What’s the matter with North Carolina?
Last week, the Republicans in the Kansas legislature reached an agreement with the Democratic governor to expand Medicaid. Today, the North Carolina legislature goes back into session. Maybe we could see a similar agreement here. If the agreement goes through,...
Bloomberg’s transformative campaign
Nothing highlights the importance of North Carolina in national politics like the massive presence of the Bloomberg presidential campaign in the state. Bloomberg himself has been here twice since he launched his campaign just two months ago. More telling, though, is...
Steyer brings his vanity campaign to North Carolina
It looks like billionaire presidential candidate Tom Steyer is heading to North Carolina this weekend. Steyer is going to North Carolina Central University to talk about his plan for HBCUs. He’s going to McDougal Terrace in Durham, the public housing complex that had...
Just doing his job–and a lot more
A number of progressives are complaining about Attorney General Josh Stein defending the voter ID law in court. They should get over it. He’s just doing the job he was elected to do. No attorney general agrees with every law he or she has to defend, but the job...
A sad little man
I suspect that at some point, Thom Tillis had a modicum of self-respect. I also suspect that those days are long forgotten. Today, he debases himself regularly trying to stay in the good graces of the con man in the White House. This weekend, he tweeted, “Eric...
The most impressive campaign
In a post I wrote last week, I said that I didn’t think Pete Buttigieg could win North Carolina because the state isn’t ready to elect a gay man president. I should have said more. I don’t believe Buttigieg can win North Carolina and I don’t believe he will be the...
2020 predictions
With the beginning of a new decade as well as a new year, I’ll venture into a few predictions. After the election of Donald Trump, I no longer have a lot of confidence in my ability to predict the electorate. That said, here goes. First, for the next decade. I predict...
Political stars of 2019
In North Carolina, the political stars of 2019 were the Democrats in the North Carolina House and Senate. They showed that they’ve learned how to be a minority party. They upheld the Governor’s veto time and again without losing the news narrative. In the process,...
The civil wars within the parties
As the country goes through another political realignment, the two parties are engaged in civil wars that could reshape them both. On the Republican side, the war seems to be over. Trump and the populists won. On the Democratic side, the battle is still raging. This...
Which Democrat could win North Carolina?
As 2020 inches ever nearer, I’d like to look at what the presidential candidates might mean for North Carolina. We are one of the most evenly divided states in the nation. Most likely, the presidential campaign will play out heavily here. It’s not that we are the...
