incredibly long political season. One group of people who are acutely aware of this situation and the sharp national focus it has brought to North Carolina are the dedicated profes…

Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen (Courtesy photo) As we learned in our previous segment with state Board of Elections executive director Karen Brinson Bell, there’s every reason to believe that this year’s election with run smoothly and fairly in North Carolina and that by late Tuesday evening, we’ll have a lot of results from most of the key rac…

Former President Donald Trump (left ) and Vice President Kamala Harris (right) Photos: Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images; Jim Vondruska/Getty Images) As anyone paying any attention is well aware, North Carolina is one of just a handful of U.S. states that will determine the outcome of this year’s presidential election. Thanks to our nation’s controversi…

Kody Kinsley, outgoing secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services. (Photo: DHHS) It’s a sobering fact that one of the largest sources of consumer debt in North Carolina and across the nation is unpaid medical bills. Of course, no one gets sick or accumulates healthcare debt on purpose, but for most average households – including th…

Amber Gavin (Courtesy photo) It’s been more than two years now since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion care and more than a year since North Carolina enacted a 12-week ban on the procedure – this on top of a raft of other burdensome and medically unnecessary restrictions. So, what can we say about what’s been happeni…

As Americans vote in the 2024 national election, few issues are more prominent than the national economy. For the most part – especially in comparison to elections past – the economic news is extremely good. Earlier this month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing a strong labor market with growing wages, a lower unemployme…

Colin Seeberger (Courtesy photo) If you’ve been hearing a lot this election season about something called Project 2025, there’s good reason. It’s a 922-page policy blueprint from the far-right Heritage Foundation that its authors hope will serve as a lengthy “to do” list for a new Republican presidential administration. And in a host of vitally imp…

Common Cause NC Sailor Jones (Backdrop Photo: Getty Images) Amazingly, the November 5th general election is underway in North Carolina. Absentee voting by mail is already taking place and early in-person voting starts October 17. And with those facts in mind, there are a lot of changes that state lawmakers have made that make voting a bit more of a…

State Rep. Pricey Harrison of Guilford County (Photo: Clayton Henkel) The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina is rightfully provoking calls for action by state and federal lawmakers, and one area in which one hopes such demands bear fruit is in planning and prevention. As the New York Times recently reported, state Rep…

Rep. Lindsey Prather discusses the damage to western North Carolina caused by Hurricane Helene. (Photo of Biltmore Village by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) As we’re all painfully aware by now, the last several days have been among the darkest in modern North Carolina history. The cause, of course, was Helene – a devastating hurricane-turned-tropical-s…