Democrats in North Carolina hold the early voting advantage over Republicans, but unaffiliated voters creeped up by the last day.

Reminder: Results posted will be unofficial and the results for all races can be viewed on the N.C. State Board of Elections Dashboard on election night.

Two good resources for data geeks include Locke Foundation’s Vote Tracker and NCFree’s Early Vote Tracker.

These are the races I will be watching and results will be posted at North State Journal as returns start coming in.

General Assembly

SENATE

• District 1: Sen. Jerry Tillett (R), appointed; Seat formerly held by Sen. Bobby Hanig (resigned) v. Melissa Zehner (D).

• District 7 (New Hanover): Seat held by Sen. Michael Lee (R) v. Jessica Bichler (D).

• District 11 (Franklin, Nash, Vance): Seat held by Sen. Lisa Barnes (R) v. James Gailliard (D).

• District 18 (Wake): Sen. Haseeb Fatmi (D), appointed; Seat previously held by Sen. Terence Everitt (resigned) v. Chris Stock (R).

• District 34 (Cabarrus): Kevin Crutchfield (R) v. April Cook (D).

• District 42 (Mecklenburg): Seat held by Sen. Woodson Bradley (D) v. Stacie McGinn (R).

HOUSE

• District 24 (Nash/Wilson): Seat held by Rep. Dante Pittman (D) v. Blake Boykin (R).

• District 25 (Nash): Seat held by Rep. Allen Chesser (R) v. Lorenza Wilkins (D).

• District 32 (Granville/Vance): Seat held by Rep. Bryan Cohn (D) v. Frank Sossamon (R). *This is a rematch.

• District 35 (Wake): Seat held by Rep. Mike Schietzelt (R) v. Evonne Hopkins (D).

• District 37 (Wake): Seat held by Rep. Erin Paré (R) v. Winn Decker (D).

• District 62 (Guilford): Seat held by Rep. John Blust (R) v. Shelly Headen (D).

• District 63 (Alamance): Seat held by Stephen Ross (R)

  Republican candidate: Ryan Moffitt

  Democratic candidate: Ian Baltutis

• District 73 (Cabarrus): Seat held by Rep. Jonathan Almond (R) v. Thomas Monks (D)

• District 74 (Forsyth): Seat held by Rep. Jeff Zenger (R) v. Amy North (D)

• District 82 (Cabarrus): Seat held by Rep. Brian Echevarria (R) v. Chris Bishopp (D).

• District 93 (Watauga): Seat held by Rep. Ray Pickett v. Charlie Wallin (D).

• District 98 (Mecklenburg): Seat held by Rep. Beth Helfrich (D) v. John Rhodes (R).

• District 105 (Mecklenburg): Seat held by Rep. Tricia Cotham (R) v. Ken McCool (D).

• District 109 (Gaston): Seat held by Rep. Donnie Loftis (R) v. Mark Carver (D).

• District 115 (Buncombe): Seat held by Rep. Lindsey Prather (D) v. Anthony Penland (R).

Some additional House races to watch and miscellaneous notes

House District 48 (Hoke/Scotland): This seat is held by Rep Garland Pierce (D) and he faces Ralph Carter (R). This seat race was close in 2024; Pierce won by roughly 4 points.

House District 5 (Camden, Gates, Hertford, Pasquotank): Seat held by Rep Bill Ward (R) v. Sam Davis III (D).

House District 63 (Alamance): Open seat (no incumbent) Ian Baltutis (D) v. Ryan Moffitt (R).

House District 64(Alamance): Seat held by Rep Dennis Riddell (R) v. LeVon Barnes (D). Another rematch from 2024.

House District 20 (New Hanover): Open seat: Dane Scalise (R) v. Tim Merrick (D).

Senate District 26 (Guilford, Rockingham): Open after the primary after Senate Leader Phil Berger lost to Sam Page, who is facing Steve Luking (D).

Days before the General Election, NCFREE altered its rankings slightly, making majority control of the 120 seat House as a “toss up.” 72 seats are needed for veto proof majority in that chamber and the House is currently one shy and if certain races end up with Democrat winners, the Republican margin will likely drop to half a dozen seats.

NCFREE had at least four Senate seats ranked as “toss up” as well.

Congressional Races

The top two to watch will be NC-01, the rematch between Congressman Don Davis (D) v. Laurie Buckhout (R), and NC-11, between Republican Jennifer Balkcom and Democrat Jamie Ager.

Election polling sites like Cook Political report have NC-11 leaning Democrat and NC-01 as a toss up.

As I mentioned in last week’s Old North State Update, there has been speculation that two other seats are in contention: Republican Congressmen Greg Murphy (NC-03) and Richard Hudson (NC-09). Those races may be tighter than usual, but I’d be a bit surprised to see those seats flipping.

Its worth noting House Speaker Mike Johnson campaigned with Buckhout and Murphy yesterday.

Additionally, the rumor mill has other Republican congressional members concerned about their races such as Virginia Foxx (NC-05), Mark Harris (NC-08), Brad Knott (NC-13) and Tim Moore (NC-14).

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I will be channeling my inner Karen Walker most of tomorrow night, so if you don’t already follow me on X, now is the time to do so:

Four days until election day.
Early voting ends at 3 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 31) in all North Carolina counties. Go. Vote.

THE BIG STORY

Attacking The Messenger
After receiving a cease and desist for asking Roy Cooper’s campaign about his commitment to fulfilling a six year term and if there were any health impediments to doing so, a reporter from The Assembly took it upon himself to attack me personally.

That reporter is Bryan Anderson, who apparently took it upon himself in one of his outlet’s newsletters (which I don’t get or read) to strip me of my title of reporter and substitute it with “conservative activist” when writing about NSJ getting the cease and desist letter.

Uncoincidentally, on the first day of early voting, Anderson asked Cooper the same term fulfillment question, sans mention of health impediments.

In his attack on me on X, he defended being the arbiter of my professional title by producing a voter registration showing I was a Republican. There are two problems with what he posted: One, I’m registered unaffiliated, and two, the voter registration he posted wasn’t mine but that of a woman in New Hanover County who shares my last name.

Once I pointed out he had just doxed an innocent woman, Anderson deleted the post, but justified posting it because he only found one registration with that name. The total lack of vetting in posting that registration would be a theme in his follow-up posts.

My editor weighed in.

In his attempt to justify smearing me, Anderson also attacked my long-standing work reporting on teacher arrests for sexual misconduct with students in North Carolina that has resulted in laws being changed and loopholes closed. On that front, I told him he needed his head examined.

Anderson came back for a second try to justify his refusal to use my actual title and that went as well as the first try.

Like the wrong voter registration he posted, Anderson didn’t vet the $500 either. That payment wasn’t something I charged — it was an honorarium.

My response included a screenshot of his direct message to me about my title, in which he delivered what was an ironic line at the time about not linking to “unsubstantiated claims.”

As a point of ethics, I don’t charge for my speaking engagements when they are in front of politically linked organizations. Anderson should take a look in the mirror as he had no problem being the videographer for the chair of the Democratic Party this past June.

My editor also had thoughts on that second attack by Anderson.

Anderson’s X profile, in fact, includes one of the selfies mentioned by my editor.

The Assembly issued a post the following day on X, stating they were “aware” their reporter violated their social media policies and it was being handled “internally.” Apparently that notice made no difference to Anderson, who doubled down less than ten minutes later.

During my usual Monday segment with WBT’s Pete Kaliner, we talked about Anderson attacking the messenger instead of the message.

The previous Friday, Kaliner and Raleigh radio host KC O’Dea also had a conversation about Anderson’s attack on me during their weekly segment. Fast forward to around the one hour 15-minute mark to listen to their full discussion with context.

Some additional context: Anderson is unhappy with my (valid) account of his actions at a Michael Whatley event earlier this year, which I’ve heard resulted in his being banned from future Whatley events.

TURN OUT

Democrats came out big in the first few days of early voting. That momentum didn’t hold, but the gap between Democrats and Republicans remains substantial. Unaffiliated voters ticked up alongside Republicans, however.

Check out the Locke Foundation’s Vote Tracker for more details.

North State Journal will have a legislative key races article with ongoing updates, as well as congressional and NC U.S. Senate results on election night.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Democrat candidate... has a rap sheet.

As I noted on this post, there are at least 54 records in eCourts involving Ackles and a record in the NC Dept. Of Adult Correction’s Offender Public Information database mostly for passing bad checks.

CONGRESS

Toss-ups and and Blue Wishes
Both NC-01 and NC-11 are highlighted as the two North Carolina seats that could swing the U.S. House-majority probability either north of 90% if Democrats do well, or down around 60% if Republicans do well.

If I am reading Decision Desk HQ’s charts correctly, they are giving odds on those two NC seats either staying Democratic or being flipped.

NC-01 is currently a “toss-up” race between incumbent Democrat Don Davis and Republican Laurie Buckhout, but the redistricting in 2025 gave the seat a more Republican lean. Decision Desk says there’s a 63% chance Davis keeps the seat.

It’s worth noting Buckhout’s campaign is calling out mailers being sent out by shadowy groups that falsely depict her as promoting abortion “up until birth,” and that the NCGOP has filed an electioneering complaint involving Davis volunteers.

They give NC-11 at 57% chance of flipping to Democrat. That seat is currently held by Republican Chuck Edwards but with statehouse Rep. Jennifer Balkcom on the ballot against Democrat Jamie Ager.

Under later sections in Decision Desk HQ’s article, both NC-03 and NC-09 are mentioned. I have low expectations that either seat is actually in jeopardy given their Republican lean and President Trump’s past performance in those districts.

NC-03 pops up under “Seats that Democrats might flip or keep in a wave.” That seat is held by Republican Greg Murphy and the article treats that seat as unlikely to flip Democratic with only a 27% chance rating. President Trump won Murphy’s area by about 22 points in 2024, but redistricting in 2025 slightly changed his constituency. Earlier this week, Trump endorsed Murphy in a Truth Social post.

NC-09, held by Republican Richard Hudson, appears later in the “Blue tsunami signs” section, which Decision Desk gives just a 22% chance of flipping. Hudson is the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Flipping his seat would be tough given Hudson’s popularity there and it’s an area President Trump won by +16.

According to the rumor mill, other congressional members are apparently concerned about their race outcomes, such as Virginia Foxx (NC-05), Brad Knott (NC-13) and David Rouzer (NC-07).

U.S. SENATE

Final Stumps
Vice President Vance was in Kinston on Wednesday, stumping for Michael Whatley, as well as NC-01’s Laurie Buckhout and NC-11’s Jennifer Balkcom.
On Thursday, President Trump held a rally just over the border in Rock Hill, SC.

Make People Project Less
Cooper dropped another sex offender freeze tag digital ad. Based on the replies, folks are more aware that Cooper himself has not one, but two sex offenders linked to him — Chad Turner and disgraced House Democrat Cecil Brockman, who is accused of multiple sex crimes involving a minor male child. The replies to his post included another ad, called “I will never forget what Roy Cooper did to my family.”

“Non-partisan” mailers
A new set of mailers went out that, on the surface, look like some kind of ballot check list, but when you read the text it is clear they are pro-Cooper fliers.

The mailers are from the Center for Voter Information (CVI), which claims to be nonpartisan but as my thread explains, the group is definitely partisan, as are the groups affiliated with them. CVI and its sister group Voter Participation Center are the same entities that targeted deceased NC voters in 2022.

When I posted about these mailers, people from all over the state responded that they had also received them.

Similar mailers have gone out this election cycle. Check out my coverage at North State Journal:

• State Board of Elections issues guidance after NC residents receive bogus voter registration mailers

• Second wave of third-party mailers hits NC
  

Q3 Money
On the 15th, Cooper’s campaign announced a Q3 haul of $19.5 million. FEC records show Cooper has raised $47.2 million heading into October, with about $12.4 million in cash on hand.

The Whatley camp did not make a formal announcement, but he trails Cooper in fundraising by more than 3 to 1, having raised $13.4 million as of Sept. 30, with records showing about $916,100 cash on hand. Whatley for Senate FEC records show $2.1 million in receipts and $916,101 in cash on hand.

POLLING

I Told You So
From the start, I’ve told readers to take polls with a grain of salt and that people lie to polls and polls lie to people. Well, this next item underscores that message.

In case you missed it, an outfit called Wedgewood Polls recently announced all of its polls in 2026 were fake. They admitted they used made up data in order to conduct a “social experiment.” Their polls were cited by media giants like the NY Times as well as established polling outfits, with Politico reporting on the way those fake polls may have shifted races around the country.

Wedgewood isn’t the only outfit that faked polling this cycle. Don’t forget about that Median Strategies poll in the California mayoral race which pumped up Mayor Karen Bass’ numbers.

Polling News:
Gallup: Trust in Federal Government Sinks to New Depths
Gallup: Record Lows Say Congressional Incumbents Deserve Reelection

WHAT I AM READING

• Jim Comey Charged--Again

• No, CNN Did Not Defame Cenk Uygur by Trashing his Anti-Israel Ad Supporting his Nephew, Abdul El-Sayed

• The cognitive dissonance election

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Read her REPORTING work at North State Journal

We did note the presence of National Guard members near the White House, as well as in other major landmarks near and around the Capitol.

Getting around was extremely easy using the Metro, which was also just clean and quiet as the city was during our visit. There was an overall lack of homeless people in the area where we stayed, which was likely due to our proximity to the White House, major law enforcement offices, and landmarks.

We saw the usual sights, which notably had small crowds aside from the typical school and sight-seeing tours. Our trip started with a tour of the U.S. Capitol, courtesy of Congressman Tim Moore’s (R-NC-14) office.

One could visit that building a thousands times and still not see everything. It’s an incredible building one can feel the history of as you walk around it.

We wound our way through the Capitol Building with our legislative guide, visiting various areas such as the rotunda, the old Supreme Court chambers, the early legislative chambers, and Statuary Hall.

We even located one of North Carolina’s two statues in the main Hall — that of Zebulon Baird Vance, who was the 37th and 43rd governor for North Carolina.

We also spotted the entrance to the chambers of the U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

We were also treated to a view of the Mall area from the Speaker’s Balcony.

On our stroll around the Capitol, we also checked out the U.S. Supreme Court. Again, seeing in person underscored that photos don’t do the architecture justice. Pun intended!

On our second day, we made our way to the White House.

The White House Tour includes four main areas: the Blue Room, the Red Room, the Green Room, and the State Dining Room. All of those areas are connected by the Cross Hall that links up with the main entrance hall.

Each of these areas is steeped in history and can be explored on the various administrations’ pages of the White House Historical Tours page. One of the better pages with a map and thorough descriptions of each room is the George W. Bush archive.

Security was tight during our visit and the fencing has been moved out father than usual; likely due to the increased threats by Iran.

Anyone planning on visiting the White House needs to know that no bags whatsoever area allowed and you need either a valid passport or REAL ID to enter. The tours we witnessed seemed to be facilitated through legislative offices.

It’s one thing to see the pictures of the White House tour rooms, but it’s quite another to see these areas in person. The level of detail was incredible, from the stitching on the furniture to the carvings around the mantles.

While the inside of these rooms is impressive so is the view from them, such as the image below. The glass slightly distorted the Washington Monument, but I think the photo makes my point.

On the way back out, we spotted the now-famous portrait of President Trump from the assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 election cycle.

While visiting the White House, we stopped to take a look at the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, which sits across the street near Lafayette Square.

St. John’s was established in 1815 and is known as the “Church of the Presidents.” It has been visited by every U.S. president going back to James Madison.

The church is quite beautiful and has a commanding presence. I recommend adding it to any visit to D.C. The photo I took below shows St. John’s illuminated very early in the morning as the sun was beginning to rise.

The church wasn’t open yet when we stopped by, but the inside is even more impressive and tours are available.

In 2020, Black Lives Matter rioters attempted to burn the church down and, to my knowledge, no one has ever been caught or charged with that arson attempt despite the attempts of the ATF.

We closed out our trip by walking the National Mall, taking in the view of the Washington Monument up close.

We then wandered down the Mall, visiting the various Smithsonian Institute museums like the Natural History museum and the Air & Space Museum.

As pre-teen and in my mid-twenties, I had previously visited those two museums, however they hit different as an adult and parent, especially the look of astonishment on my son’s face when he saw the Apollo exhibits… Priceless.

I hope you enjoyed this brief walk-through of our trip to D.C. Every American should avail themselves of visiting our nation’s Capitol, regardless of age.

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Note to readers: There won’t be an Old North State Update next week but I’ll have something interesting for readers over that weekend.

THE BIG STORY

Read the article:
NSJ questioned Cooper’s campaign, got cease-and-desist in response

WBT’s Brett Jensen had me on his show just after that story broke. You can also catch me on the Nick Craig Show. My NSJ colleague Stacy Matthews also wrote about the reactions to the letter over at RedState. Constitutional lawyer and frequent FOX News contributor Jonathan Turley also took note of the letter.

Do you believe in coincidences?
While the cease and desist story has gained traction, a McClatchy reporter took video of Cooper jogging up to his supporters at the polls at the start of early voting on Thursday.

North State Journal was not at Cooper’s early voting event because we have been excluded from his campaign’s media distribution list since the start of the race despite asking multiple times to be added.

The jogging to the polls included a Q&A, with a reporter from The Assembly asking Cooper the very same question North State Journal asked. Imagine that.

Upcoming Rally
President Trump will hold a midterm rally in Greenville next Tuesday evening. He will make his case for electing Republican Michael Whatley as well as congressional candidates like NC-11’s Jennifer Balkcom and NC-01’s Laurie Buckhout. The details and the RSVP for the public can be accessed here.

This past week, former President Barack Obama endorsed Roy Cooper in a 57 second video that essentially just repeated the Cooper campaign talking points.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The House and Senate will return on October 26.
See my article at NSJ about House races to watch and races in the Senate to keep and eye on.

Hairston & Ghislaine
A past X post by House District 59 Democratic candidate Elma Hairston is making the rounds this week. The post defends Jeffrey Epstein’s gal pal and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking and sex abuse of young girls.

Food Fight
The mayor of Oxford says Democratic Rep. Bryan Cohn threatened him over food truck fees, according to WRAL, including telling the mayor “I’ll [expletive] you up, and I’ll [expletive] you over.”

Champagne Socialist
The Wake GOP has thoughts on “CAIR-endorsed Senator Haseeb Fatmi,” who they described as a “champagne socialist,” as well as including a clip of him giving remarks at a No Kings protest.

Syringes for drug addicts claim

New SD-42 Ad
Republican Stacie McGinn has a new ad, called “The only choice.”

McGinn issued this statement with the ad announcement:

“Woodson Bradley and I disagree on priorities and solutions to the real challenges faced by the people of Mecklenburg County. But there is no greater difference between us than basic character. Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Our track records show I am the only candidate in this race who voters can trust to put honesty and integrity first. People know character matters in our representatives, which is why my campaign — centered on bringing common sense leadership to Raleigh — is earning support from a broad spectrum of voters in Senate District 42.”

CONGRESS

NC-01
Republican Laurie Buckhout hosted U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson in New Bern on Thursday for the second time this cycle.

NC-14 Debate
Annie Dance of Cops & Congress has a report on Congressman Tim Moore, who represents the 14th District, debating his challenger Lakesha Womack in Burke County in September.

Moore has a long record as NC House Speaker to run on plus his first term in Congress. Womack, not so much.

Womack has a different record - a current court case for a pending felony charge involving an unreturned rental car’ something she didn’t address that during the debate. She’s also dodged questions about not living in the NC-14 district.

Related NC-14 News: Womack served summons in felony case at Polk County rally

Congressional Quick Hit: House Dems reach big in N.C. Are the seats winnable?

U.S. SENATE

Q3 Fundraising Numbers
The Cooper campaign reported $19.5M.
The Whatley camp has not announced its haul yet.

NRSC drops NC, GA
According to Politico, NRSC Chair Tim Scott is dropping North Carolina and Georgia from its senate targets list. Some hay was made this week out of the Whatley campaign removing some TV spots, but the campaign said it’s deciding where to redeploy resources, per Politico reporter Erin Doherty.

Cooper and Earls rally together
Wednesday, Cooper and Associate Justice Anita Earls campaigned together, headlining a virtual “early voting” rally.

Earls is seeking reelection to the N.C. Supreme Court and notably was the co-chair of Cooper’s Racial Equity in Criminal Justice Task Force, which he set up following the George Floyd riots.

Then-Attorney General Josh Stein was the other co-chair and Cooper also put a former gang member on that task force who had been convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.

Cooper’s task force has been pointed to as the source of criminals with lengthy records in the state having quick release turnarounds with low or no bail imposed.

The task force put forward a number of questionable policy suggestions such as eliminating cash bail, legalizing certain drugs, ticketing or issuing citations in place of arrests, and mandatory “implicit bias” training for law enforcement. The group’s final report included 125 policy items with category labels like “reimagine public safety,” and “Support restorative justice initiatives and victim equity.”

Trump jabs at Cooper
“There has never been a Governor with such a bad record on Crime, and there never will be!”

Campaign stops
Whatley’s “Make More Keep More” tour hit Concord on Tuesday. Among several other stops, Whatley and Payton McNabb held a Protect Our Daughters press conference on Monday in Hendersonville.

Cooper continued his “Make Stuff Cost Less” tour in Greensboro. North State Journal is still being excluded from his campaign’s press distribution list.

Senate Race Quick Hits:

• Democrat Roy Cooper Would Vote in Senate to Confirm Radical Left Judges

• Democrat Roy Cooper Took Man Who Raped, Killed Elderly Woman Off Death Row

• Cooper’s sex offender freeze tag ad

POLLING

Real Clear Polling’s average has Cooper over Whatley by 9 points, but poll spreads are still all over the place. Trafalgar’s Oct. 2 poll has Cooper up by about 8 points, Quantus has Cooper up 5, and ECU’s poll has Cooper up 7 points, yet WRAL’s poll has Cooper up by 14.

Related Polling News:

• Democrats’ would-be House majority depends on Trump-won districts (NC-01 and NC-11 are on the list of toss-up seats)

• North Carolina Democrats regained voter registration lead (barely). The John Locke Foundation has two useful elections tracking sites worth bookmarking: Vote Tracker and Voter Registration Changes

• Speaker Johnson: ‘I’m Telling You, the Polling Is Wrong’

WHAT I AM READING

• Marco Goes Hard

• Don’t take Washington out on Raleigh

• House GOP investigates DC activists training jurors to undermine prosecutions (Read the press release on the investigation here.)

Bonus reading: Jack Smith team got anti-Trump judges to approve phone monitoring, didn’t reveal lawyers as targets

That’s not all, Smith also amassed personal data on 639,000 Republican supporters, voters, and campaign staff, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley. At least 148,000 were identified as donors and Smith also tracked anyone buying a red MAGA hat, per the memo and documents in Grassley’s press release.

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The itinerary spans western North Carolina’s manufacturing, recovery, and economic development sites across these three contiguous Republican-held districts in the mountains and foothills.

According to his office, Khanna will be touring specific areas of the state to meet with “workers, local leaders, manufacturers, families, and residents to examine how America can better compete with China.”

The tour is part of Khanna’s continued trips around the country highlighting rebuilding American industry and creating good-paying jobs.

The itinerary was sent out to media outlets, that include listening sessions in three NC congressional districts.

The tour kicks of on the 15th with a meeting with Canton’s Chamber President David Francis, Mayor Zeb Smathers and others.

On Thursday, Khanna will be in Spruce Pine for a breakfast at Spruce Pine Rebuild Center volunteers related to Hurricane Helene, which includes also Mayor Beth Holmes, Commissioner Jeff Hardin, and County Manager Hook..

Following the breakfast, he’s touring Sibelco Spruce Pine Quartz Mine before heading out to view homes rebuilt by Baptists on a mission and other rebuilt homes in the Spruce Pine area.

In the afternoon, Khanna heads to Morganton to visit the Industrial Commons Introduction and Material Return Center and then the Sherrill Furniture Factory in Hickory.

Later the same day he’ll tour Meridian Specialty Yarm in Valdese, Geiger Furniture in Hildebran, and cap the day off with evening roundtables in Conover, which will include visiting the Manufacturing Solutions Center.

Why North Carolina? Why now?

Here’s who represents the districts Khanna plans to visit, as aligned with the stops he will make:

NC-11 Chuck Edwards (R-Flat Rock): Canton (Haywood County) and Spruce Pine (Mitchell County). These cover the western mountain areas hit by Helene recovery events. But remember, statehouse Rep. Jennifer Balkcom is now on ballot after Edwards stepped aside due to his House censure.

NC-14 Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain): Morganton, Valdese, and Hildebran; all in Burke County.

NC-10 Pat Harrigan (R-Hickory): Hickory and Conover, which is in Catawba County.

Khanna is a ranking member of the House Select Subcommittee on China.
None of North Carolina’s congressional members sit on that committee, so why is he choosing to come to NC as opposed to other states?

It could be to put pressure on Balkcom, Moore and Harrigan, which are Democrat target seats. But another reason is more likely: 2028 Oval Office aspirations.

Khanna has spent time during 2026 on a series of “Heartland Tours” and listening trips focused on rebuilding U.S. manufacturing, industrial policy, critical minerals, and competing with China. He has visited factories, steel mills, and workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan for exactly this purpose.

This trip perfectly matches his “New Economic Patriotism,” a manufacturing-revival brand that he has been promoting as a vehicle for advancing a potential 2028 presidential bid, for several reasons.

The stops at Hickory furniture factories, Valdese/Hildebran yarn and furniture, and Conover Manufacturing Solutions Center, sites in Morganton, sit in the traditional furniture and textile belt that lost jobs to trade. These stops let him talk about good jobs, workforce training, employee ownership, and regional economic revival in the same terms he uses elsewhere.

Spruce Pine’s high-purity quartz mine is a bonus, because it is strategically important for semiconductors and chips, tying directly into national-security and tech-supply-chain arguments he’s made on the Select Committee on China.

Two years after the Hurricane Helene, his itinerary includes volunteer rebuilds, local leaders, and economic-development discussions, which gives him a space to discuss federal investment, housing, infrastructure, and long-term recovery plans.

That may be an interesting discussion since Democratic talking points in multiple races claim Hurricane Helene recovery has been hindered financially under Trump despite billions released.

North Carolina’s Gov. Josh Stein has been seeking additional aid and has its own far more detailed “Marshall Plan”-style economic recovery framework. Interestingly, the itinerary does not mention Stein as a participant.

Another reason is North Carolina remains competitive at the statehouse level, but also for the NC-11 seat.

Visiting specific red districts NC-10, 11, and 14, while talking about jobs and recovery give an appearance he’s looking beyond California, while building relationships with local chambers, mayors, and workers. A progressive Democrat engaging manufacturing communities is a clear way to produce buzzworthy content and further a 2028 bid.

Khanna has done similar trips in South Carolina, the first Democratic primary state, for the same 2028 early-positioning reasons.

While other states offer manufacturing or recovery opportunities, North Carolina has an all-in one package stop of traditional industry, critical-minerals asset relevant to tech, a recent major disaster with ongoing rebuilds, and battleground-state politics.

All of those factors makes hitting North Carolina efficient for both policy messaging and political signaling. Given all of that, the political angle of these stops in North Carolina is not subtle— Khanna is openly testing and promoting his “New Deal” message outside his district.

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More To The Story

Despite his listening tours, Khanna is no moderate, or even close to one. He has a lifetime progressive score of 97.70%, per Progressive Punch’s rankings, which puts him in the same cluster as progressive Squad members like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. His progressive ranking is underscored by his recent defense of California’s billionaire tax.

The California progressive has repeatedly used the term “New Deal Democrats,” in describing what is a socialism-aligned set of ideas, in particular, his backing of Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All.

Khanna’s “New Economic Patriotism” / “America’s Next New Deal” platform has substantial overlap with key Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) demands but does not mirror the full DSA vision.

Khanna has not been endorsed by the DSA, nor is he a DSA member and has repeatedly described himself as a “progressive capitalist” or “New Deal Democrat,” rejecting government ownership of the means of production.

His platform overlaps substantially with several DSA priorities. Both support Medicare for All, the previously mentioned higher taxes on billionaires, free/more affordable public college, and expanded “affordable” housing. They also overlap on ending U.S. military aid to Israel, reduced military spending, stronger labor union protections, and anti-corruption reforms.

Khanna has also recently called for abolishing ICE, which is a DSA demand.

The differences between Khanna and the DSA are relatively few and primarily ideological. DSA’s program seeks to end capitalism through public ownership of major industries, a new constitution, and structural changes such as abolishing the Senate.

Khanna frames his agenda as “progressive capitalism” within a reformed market system, while emphasizing industrial policy, private-sector innovation, and New Deal-style public investment rather than abolishment of capitalism.

Despite those differences, Khanna hasn’t denounced the DSA, and has also made remarks that “establishment” Democrats need to “step aside“ for more progressive candidates, including those backed by the Socialist Democrats of America. Khanna has doubled down on that message, announcing he voted down the House resolution denouncing democratic socialism.

The day after the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, Khanna posted on X that it is “Islamophobia” to suggest that campaigning with Michigan Senate Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed is dangerous due to his Hamas support.

Earlier this year, El-Sayed claimed Israel was just “as evil“ as Hamas, and has both defended and tried to distance himself from far-left progressive YouTuber Hasan Piker, who has claimed the U.S. deserved 9/11. Khanna stepped into that mix in late August, calling for Democrats to stop attacking Piker, as well as Sanders.

Follow A.P. Dillon on X
Read her work at North State Journal

THE BIG STORY

Rubio at the Acropolis
Powerful speech against an epic backdrop. 2028 will be here before we know it.

Bonus hit — Rand Paul: Tony’s Diary: The Missing Years (2015–2019)

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Gas Tax Moratorium
Lawmakers held a special extra session this week, passing a bill that will suspend the state’s gas tax through November. Gov. Josh Stein is expected to sign it today.

The measure is House Bill 3 – Relief at the Pump. It passed the House 111-1, with Rep. Pricey Harrison(D-Guilford) voting no. The Senate passed it unanimously by a vote of 41-0.

I’ll have a deeper dive over at North State Journal after the governor signs it, but in a nutshell, here’s what the bill does:

Starting the day after the bill becomes law and running through Nov. 30, 2026, the state’s 41 cent gas tax would be suspended.

What does that mean at the pump for drivers?

Based on AAA’s average price for gas in North Carolina of $4.12 a gallon, the bill would drop that price to $3.71 if the full tax cut is passed on. That cut translates to saving $6.15 on a 15-gallon fill-up.

The catch seems to be that retailers have to pass that savings on to drivers, with the exception of fuel they already had in stock that was taxed before the suspension starts.

Per the Tax Foundation’s analysis, North Carolina has the tenth highest gas tax rate in the country; California is number one at nearly 74 cents. In the southeast, North Carolina is the second highest, just behind Virginia’s 42 cents.

Over the past ten years, the gas tax rate has increased 20.58%, going from 34 cents in 2016 to 41 cents in 2026.

North Carolina’s gas tax has gone from 1 cent per gallon in 1921 to 41 cents in 2026 or 41 times the original rate. The chart below uses the rate in effect on January 1 of each year, so a mid-year cut or increase shows up the following January.

The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents on gasoline and 24.4 cents on diesel. President Trump is mulling the idea but he needs Congressional approval. He has already issued an executive order lifting penalties on dyed diesel, however.

What is it with 9/11 and Democrat candidates?

And there’s an ad

Labor Union Endorsements for NC candidates
The NC AFL CIO issued its list of endorsed candidates by region, all of which are Democrats. The announcement featured their top two candidates: Roy Cooper and Associate Justice Anita Earls.

Earls, who is very proud of the endorsement, gave a speech at the NC AFL-CIO’s annual convention last month, as did Gov. Josh Stein and AFT union leader Randi Weingarten.

State House Democrat Rodney Pierce and congressional candidate Richard Ojeda were on a panel called “Pro-Union & Running for Office,” per this image posted by NC Triad CLC on Facebook. Ojeda posted a Reel on Facebook in April 2026 about how proud he is to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with unions.

National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) PAC endorsements
NFIB dropped a list of 81 candidates and legislators seeking reelection they are endorsing for the November election. All 81 are Republicans.

CONGRESS

NC-01 spending soars

Related: Outside spending nears $2 billion – and the biggest groups pull further ahead

A one page Internal NC-01 Poll

Hudson: We’re on offense
NRCC Chairman Congressman Richard Hudson (R-NC) issued a statement last week that “House Republicans are on offense.”

“We’re competing in districts Democrats swore were safe. We’ve recruited candidates who served in uniform, built businesses, and put criminals behind bars. And we’re running on results: lower taxes, a secure border, and an economy that works for working families,” said Hudson.

“Democrats voted against tax relief for your family, but they want your tax dollars paying for sex changes for illegal immigrants. They want men in girls’ sports and an open border. Voters won’t forget it,” Hudson said. “The choice is simple. Keep cutting taxes, securing the border, and protecting girls’ sports, or give an army of socialists power and go backward. Thirty days. We’re ready, and we’re going to win.”

Related Offense
The White House rolled out an interactive page dedicated to outlining what the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) platform would cost. The site says just the seven top DSA items would cost $49 trillion over the next decade, which works out to $355,000 per American household.

“Medicare for All” Sen. Bernie Sanders’ socialist healthcare plan, accounts for $47.4 trillion.

If the DSA’s plan was allowed to stay in place for a decade, mortgage rates would skyrocket to 12% or more, prices on goods and services would balloon 160%, and the national debt would further explode while GDP would implode.

The DSA’s agenda would require hiking taxes with the average American losing $22,000 in annual income as a result.

The White House’s site has a sliding scale to see how much of your pay the DSA’s policies would eat. As of 2026, the median annual income for U.S. full-time workers is approximately $65,052. Using the tool and rounding down to $65,000, that annual take-home pay would really be reduced to $46,540 after the taxes were taken out.

Congressional Quick Hits:

• House Dems reach big in N.C. Are the seats winnable?

U.S. SENATE

May the Fundraising be with you

Tone deaf or incredible chutzpah?

House Majority Leader Jones’ response came in hot.

A 30,000 foot view of Cooper’s NCORR

Related hits:

• Democrat Roy Cooper’s Recovery Office Failed Hurricane Victims, Misspent Hundreds of Millions in Federal Aid

• Cooper’s NCORR left hurricane victims waiting for years

Money shifts & Media Assumptions
A report by the Associated Press on the Senate Leadership fund moving ad reservation cash from NC to the Kansas race described the move like this:

“The decision by the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with top Senate Republicans, was disclosed Friday by four people with direct knowledge of the situation who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
The shifting resources signal a lack of confidence that Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman who was President Donald Trump’s choice to run for Senate in North Carolina, can beat Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper.”

Four “people” and none would go on the record? Come on.

Kansas is supposed to be a GOP safe bet, this move says more about that race than NC’s, which has been in toss-up/lean Democrat with polling all over the place for a year now.

The Senate Leadership Fund’s pivot to Kansas wasn’t alone. Chuck Schumer’s PAC withdrew $1.1 million in ad buys in North Carolina, per Politico.

Tillis at the 11th hour
Sen. Thom Tillis, who refused to run again after a fight with President Trump, has finally said he backs Whatley. Well, sort of. He told NewsNation, “Of course I don’t support Roy Cooper. I support Michael Whatley and every Republican up and down the ticket.”

Tills then said, “I think more people should look at how they can help Republicans get elected versus be perfectionists at the expense of getting Republicans elected.”

Say what? Tillis has been on a non-stop YOLO warpath against Trump, attacking nearly every nominee and cabinet member since he announced he wouldn’t seek reelection — which threw the NC Senate seat into contention in the first place.

Tillis defeated the late Kay Hagan, a Democrat, for the seat. That’s ironic given he might have handed it back to the Democrats. Read the rest of the article, which is short, and he essentially takes another jab at Trump.

U.S. Senate Quick Hits:

• Cooper campaigned in Asheville last Saturday and hit Winston-Salem on Thursday.

• Whatley was in Wilson holding a “Make More, Keep More” event on Thursday and on Friday he was in Shelby with Congressman Tim Moore.

POLLING

Real Clear Polling’s average has Cooper over Whatley by 9 points, up from last week’s 8.6 points. Now look at the most recent polls, which all have Cooper leading, but the point spreads are all over the place:

Not unexpectedly, Cook Political Report moved the NC Senate race from lean Democrat to Likely Democrat on Tuesday.

Question unasked: Are polls reflecting registrations?

Polling Quick Hits:

• Rasmussen Poll Gives Republicans Edge Among Hispanic Voters

WHAT I AM READING

• FBI Operation Summer Heat 2.0 arrests nearly 9,000, locates more than 1,400 children

• Latest SW Port ‘Terrorism-Related Encounters’ Are Off the Charts

• Feds target NYC schools over sexual misconduct claims
  They are looking at several other states as well, including North Carolina.
  I will be digging in on this.

• Democracy Restored Exposes the Left’s Lawfare Consortium in New Report
  Read the report here, which details a “lawfare consortium” of seven special groups that pulled in over $183 million in 2025. The “65 Project” was one of them, led by Hillary Clinton insider and Media Matters founder David Brock as well as Norm Eisen, an ethics official under the Obama administration.

• Don’t forget the Judicial seats on the ballot and the Constitutional Amendments.

In-person early voting in NC begins on Oct. 15. Check the NC State Board of Elections website for important registration deadlines.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Lawmakers gaveled in and out this week with no major activity.

Helene anniversary message from the House Speaker Hall:

Hitting Headen. Again.
The NC House Republican Campaign Committee dropped this ad hitting Rep. John Blust’s opponent, Guilford Democrat Shelly Headen, over her posts like Trump supporters belong in Nazi concentration camp ovens.

Related: NC House Candidate Now Just Wants To Protect Her Family

Bradley does image rehab
An article over at People Magazine attempts to give Bradley a glow up following her opponent Stacie McGinn’s ad on her called “Don’t trust Woodson Bradley.“ The article was promoted in a press release by the dark money pro-abortion group Emily’s List.

General Assembly quick hits:

• North and Zenger rematch for NC House seat could be another nailbiter

CONGRESS

Democrat Money Dump
The DCCC is spending $11M across 35 districts, including NC-11 between Democrat Jamie Ager and Republican Jennifer Balkcom. The DCCC is already playing the ‘denounce them’ game in NC-11.

Ager and “universal” healthcare
Over at North State Journal, I have an article of with video clips of Ager at a campaign stop saying that he thinks we need healthcare to be “universal,” similar to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan.

Balkcom and her badass mom ad

Additional note: On Oct. 1, Americans for Prosperity Action announced the group was backing Balkcom.

Ager’s “barn dances” ad

That ad reminds me of Howard Dean.

Davis ad is a new spin on voting present
A new ad by NC-01 Democratic Congressman Don Davis shows him on a football field saying there are “real concerns about fairness and safety” in sports and that’s why he believes “states should decide” how to protect girls and women in sports.

Davis gives North Carolina as an example of states making decisions. The ad displays a June 22, 2023, CNN headline about the North Carolina legislature passing a ban on transgender athletes in girls sports to underscore Davis’ point. Here’s the clip, presented by CNN reporter Patrick Svitek:

Svitek also noted in January 2025 the U.S. House passed a bill to ban males from women’s sports by a vote of 218 to 206 and Davis voted “present.”

After that vote, Davis said pretty much the same thing about it being best that states make the decisions and repeated that sentiment again after a July 2026 Supreme Court ruling keeping sports teams separated by sex. However, as a freshman in 2023, he voted with virtually the entire Democratic caucus against the earlier version of that same bill.

Also, in September 2025, Davis was one of ten Democrats to vote yes on Rep. Nancy Mace’s amendment to the NDAA for fiscal year 2026 which barred biological males from competing on women’s teams at the U.S. service academies.

Congressional quick hits:

• House Judiciary Subcommittee field hearing in Charlotte focuses on healthcare

U.S. SENATE

Make Stuff Cost Less? Or hide what costs more?
House Speaker Destin Hall called attention to a report on the eye-popping cost of a Medicaid system under Roy Cooper.

In his follow up post, he links to an article by WRAL describing a quashed audit that would have exposed the issue. Readers have to be patient, because it takes getting to the tail end (around paragraph 35) before Cooper gets mentioned.

Per the report, North Carolina has poured hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into a years-behind Medicaid computer-system overhaul. That overhaul was supposed to be done by mid-2024 but now isn’t expected until the end of 2029, while the state keeps paying more than $600 million just to run the old system and faces even higher bills after 2027.

All of this was known because it was in a state audit draft that flagged ballooning costs, missed deadlines, and “substantial risk” of failure. Yet that audit went unreleased under Cooper’s appointed auditor.

Medicaid expansion was Cooper’s signature priority and it’s a key part of his senate’s “make stuff cost less” campaign. Recently, I wrote for North State Journal on a recent congressional field hearing, noting Medicaid costs in North Carolina have nearly doubled in the past four years, going from $21.6 billion to a record $41.6 billion. Analysts pointed to the state’s 2023 expansion that has added over 730,000 to the state’s Medicare rolls.

The WRAL article quotes Wood saying she thinks “there’s a good chance” politics played a role in killing the audit, adding “Look at who appointed her.”

After Auditor Beth Wood resigned in 2023 following her hit-and-run indictment, Cooper appointed Jessica Holmes, who canceled the review.

Cooper has passed over the assistant state auditor to appoint Holmes, a former NC Association of Educators attorney and Wake County commissioner.

Holmes denied burying anything and Cooper’s campaign called the allegation “categorically false.” State Auditor Dave Boliek has relaunched the investigation.

But all of this might get worse.

A second report by WRAL described an unsealed whistleblower lawsuit alleging state employees “used false information to secure federal funding for a Medicaid technology overhaul” of the NC Tracks system that included false financials and violating state law by engaging in non-competitive bidding practices.

The whistleblowers in the suit also alleged the Centers for Medicaid Services (CMS) didn’t follow their own rules and knew something was wrong with North Carolina’s funding request.

The complaint named North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and CMS. It also named Melanie Bush, the current DHHS deputy secretary for Medicaid, as well as Cooper’s former DHHS secretaries Mandy Cohen and Kody Kinsley.

The quashed audit and whistleblower claim stories hits the same week Breitbart dropped a story titled, “Inside North Carolina Democrat Roy Cooper’s Culture of Corruption as Governor.”

That article mainly hits the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the nearly $59 million “mitigation” fund Cooper tried to get out of Duke Energy, but it also revives the fact the former State Bureau of Investigation chief accused Cooper and his staff of truing to intimidate him.

Here is a look at the pipeline scandal and a key player behind it:

• A look back at the Cooper administration’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline controversy

• Cooper brings back senior advisor

Hurricane Relief

Whatley’s camp has highlighted one of Cooper’s biggest failures aside from public safety: Hurricane relief.

Cooper’s campaign hasn’t backed away from the issue, and has engaged in some projection to flip the script by falsely claiming he was President Trump’s “recovery czar.”

Whatley wasn’t a “czar.” He was picked to be on Trump’s Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council, which was set up to assess FEMA after both the Biden and Cooper administrations slow-motion response to Hurricane Helene That 20-person council had its final meeting earlier this year in May.

Whatley was instrumental in getting the billions in funding flowing into North Carolina following the disaster, as both Sen. Ted Budd and Trump have both stated in recent weeks.

Whatley’s involvement is also the subject of a Washington Reporter article which quotes NC House Oversight Committee Co-Chair Jake Johnson, who knows first hand after half a dozen hearings just how bad Cooper’s disaster recovery agency was.

Johnson also took aim at the Cooper campaign, telling the Washington Reporter, “I think it is laughable if Roy Cooper even tries to make hurricane recovery an issue in this campaign after how badly he fumbled not only Helene, but eastern North Carolina.”

Johnson added, “He is trying to run from anything that reminds anyone of how bad he has handled natural disasters in this state.”

For those who missed it, More To The Story laid out details about Cooper’s failed hurricane efforts through his personally set up agency, NCORR. My weekly Monday chat with WBT’s Pete Kaliner touched on that article.

Other Senate Tidbits:
Cooper held a rally in Raleigh on Sept. 26 and another in Wilmington on Oct. 1.

Cooper launched a new ad on Sept. 30, attacking Whatley for being a big oil lobbyist. The ad dropped the same day Senate Democrats blocked the bill banning congressional insider trading as well as the Ratepayers Protection Act.

Whatley held a “Make more, keep more” event in Greensboro on the 29th.

Whatley also went on Cassie Clark’s podcast and he answered questions on the rising concern over Flock cameras.

Whatley was endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

U.S. Senate headlines:

• Democrat Roy Cooper’s Sanctuary Agenda Protected Illegal Aliens Over North Carolina Families

• Tillis says GOP purity tests put Senate majority in jeopardy

POLLING

Real Clear Polling’s average has Cooper over Whatley by 8.6 points.

Catawba has another YouGov poll out with Cooper up 48 to 37, but those figures include independent “lean” R or D voters. Meanwhile, Rasmussen and Quantus have Cooper up by 7 and 5 respectively.

Carolina Journal has an article out with data showing 60% of NC voters think Cooper would back Democratic Socialists of America policies. There are more data nuggets in the article, go read it.

Other polling quick hits:
Whatley was not happy with Carolina Journal’s latest results showing a big gap between he and Cooper

Sabato’s Crystal Ball changed its leaning for NC 3rd District Congressman Greg Murphy from “safe” to “likely” Republican but still has the NC-11 race as a “toss-up.” Sabato’s also has NC’s senate race as “likely” Democratic flip.

Ahead of the midterms, the polling clown car has expanded and will continue to do so.

As I have been saying for over a year, midterms will be about the economy:
Most Americans blame Trump for high prices as midterms approach, a new AP-NORC poll finds

WHAT I AM READING

• 9-28 election data dump: Will Democrats reemerge as North Carolina’s largest party?

• Chairmen Jordan, Steil, and Comer Demand Testimony about ActBlue’s Attempt to Cover Up Its Misconduct

• Budd Files Amicus Brief Defending the Rights of Homeschool Parents to Choose Religious-Based Curriculum

Share More to the Story by A.P. Dillon

Follow A.P. Dillon on X
Read her work at North State Journal

And the district is now splitting hairs on what is and isn’t a challengeable item.

Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) is applying the statewide law on book-challenges only to classroom materials, not to books sitting on library shelves.

well, North Carolina House Majority Leader Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) is having none of it, and says WCPSS is misinterpreting the law and undercutting what lawmakers intended.

Jones didn’t mince words in comments made to Carolina Journal.

“Wake County Public Schools’ interpretation of the law is not correct,” Jones told Carolina Journal. “The legislative intent was clearly to ensure that parents have a voice in what is allowed in their children’s school libraries. By eliminating a parent’s right to file challenges to inappropriate books, Wake County Schools are not only violating parents’ rights but also directly and intentionally removing those on the front lines who protect our children.”

“Democrat school boards will always look for loopholes to push their radical agendas and expose children to this filth,” he added. “While they do that, our caucus will continue fighting to protect children and the rights of parents. We look forward to re-expressing the legislative intent of this law, and Wake County Public Schools can expect an immediate legislative response when the General Assembly returns.”

Jones posted the same warning on X after a News & Observer story on the change.

Given his track record on the oversight committee of taking quick action, Jones is likely to bring WCPSS officials in sometime after the legislature reconvenes on Nov. 16.

The enacted Parents’ Bill of Rights law required every district to create a standing Community Media Advisory Committee, with the intent of facilitating written challenges to books and materials.

That committee must hold a hearing within two weeks, recommend keep-or-remove within two more weeks, and the school board must decide at its next meeting — and that board vote is final.

In WCPSS, current policy lets only parents of students in the district, teachers, and county residents file written challenges to material deemed obscene, age-inappropriate, or out of line with the state curriculum.

On Sept. 15, the Wake board adopted an updated Policy 3210, which it claims matches the statute by a vote of 6-1.

The policy lets any qualifying resident challenge instructional or supplementary materials used in teaching. It also lets a parent block their own child from checking out specific library titles through the online catalog.

What it does not allow is a community-wide challenge to pull a book from the library simply because it is available for independent reading. A library title can be reviewed for removal only if a teacher assigns it in class.

The district’s attorney Neal Ramee summarized the distinction this way: each parent controls what their own child may borrow; no parent or resident has a right to challenge books “just sitting on the shelf.”

Wake’s board members point to statutory definitions that treat “library books” as resources for independent use outside the standard course of study, and they note the law’s explicit exception for library books on the “not aligned with curriculum.”

Some Wake board members who voted for the policy still criticized the underlying law as time-consuming and an intrusion on educators. The lone no vote wanted the policy to cover library collections more broadly and to give parents simpler ways to restrict titles.

The dispute with WCPSS over books isn’t the only one over parental-rights statutes trying to split hairs between library books versus classroom materials.

Multiple legislative oversight hearings (here and here) took place this year involving Chapel Hill Carrboro City schools trying to do end-runs around the Parents’ Bill of Rights law.

It’s also worth noting that the district quietly shut down its costly and DEI-infused Office of Equity Affairs, yet a new office appears to have sprung up in its place — a department of “Climate and Culture.”

Related Reading

NCORR (North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency) is the Cooper-era office created in 2018 to administer HUD Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds for Hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Florence (2018).

My reporting on NCORR at North State Journal spans nearly three full years, from mid-2022 through late 2025, documenting what has been a long-running failure of homeowner recovery and years of under-delivering homes.

NCORR failed on multiple levels and faced repeated legislative scrutiny for it slow construction rates, a multi-year application gauntlet, data and budget breakdowns, and hundreds of millions in extra state money to finish work that federal grants were supposed to cover.

Then came the leadership turnover after it burned through its budget, causing legislature to both bail out and constrain the agency.

The human cost was families still waiting a decade after Matthew. The institutional cost was a loss of trust, shaping how the state has approached Hurricane Helene recovery.

NCORR Mission vs. Results
NCORR was sold as a way to “streamline” recovery. Rebuild NC, launched October 2018, was the homeowner vehicle.

Early Cooper statements claimed, “tremendous progress.” Legislative hearings and later audits showed the opposite: by September 2022, four years after Florence and six after Matthew, the office had taken about 4,100 applications and completed only 789 projects.

Construction had fallen to five or six homes a month. Hundreds of families remained in hotels or rentals. Federal spend-or-encumber deadlines (2025 for Matthew, 2026 for Florence) were already in doubt.

Victims who testified described years of delay, being “passed from one person to another,” and dying or remaining displaced while files sat.

Subcommittee members, including Sens. Brent Jackson and Danny Britt and Rep. Brenden Jones, called the record unacceptable and rejected pandemic explanations as insufficient.

Contractor/project-management firm HORNE told lawmakers it had repeatedly recommended best practices that NCORR rarely adopted and that case managers were constrained in talking to applicants and construction partners. South Carolina’s faster, vendor-driven model of tens of days to complete homes and 110 homes a month was held up as a contrast.

NCORR Process, systems, and money
By the time of a 2025 performance review by the State Auditor’s office, NCORR had handled more than $1 billion combined; $709 million federal CDBG plus $297 million in later state appropriations. But outcomes lagged far behind that spending scale.

The 2025 State Auditor report, which became the focus of a legislative hearing, found the homeowner program used an eight-step process that averaged 936 days—more than 2½ years. It also found construction often did not start until about four years after eligibility.

The audit report covered NCORR’s stewardship of $1 billion in combined federal and state funding; $709 million from the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and $297 million from state appropriations.

The audit also found temporary relocation assistance exceeded $74 million, with some households in temporary lodging more than 1,400 days at costs above $230,000 for a single family.

In the same vein, implementation of using Salesforce as a platform cost more than $25.4 million. Yet, of the 11,654 applications, thousands were withdrawn or ineligible. Auditors found more than 1,400 duplicate projects in the data.

NCORR admitted it didn’t know the full cost of the pipeline until the application window closed in April 2024. Commitments then exceeded available funds, producing a shortfall that grew from a $175 million surprise in Cooper’s Helene package to $216–$230 million and was closed with roughly $297 million in state appropriations.

State Auditor Dace Boliek quoted former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate’s review team as calling it the “worst government program they’ve ever seen” and referenced examples of mismanaged, lingering contracts of “bureaucracy at its worst.”

Earlier federal and state reviews pointed the same direction.

A 2022 HUD OIG audit said North Carolina could not give reasonable assurance that $2.5 million in Matthew CDBG-DR had been properly spent and that NCORR did not fully understand procurement rules.

The 2025 Single Statewide Audit report found the Department of Public Safety (DPS) underreported disbursements related to Matthew and Florence by tens of millions. Boliek’s office on Florence appropriations found weak monitoring and weak measurement of results on large disbursements. DPS disputed some of those findings despite the pattern of delayed outcomes and thin oversight was consistent across reports examining NCORR’s activities.

Discrimination complaint
NCORR was also hit with a discrimination claim that was settled in 2024. The charge was that a strict proof-of-ownership/heirs requirement disproportionately screened out Black applicants. Around 74 previously rejected applicants were allowed to appeal for reentry and NCORR agreed to a new ownership policy, notice, appeals, and staff training.

Oversight and NCORR leadership
Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations hurricane subcommittees, and later Helene-specific committees, held multiple hearings starting in 2022.

Director Laura Hogshead, a former HUD official who was hand-picked by Cooper, was installed in January 2019. While she took public responsibility in 2022 for the lagging pace and spending issues, she was still defending slow production two years later, in 2024.

After a November 2024 hearing in which lawmakers were outraged at the discovery NCORR’s budget gap had ballooned, DPS announced she was no longer with the agency. The statement by DPS was vague and the agency didn’t clarify if Hogshead had been fired or if she resigned.

Pryor Gibson, a Cooper senior legislative adviser, was named to replace Hogsheads. Gibson.

Gibson had previously been tapped by Cooper to fix the slow payments at the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Employment Security (DES) during the pandemic, when applications surpassed 1 million. Apparently, the DES issues were not fixed, as evidenced by a pair of state audits in 2026 that found overpayments of $168.8 million, with $47.2 million of which were classified as fraud, and unemployment benefit payments still not being made in a timely manner.

Like Hogshead, Gibson faced grilling during long hearings held in early 2025 on the number of homes still unfinished — 1,150–1,179 still unfinished with hundreds not yet in construction. Gibson claimed the sluggish pace was due to contractor reluctance over payment uncertainty.

The General Assembly responded with extra money and tighter strings attached, including monthly/bimonthly reporting, state auditor involvement, and limits on gubernatorial reallocations.

But lawmakers didn’t stop there, with Jones filing the C.O.O.P.E.R Accountability Act, a package of $217 million to finish repairs for Matthew and Florence damage that came with stringent oversight measures, including taking away future CDBG-DR administration from NCORR. The bill stalled out in the House and never made it to the Senate.

Hundreds of millions more went out in legislative Helene packages in 2024–25, some of it to finish the old Matthew/Florence backlog so the state wouldn’t still be building houses for 2016-18 victims while western North Carolina recovered from Helene’s 2024 impacts.

Cooper, who was in NY City at a climate change conference event when Helene hit the state, vetoed one of those bills. The legislature overrode it. Additionally, Cooper failed to appoint a FEMA liaison to be a point person for Helene management prior to leaving office.

Over 100 people died in North Carolina due to Helene. Estimated costs from the storm topped over $59 billion.

Billions in recovery funds, both state and federal, have been received by the state so far. GROW NC’s figures as of June put the combined state and federal support at about $14.4 billion ($9.7 billion federal, $2.4 billion legislative). For those who want to see the spending broken down, the state auditor’s office also maintains a public-facing dashboard to track the recovery funds and spending.

Helene and a new administration
By the time Helene hit the state, NCORR was considered a cautionary tale and when Josh Stein over as governor, one of his first official acts was to discard NCORR and establish his own recovery agency: GROW NC.

During various hearings in 2025, officials told legislative oversight committees they were absorbing “lessons learned” from NCORR, such as the need for more transparency, clearer expectations that CDBG-DR funds are last-resort money, and an effort not to repeat eight-year homeowner delays.

Jones, and other lawmakers, underscored to GROW NC officials that the state can’t afford another failed disaster recovery program.

By a back-to-back hearings in early 2025 , Gibson reported a much higher completion rate. He cited 92% of projects done as of end of October, with a target of the October 2026 deadline and said Stein’s new recovery office had been briefed on eastern North Carolina’s mistakes.

Sen. Jackson acknowledged NCORR’s improved throughput changes after years of failure, but not a clean bill of health for NCORR’s original design.

Stein’s GROW NC didn’t escape legislative questioning.

“Our goal is simple: We want GROW North Carolina to start off on the right track,” said Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus), who chaired a hearing in early March 2025.

“North Carolina cannot afford another failed disaster recovery program,” Jones said. “The failures we saw with NCORR and eastern North Carolina cannot be repeated. I sincerely hope those leading this effort have learned from those mistakes.”

Deputy Secretary for the Department of Commerce Division of Community Revitalization Stephanie McGarrah recapped the “lessons learned” from NCORR’s failures while outlining GROW NC’s action plans for federal CDBG-DR funds for disaster recovery.

While GROW NC officials said they were on track, Rep. Mark Pless expressed doubt they had the funds needed to complete the work.

“You’re going to come back to us in a few years and say we would love to finish these, but we can’t because we don’t have enough money,” said Pless. “You’re building stuff that wasn’t there to begin with. What can you say about that?”

McGarrah replied, addressing the money for multifamily construction, stating, “I think the intent for the $191 million representative plus was to repair and rebuild rental housing that was destroyed during Helene. That’s the priority.”

It’s worth noting that Horne LLP, which won an $81 million project management contract to handle Helene, is the same vendor that worked with NCORR.

One of the officials Stein tapped to head up GROW NC is Jonathan Krebs. He’s a former Horne managing partner.

Those facts drew conflict of interest and “pay-to-play” accusations during a contentious May 2025 oversight hearing.

Night and Day? Or just overcast?
GROW NC officials have claimed their model has produced the fastest HUD CDBG-DR housing start of any major hurricane state in over ten years. But it started out with nothing built six months after the storm hit.

Two years after Helene, Stein’s new agency has been faster in some areas, but official Renew NC housing completions are a trickle with volunteer and FEMA channels doing much of the visible housing work.

The GROW NC Q4 FY 2026 quarterly report, that includes data through June 30, 2026, with a Renew NC housing update through Aug. 7, 2026, gives a completed-home count for the state’s main HUD program.

Renew NC Single-Family Housing (CDBG-DR) through Aug. 7, 2026, breaks down as follows:

• Applications submitted: 7,924

• Determined eligible: 2,455 (Note: the report has no break out how many of those eligible homes are in construction versus pre-construction.)

• Ineligible or inactive: 5,469

• Homes completed: 113

The remainder of eligible applications still appear to be under additional review, based on the report.

Other housing-related counts in the same report that are separate programs:

• Weatherization readiness: 271 homes repaired or weatherized; 269 more in progress.

• Baptists on Mission: 472 homes repaired (as of June 30, 2026).

• Habitat for Humanity: 117 projects completed; 142 families served. The plan was permanent repairs for 160 homes, 6 new homes and temp housing for 12 households.

• Multi-family small rentals (1–4 units):101 active cases in July 2026 but no completed/in-build/pre-construction breakdown.

• Private roads/bridges: 123 sites complete, 143 in progress, with 753 households served by the completed sites.

So far, GROW NC doesn’t appear to be NCORR rebranded, mainly due to a better coordination layer plus a commerce housing program that was stood up almost immediately under Stein.

The 10-year economic plan recently issued by Stein widens the recovery mission to jobs, tourism, health, and agriculture. He also recently announced another $65 million in funds for capital projects related to Helene recovery.

Three things to watch the same three failure buckets as NCORR are the CDBG process time versus campaign promises, vendor/conflict management issues, and pledging economic transformation before the housing queue is funded.

Vendor issues may be repeating. In a report by Annie Dance on Substack, there is evidence that at in at least one county that the state’s emergency management agency hasn’t moved on securing vendors despite FEMA greenlighting projects.

NCORR’s recovery scars heading into six years after Matthew and Florence were significant. GROW NC has adopted some of the scar language and the state may not know for another four years if the scars are healed.

THE BIG STORY

JD Vance in Greensboro
JD Vance was in Greensboro this week stumping for Michael Whatley in the NC U.S. Senate race.

Vance attacked Roy Cooper’s record with an overall theme of the midterms being about choosing between “crazy” Democrats and “commonsense” Republicans. Vance’s visit came less than a week after President Trump campaigned for Whatley in Gastonia.

Read my report on the rally over at North State Journal.
Watch Vance’s remarks on YouTube. Roll Call has a transcript of his full remarks.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Lawmakers gavel in for their next skeleton session next Monday, 9/28.

House Speaker Destin Hall’s (R-Caldwell) midterms warning

Anti-Police Candidate?
Images of Ian Baltutis, the Democrat running in House District 63, have surfaced showing him involved in an anti-police protest that resulted nearly two dozen of arrests on charges that included felony assault on law enforcement. The Blue Ridge Times has more details and the images.

More Headen Hits
The Shelly Headen hits keep coming and coming. And it’s spreading. Headen is the Democratic candidate who posted about Trump supporters belonging in concentration camp crematoriums. A photo of her posing with a group of Democrats, with Attorney General Jeff Jackson front and center, also entered the chat.

“Don’t Trust Woodson Bradley” ad
Republican candidate Stacie McGinn, who is running or Senate District 42, released a new ad hitting her opponent Woodson Bradley for “rewriting” the history of her involvement in a pyramid scheme. The company at the heart of the issue is Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing, which defrauded 20,000 North Carolinians and over 350,000 consumers in total, out of their savings.
Here’s the ad:

Read more about Bradley’s involvement in this scam at Long Leaf Politics.

General Assembly Quick Hit:

• Democratic state House candidate says she used Flock data to catch cheating spouses. How?

CONGRESS

Democratic PAC ad attacks Balkcom on Duke donations, data center
Here’s the ad being run across NC-11 by the “Save Democracy PAC” against Republican Jennifer Balkcom. The ad has a “$370,000” buy-in.

The ad links Balkcom’s campaign cash from Duke Energy’s PAC to data centers and Duke Energy raising its rates, with a goal of creating the image Balkcom doesn’t care about ratepayers.

Duke Energy Corp. PAC donations to Balkcom total $5,000 overall since 2022. That includes $2,000 this year, plus $2,000 (2024), $1,000 (2023) and $500 (2022).

Well, this ad could easily be run against a number of statehouse lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have gotten Duke Energy donations. The top all time recipient at the moment is Sen. Dan Blue (D-Wake) with $70,900.

It’s important to pay attention to who wants you to care, like David Brock’s American Bridge, which last month promoted the very idea the ad covers, and citing a report by one of Courier Newsroom’s hyper-partisan outlets, Cardinal & Pine. Interestingly, some of the points and data sets for both sources show up in a News & Observer “fact check“ about the ad.

This isn’t the only race to use data centers as a political stick. This week, the Cooper campaign pivoted to a data centers line of attack.

Susan B. Anthony endorsements
The Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Candidate Fund announced endorsements of Balkcom for NC-11 and U.S. Senator Ted Budd this past Tuesday. The statement by its president praised Balkcom while blasting Roy Cooper and her opponent, Democrat Jamie Ager.
Read the press release.

Davis gets federal union endorsement
The American Federation of Government Employees announced its endorsement of Democratic Rep. Don Davis on Thursday. The group is the largest federal employees union association with 820,000 members.

Other Congressional Quick Hits:

• NC-11’s Democrat Jamie Ager did a State Lines interview from a shed of some kind.

• Steak -n-Shake Endorsement for Buckhout in NC-01.

• Don Davis’ Forward Party Allies Showed Up at Greensboro Pride. Here’s What Was on Display.

• RNC chair predicts GOP keeps House, 53 Senate seats

U.S. SENATE

Cooper’s Helene response (or lack thereof)
As the anniversary of Hurricane Helene approaches, an article over at Breitbart renews where Roy Cooper was when the storm hit North Carolina: a NYT Climate Conference. The article also notes Cooper failed to appoint a FEMA liaison as he headed for the door in 2024 and that when Josh Stein took over in 2025, he discarded Cooper’s failed disaster agency (NCORR) and created a new one.

Sex offender freeze tag, revisited
Breitbart also has a story up about Roy Cooper and his attendance at the Charlotte LGBT Chamber’s annual gala, hosted by registered sex offender Chad Turner. The article cites my past reporting on Turner, including More To The Story’s article on Turner from earlier this year:

Turner, who was prominently featured in state media, was a youth minister and music director in South Carolina when he was arrested on three counts of lewd acts with a minor under the age of 16 involving three separate young boys, according to North Carolina-based reporter AP Dillon. One of the charges involved fondling a 14-year-old boy while he slept.

Turner was involved in getting the Charlotte ordinance passed, which turned all private spaces (bathrooms, locker rooms) both public and private alike into unisex access. That ordinance was the basis for House Bill 2, which Cooper used to get elected the first time he ran for governor.

The Daily Wire also picked up the story, with mention of my past reporting on the matter here at More To The Story.

Whatley & McNabb “Protect our Kids”
Michael Whatley and Payton McNabb held a “Protect our Kids” press conference on Friday in Pittsboro. They led a discussion on Roy Cooper’s failure to protect North Carolina kids by vetoing bills to stop gender mutilating surgeries for minors and keeping males out of girls sports.

Ad Spending Headline Hype
Don’t believe the headline hype that Republican PACs are “slashing“ ad spending in the senate race. Shifting money from one medium to another? Yes. Slashing altogether? No.

Relatedly, Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday, “Republicans are leading in ad spending in eight of the top nine most competitive Senate races. These range from $6 million in New Hampshire to a mind-blowing $70.2 million in Ohio.”

Punchbowl goes on to write, “Overall, it’s a $244 million net advantage for Republicans in those eight races. A staggering amount. It may prove enough — combined with some internal Democratic problems — to save their endangered majority.”

The eight races includes North Carolina, with Punchbowl noting the GOP “has booked $75.4 million in ads compared to Democrats’ $66.8 million.”

The report goes on to say “Republicans are spending nearly $9 million more but Democrats are actually ahead in gross rating points, a measure of how often an ad is seen,” and that Cooper is “running circles” around Whatley in candidate fundraising, which is true, claiming “that’s negating some of the GOP spending advantage there.

In the same vein, Politico published a story yesterday titled, “NRSC Chair Tim Scott leaves Georgia, North Carolina off his list of top Senate targets.” The report was based on a “closed door” meeting with the implication of Whatley being cut out of support.

Well, Sen. Scott himself called the story “Hogwash!” and “Fake news.”

NRSC Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez called Politico’s story “fabricated.”

U.S. Senate Quick Hits:

• SBA Pro-Life America says messages about Roy Cooper’s abortion record shifted voters toward Republican Michael Whatley

• News from the OTHER NC Senator: Budd Delivers Floor Speech Urging Trump Admin to Hold China Accountable for Targeting the Safety & Security of Americans

POLLS

Real Clear Polling’s average has Cooper over Whatley by 8.2 points.

As the midterms are getting much closer, polls will become nonstop and there will be too many to cover. As such, the Old North State Update will be cuttin this section (way) back.

Having said that, let’s preface this week’s activity by noting Gallup’s poll this week: Socialism’s Positive Rating Tops 40% for First Time

Politico “Electability” Poll:
A new POLITICO poll tested “electability” by showing voters hypothetical head-to-head matchups. Each candidate was given a few details: age, race, gender, job, faith, and a one-line political label like progressive Democrat, MAGA Republican, etc. The poll was really two surveys, conducted in May and August 2026 with roughly 2,000 adults each, with a margin of error of about ±2.2 points.

Overall, Ideology mattered far more than anything else. After that, a few smaller patterns showed up:

• Voters didn’t penalize candidates for being women or people of color.

• No overall difference by race or gender once other factors were held constant.

• Age was a clearer issue; candidates over 70 were almost 10% less likely to be chosen than those under 50. Democrats, despite defending Joe Biden, were a bit more likely than Republicans to dock an older candidate.

• Religion showed a partisan split

• Sexual orientation & Gender Identity: Candidates labeled “gay” were picked about 10% less often. But when the description simply said a man was married to his husband and without using the word “gay,” there was no statistically significant drop.

• Transgender candidates were a different story: Democrats were about 5 percent less likely to choose them, Republicans about 17 percent less likely.

Poll: What are Democrats thinking?
This poll by “Liberal Currents” and the “Center for Strategic Politics” only helps Republicans in the “crazy” versus “commonsense” midterms debate.

It puts Kamala Harris on top as the most popular candidate to run in 2028, with overwhelming numbers of Democrats wanting to expand the supreme court, flood the country with more immigrants and end the filibuster.

In short, the poll found voters are more open on race and gender than many consultants assume, more skeptical of very old candidates, more favorable toward Christian candidates on the Republican side, and more hesitant about transgender candidates than about gay candidates described without the label.

Democrats also want to prosecute Trump and his officials on a range of topics, but overwhelmingly for ICE for doing their jobs. Additionally, 59% consider themselves very or somewhat Woke.

Scroll down, there’s a section detailing the means by which Democrats would seek to get rid of President Trump — including assassination. The section in the online report is titled, “How happy will Democratic voters be if Trump was no longer president? Would they support a coup?” But here’s the graphic the Center for Strategic Politics put out on social media when promoting this poll:

Here are the crosstabs for the Liberal Currents/Center for Strategic Politics Poll. There are no real methodology details beyond the sample size of “683 Democratic voters.”

Liberal Currents is run by Adam Gurri, which “publishes writers of diverse perspectives who share an unflinching commitment to freedom, pluralism, and democracy, in opposition to authoritarianism at home and around the world.”

Liberal Currents’ mission is “to create a home for mere liberalism, where the many conflicting currents of the liberal tradition can enter into productive conversation.” Go read the site’s “Reconstruction Papers“ page and it’s clear this group is not even remotely liberal, in the true definition of the word.

The Center for Strategic Politics is a six-person outfit run by Jordan Buchman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, among other far left organizations.

Concern Poll Trolling
The Washington Post has upped its concern trolling as the race tightens.

Catawba Poll: MAGA support high, DSA meh
Here’s the opening from Catawba College’s latest polling press release:

“A national survey by Catawba College and YouGov of U.S. adults finds that Make America Great Again (MAGA) is viewed as a more consolidated and influential force within the Republican Party than the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is within the Democratic Party. The findings also show that pure independents are more negative toward MAGA than toward DSA, while expressing limited trust in both major political parties.”

Well, I’d say they buried the bombshell lede — two-thirds of Democrats in the poll support the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA):

“Among self-identified Democrats, 61% strongly or somewhat support DSA, with 27% of them expressing strong support for DSA. Almost a third of Democrats (31%) neither support nor oppose DSA, while 8% somewhat or strongly oppose DSA.

The bottom of the press release has the crosstab and methodology links.
The sample size was 1,200 with a weight-adjusted margin of error of +/- 3.6%. However, with regard to the sample size, it started out much larger, per the poll’s methodology:

“Ultimately, out of the 1846 respondents who started the survey, 174 did not complete the survey, 8 were screened out for eligibility purposes and 0 were terminated for failing to pass an initial attention check. Of the remaining 1664 complete cases, 311 were removed for data quality reasons. An additional 153 cases were removed in our matching process, resulting in a final sample size of 1200.”

Yeah, well, remember this is a YouGov administered poll; salt shakers required.

Garbage Poll
Another YouGov poll is out for the NC senate race. This one has Cooper up 54 to 41 over Whatley. This one says they selected a “stratified” sample, which they directed to their web platform.

Another weird item, this one has a huge sample of 3,895 whereas typical polling samples usually are 600 to 1,000. Also, at the very bottom of the poll data, it says “four” questions were unreported in the results. What questions? Why??

Check out the response percentages for question 13, “Who did you vote for in the 2024 U.S. Presidential election?” Then go to the next page and compare that to the “ideology” responses. Mmmkay...

One final poll
Highpoint University’s latest poll has Cooper up over Whatley 50 to 42 with a sample size of 1,003 adult North Carolinians, 813 said they are registered voters and 706 likely to vote. It’s worth noting Highpoint’s polls in 2024 were like many others with Kamala Harris leading, albeit only by 1 point close to election day. The same was true in 2016 polls, with Hillary Clinton leading Trump.

WHAT I AM READING

• Feds arrest, indict hundreds in Trump voter fraud crackdown: ‘Catching it all over the country’

• How Jack Smith and the Biden-Harris Department of Justice Disregarded the Separation of Powers to Spy on their Political Opposition: Report
  

Share More to the Story by A.P. Dillon

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The same committee earlier this summer voted to hold Fauci in contempt after he invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times at a July hearing.

The measure failed 8-7. Every Republican voted yes. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) was the only Democrat in the room and voted no; the other six Democrats recorded no votes by proxy, meaning they were not even present for the meeting.

Committee rules and federal statute require a two-thirds majority before Senate lawyers can seek a court order that would bar prosecutors from using her testimony, or leads from it, against her. Ten votes were needed to achieve the two-thirds majority.

Hassan, who opposed the request, said it was premature. She called compelling testimony after a Fifth Amendment claim “an extraordinarily serious authority” and said the committee should first try a slower, bipartisan path.

“I’m not saying that we might never do this, but I do think it is rushed today,” Hassan said.

For those watching, let me be clear what just happened here,” Paul said following the vote. “A majority of the committee voted to seek the truth. All Republicans voted to seek the truth. We voted to protect this witness and hear her story.”

Paul continued, “All we needed was two Democrats who wanted to hear her story, but not a single one of them is interested in the investigation or the truth about destruction of federal records.”

“This is disappointing,” Paul added. “It doesn’t end here. I will personally be sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to pursue this.”

Watch Paul’s reaction, plus the fiery exchange after about Democrat members who didn’t bother to turn up for the meeting:

Ahead of the vote, Paul told colleagues Fauci’s assistant was copied on a Jan. 31, 2020 message from Fauci to Jeremy Farrar about scientists’ concerns over the virus’s spike protein and possible notice to the FBI and MI5. He said records reviewed by the committee raised questions about deleted emails and gain-of-function work that hadn’t been publicly described.

In an interview with Just The News, Paul said logs showed Fauci’s assistant bragged to him about destroying emails.

“By looking at Anthony Fauci’s logs that he was keeping on a government computer, we discovered that his assistant was bragging to him in one of the emails. ‘Hey, Dr. Fauci, I was able to destroy tons of your emails this weekend.’ Well, that’s illegal,” Paul told Just The News.

Dr. David Morens, who served as a senior adviser to Fauci at NIAID, recently pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge related to concealing COVID-19 documents — specifically using a personal Gmail account to hide communications from FOIA requests.

Related Hearing Materials:
Sen. Paul’s opening statement
Senate Homeland Security Business Meeting Video (9/23/26)

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Read her work at North State Journal

Prosecutors had asked for probation for Brown, which the judge rejected.

Brown, a Democrat, and her two daughters were indicted in May 2025 on charges of making 15 false applications for COVID-19 relief funds totaling $124,000.

According to the court filings, $15,000 was spent on a birthday party for the councilwoman after she received $23,833 in PPP loan money the month prior.
Brown also spent around $2,300 for professional photography/videography of the party, $3,500 renting the venue, and roughly $5,000 in catering charges, per court filings.

Photos from the party included Brown sitting on throne wearing an evening gown:

Brown’s two daughters have already been sentenced to probation and house arrest for four months. Tijema Brown, one of the daughters, took a plea deal this past spring.

The three have also been ordered to pay restitution totaling $137,280.

The former councilwoman attempted to retain her seat amid the scandal, but lost her bid to do so in the March 2025 primary. Joi Mayor prevailed, beating Brown by a steep margin; 50% to 25%. Brown won in 2023 over Republican James Bowers with 78% of the vote.

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Related Articles:

The report says ActBlue told Congress it screened foreign donations carefully, including with passport checks. Investigators say the company’s own files show those checks were thin, and that supervisors told staff to give suspicious donors “the benefit of the doubt.”

The committees also say ActBlue did not turn over some key papers until after the New York Times reported on internal warnings, including a lawyer’s memo that the CEO may have misled Congress and that taking illegal foreign donations looked “knowing and willful.”

ActBlue says the probe is political and that nearly all of its money comes from Americans. The committees say they will keep pressing for documents and possible new election-integrity rules.

Top 3 items in the report:

The “passport check” was mostly a character count.
If a donor listed a non-U.S. address, ActBlue popped up a passport-number field. Internal policy said the system only checked that the entry had the right number of characters and didn’t confirm a real U.S. passport or check any government database. The report calls that check “toothless.”

Staff were told to accept donations that already looked foreign or fake.
Review logs from 2022–2024 show supervisors repeating a rule: give the donor the benefit of the doubt. Examples in the report include a donor with an IP/billing mismatch, a foreign card, a strange email, and links to other rejected users — still accepted because staff “can’t say for sure that this is fraud.” Another case: a pattern of small prepaid-card gifts to the Harris campaign that an employee said was “good to accept.”

Lawyers inside and outside the company flagged possible knowing violations and false statements to Congress.
The report leans on NY Times reporting and later document production that former Biden White House counsel Dana Remus wrote memos saying CEO Regina Wallace-Jones may have misled Congress about foreign-donation reviews, and that accepting illegal foreign contributions appeared “knowing and willful.” It also recaps the earlier finding that ActBlue’s legal and compliance team collapsed after 2024, with alleged whistleblower retaliation.

ACT Blue has disputed the findings.

More To The Story

The report follows several ACT Blue officials invoking the Fifth Amendment during a recent House probe.

CEO Regina Wallace-Jones invoked the Fifth repeatedly at a House Administration Committee hearing on June 10, 2026.

The New York Times counted 22 invocations, including on questions about foreign-donation screening, whether a 2023 letter to Congress was misleading, and even how she preferred her name styled.

She said in advance that taking the Fifth was not an admission of guilt, but a response to what she called a partisan proceeding.

Closed-door depositions also had official invoking the 5th.

In the committees’ April 2026 “Part II” staff report, five current or former ActBlue employees invoked the Fifth on every substantive question — 146 times total.

Those named included former general counsel Darrin Hurwitz, former associate general counsel Aaron Ting, former counsel Zain Ahmad, former VP of customer service Alyssa Twomey, and an unnamed senior fraud-prevention staffer.

At a later deposition on Aug. 20, co-founder Matt DeBergalis invoked the Fifth, with that session lasting under 30 minutes.

The three committees jointly released the transcripts of the ACT Blue officials on Sept. 17.

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Related Articles:

THE BIG STORY

Trump rally in Gastonia for Whatley in U.S. Senate race
Supporters were packed to the rafters at the Gastonia Municipal Airport where Trump held his Sept. 16 rally for Michael Whatley, the Republican candidate up against former Gov. Roy Cooper for the state’s U.S. Senate seat.

Organizers told me there were around 5,000 people there.

Trump slammed Cooper for the better part of his one hour speech on everything from his COVID prisoner list and crime, to his failed hurricane responses. He even called Cooper a “murderer protector.”

The president brought Whatley up on stage, as well as NC-01 candidate Laurie Buckhout and NC-11 candidate Jennifer Balkcom.

Read my write up of the rally at the North State Journal.

This year’s NC ALF-CIO convention kicked off the same day as Trump’s rally, and it had big name NC speakers.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The legislature will reconvene 9/28 at 12:00 noon through 9/30.
The remaining reconvening dates include: 10/26 - 10/28, 11/16 - 11/19, and 11/30 - 12/18. Tentative adjournment sine die: 12/18.

Senate Leader Berger’s new committee
While he is headed out the door at the end of this year, Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) is still working by establishing a new property tax committee.

Berger announced a new Senate Select Committee on Property Tax Reform on Thursday. According to the press release, the committee “will evaluate proposals to address growing concerns about skyrocketing property tax bills and opaque decision-making by local elected officials.”

“The General Assembly passed several measures to address concerns about rising property taxes during the short session, but there is more to do for long-term relief,” Sen. Berger said. “This committee will provide valuable insight and feedback as we rein in local policies that drive up property tax rates and consider proposals to ease the tax burden for all North Carolinians.”

Last week got worse for Democrat Shelly Headen

Read the full article at Breitbart.

Roy Cooper and NC Democrats have tried to distance themselves from Headen, but House Speaker Destin Hall isn’t letting it go. Images from the article of Headen posing with top Democrats, including Roy Cooper, are circulating online.

Another post on X shows the same image, but also includes two other images, one of Headen posing with Anita Earls, the NC Associate Supreme Court Justice, who is running for reelection this year, and the other with Anderson Clayton, the chair of the NC Democratic Party.

Durham House Democrat compares legislative committee to “McCarthyism”
During a Duke University Democrat “fireside chat,” Rep. Marcia Morey (D-Durham) compared a legislative committee tasked with oversight function to “McCarthyism.”

“We have a committee over in the state House called Government Ops, and it’s like McCarthyism,” Morey said, per a Duke Chronicle report.

Morey made that remark about her concern for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, with a reference to a hearing held where Chapel Hill Carborro Schools officials were called before the Gov Ops Committee.

Morey (and the article) largely leaves out that the district was being examined for actively trying to evade parts of the Parents’ Bill of Rights law.

Also unmentioned is the district’s officials were called back a second time, after books with sexually graphic depictions and gender ideology were found in district libraries, including elementary schools.

Related reading:

• Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools officials grilled for noncompliance with Parents’ Bill of Rights

• House Committee calls school superintendent back for hearing

CONGRESS

Field hearing in Charlotte
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust held a field hearing in Charlotte on Monday.
The topic was “Examining Healthcare Markets: Fraud and Competition,” and the hearing lasted an hour and a half.

Certificate of Need laws took a beating during the hearing. Hopefully legislators were watching.

One witness dropped an eye popping figure that an estimated 14.3 million people were improperly enrolled in Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges or Medicaid expansion in 2024. That total is about one-third of total enrollment in those expansions, with federal costs of approximately $65 billion that year.

I’ll have a recap over at North State Journal next week.

Cook Political Report’s 2026 updated partisan ratings map
Key NC Congressional races on the map include NC-01 and NC11. Despite Cook calling NC-01 a toss-up, their map has the district rated R+5, up from R+1 in 2025. In NC-11, the rating remains unchanged at R+5.

Congressional quick hits:

• Chuck Edwards filed a complaint regarding his censure

• Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread (Gallup poll)

U.S. SENATE

Sex offender freeze tag, part II
Sex offender freeze tag is back, folks. Per the Associated press, a “Convicted sex offender offered opening prayer at rally for GOP Senate nominee in North Carolina.”

Republican candidate Michael Whatley was there, thus the headline.

The offender in question is Pastor Daimon King, who is marked as a recidivist in the state’s sex offender registry. He was first convicted in 1996 for indecent liberties with a 15-year-old student when he was 29. King served nearly five years in prison for those charges. He reoffended in 2010 for “incest with near relatives.” Both incidents were logged as occurring in Wake County.

King heads up New Beginnings Celebration church, located in New Bern.

Whatley’s campaign spokesperson said the event “was NOT planned nor organized by the Whatley campaign nor did the campaign invite any of the guests.”

The campaign tells me Whatley didn’t know King. The hosts, the Craven County GOP, have not responded to requests for comment.

The event appears to have taken place on Aug. 30, based on a social media clip posted by Whatley with Dr. Mehmet Oz. Oz is serving under President Trump as the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The clip features Oz with a man in the background, allegedly King, photobombing the pair in the background.

Most folks get the heck out of the frame when they realize they are interrupting a photo or video, but not King — He’s in the background mugging for the camera like a middle schooler.

Photos that align with event space in Whatley’s video were located on the Craven County GOP’s Facebook page. The photos have dates ranging from Aug. 28 through Aug. 30. Those photos appear to be a rally for NC-01 Republican candidate Laurie Buckhout and other county candidates.

Cooper tried to capitalize on King being at the event by falsely claiming in an X post that Whatley was “campaigning with” him. Cooper is also making these claims at campaign events, like this one in Goldsboro on Sept. 10.

Cooper’s post also said Whatley “repeatedly” appointed a sex offender while he was GOP chair. That’s a reference to Harvey West, which is not entirely accurate.

Here are the “appointments” broken down:

1st Congressional District Committee chair (2019 to March 2026)
West was vice chair of this committee in 2019; he was elected by that committee as chair when the chair resigned. That committee reelected him multiple times up until this year, when he resigned.

Plan of Organization Committee ( 2011 to May 2026)
The Plan of Organization Committee (POOC) is a body that deals with party rules.
West was placed on that committee 10 times. He was appointed some years and nominated by his congressional committee during others.

From 2013 through 2017, former NCGOP state chairs Robin Hayes, Claude Pope, and Hassan Harnett appointed him to the POOC. As chair, Whatley did keep West on that committee in 2021 and 2024. From what I was told, reappointments to committees like this one are typically pro forma; in other words, once on a committee, members stay on it unless there’s a resignation or new nomination.

Related reading:

• The Purity Police Arrive in Seersucker: Michelle Woodhouse and the Strange Struggle Session of Michael Whatley

• Did Michael Whatley appoint a sex offender to party roles while GOP chair?

• Roy Cooper has his own freeze tag problem with a sex offender youth minister.

Meet the sex offenders and child rapists Cooper released
Breitbart recently reported Cooper’s pandemic prison agreement included releasing “34 rapists, 51 criminals convicted of indecent liberties with a child, and five criminals arrested for a sexual offense by a substitute parent or custodian, in addition to 51 inmates serving life sentences.”

The article goes on to detail the crimes of seven of those offenders, including two who were serving life sentences. One of them, Jimmie Speight, went on to commit murder after Cooper released him.

The prisoner release agreement was kept secret until February 2026, when it was obtained and reported on by WSOCTV’s Joe Bruno.

The agreement Cooper made required the state to produce at least 3,500 “early reentries” within six months. The total released ended up being over 4,200, over half of which have reoffended.

A searchable database of the prisoners released showed at least 2,412 of the 4,234 prisoners had reoffended after Cooper released them, including 53 serving life sentences (1 reoffender), 70 convicted of murder (9 reoffenders), 99 convicted of rape or sexual offense (45 reoffenders), and 203 convicted of taking indecent liberties with a child (119 reoffenders).

Cooper dodged answering questions about the prisoner settlement for months, finally claiming that it was “court ordered,” giving the impression he had no choice. Breitbart’s report highlights that same narrative used by Cooper in a recent interview:

Senate candidate Cooper told CNN’s Manu Raju on Sunday, September 13, “This is something that the state had to do, because the court ordered it. And, I think a lot of people believe, if you ask the plaintiffs, they were very frustrated that more weren’t released.”

Yet the only reason the court ordered the releases was because Cooper himself had agreed to the deal.

While other states were being sued to release prisoners early, Cooper didn’t fight the NC lawsuit as he has claimed — at least not very hard. Here’s the timeline:

• The suit was filed on April 8, 2020.

• Wake County Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier, Jr. ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on June 8, issuing a preliminary injunction. Rozier was appointed to that court by Cooper during his second month as governor.

• Defendants (Cooper and then-Public Safety Sec. Erik Hooks) made one filing on July 18; a 9 page response to the plaintiff’s motion asking for more information.

• A special master was appointed on Dec. 4, and the formal settlement agreement was made on Feb. 25, 2021.

From start to finish, the prisoner release lawsuit only took 10 months. For context, Cooper kept North Carolina under a statewide emergency for 888 days.

Additionally, Cooper kept K-12 students masked for two years; from fall 2020 through at least March 2022. He also issued orders to keep churches and other businesses closed during the pandemic, resulting in lawsuits.

The lawsuit brought by bars and taverns is still winding its way through the court nearly six years later. In late August of this year, Judge Erwin Wilson ruled from the bench, denying a motion to compel Cooper to testify in the bar and taverns case. Matthew Vaughn, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Cooper was being protected because he’s running for Senate.

One interesting item from the prisoner release lawsuit that’s gone unreported is one of the plaintiff attorneys is now a sitting state senator: Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake).

Decades long campaign ad lawsuit, revisited
The headline reads: Democrat Roy Cooper Was Sued for Defamation and Forced to Apologize in First Statewide Campaign

This article is about the lawsuit filed back when Cooper first ran for attorney general against Dan Boyce. Well, Cooper told a whopper about Boyce’s billing rate, and Boyce sued him.

According to Cooper’s deposition, it was he who took a draft campaign ad accusing Republican opponent Dan Boyce of “demanding $1,200 an hour,” scratched it out, and replaced it with the explosive claim that Boyce had “charged $28,000 per hour.” - Breitbart

Cooper fought the complaint for over a decade but relented in 2014, at which time he was likely he started gaze at running for governor. He was forced to pay $75,000 and issue a public apology.

U.S. Senate Quick Hits:

• Cooper doesn’t “see the need” to sign a pledge disavowing Socialism

• If elected, Cooper won’t commit to backing Schumer

• They call it ‘experience.’ Roy Cooper’s 40-year record is actually his rap sheet

• “It’s tough for a Democrat to win in North Carolina.”

POLLING

Real Clear Polling’s average has Cooper up by 8.8 points over Whatley, and the polls in their tracking are all over the place:

Quick hits on a few of the latest polls

Trafalgar: Cooper by 6
Trafalgar: Cooper up by 6 (48.2% to 42.3%, with over 6% undecided)
This poll has a large sample of over 1,000 respondents. The poll doesn’t specify methodology (live call, online etc.)

ECU: Cooper by 7
ECU Poll: Cooper leads by 7

According to ECU’s poll conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 3, Cooper leads Republican Whatley, “46% to 39%, with 14% undecided and the remainder supporting a minor-party or write-in candidate.”

ECU’s poll says Cooper has an 11 point advantage with independents and the economy was the top issue (43%) for voters with Cooper leading that area 58% to 25%. A NYT/Sienna Poll underscores that finding.

The political breakdown of the poll, per the toplines: Republican 33.4%, Democrat 31.2%, Independent 30.5%. and Something else 4.8%

The margin of error was listed as +/- 4.4 points and was composed of 675 likely voters. Read the crosstab results. Read the topline results.

15 point spread?
Carolina Journal’s poll, which dropped on Thursday, claims Cooper is up by 15.
That seems way out of line with the other two polls this week, as well as this PPP poll, which puts Cooper up only by 4.

The methodology for the Carolina Journal poll says it had a sample of “608 likely 2026 general election voters” in North Carolina with a margin of error at ±3.97%. The poll ran from Sept. 13-15.

The party identification and ideology percentages are in the full results report. Bear those figures in mind when looking at the crosstabs the corresponding crosstabs in the direction of the country by party and ideology, which start down on line 2,026.

Carolina Journal’s polls have been fairly steady. I remarked on the sample areas on X and folks drew the wrong idea from the point I was trying to to make.

That point was the bulk of the responses came from blue/urban county corridor areas; that’s the same/similar population percentage ratios as the other polls draw from - or are supposed to draw from. So, how do the two conducted around the same time land at 6 to 7 while Carolina Journal’s is more than double at 15?

Cue the salt.

WHAT I AM READING

• Are U.S. Senate Elections About to Get Interesting Again?

• US Household Incomes Hit All-Time High, Poverty Falls to Record Low: Census Bureau

• New warrant reveals SBI probe into possible embezzlement

• Woodson Bradley’s shameless rewriting of history

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ICYMI

The report cites “Eric Holl” as an organizer with the Justice Project. Holl is quoted in the article. In addition to a focus on Newby, Holl also took aim at Associate Justice Phil Berger, Jr.

The timing of the protest and the attack on Berger is not coincidental and here’s why: Berger issued a statement on Sept. 3 which said he was not seeking reelection to his current associate justice seat in 2028. That statement was a clear signal Berger intends to run for Newby’s chief spot, since Newby will be retiring due to age limits on the seat.

The News & Observer gives no details about Holl or the Justice Project.

More To The Story

Who is Eric Holl
Holl was a Gov. Roy Cooper staffer, he worked for Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards in policy and communications, and most recently worked for Chattanooga’s Democratic Mayor Tim Kelly.

An article by a Tennessee outlet called Chattanoogan.com says Holl left Kelly’s office in January of this year to take an “advocacy position in Raleigh, N.C.”

A profile for Holl at the Louisiana Illuminator says he is the “founder and executive director of Real Reform Louisiana, the state’s only consumer advocate focused on property and casualty insurance.”

Holl was put in charge of Real Reform Louisiana by Edwards, according to LABI, a business advocacy group in Louisiana. The nonprofit was registered as a 501(c)4 and LABI described it as having “strong ties to the Democratic Party.”

The Louisiana Illuminator is one of several dozen partisan websites run by the dark-money funded States Newsroom, which also runs NC Newsline in North Carolina.

NC Newsline was acquired by States Newsroom in 2023 and was previously NC Policy Watch, the blog run by the left-leaning NC Justice Center.

More about NC Newsline:

More about States Newsroom:
Grant maker pass-through for dark money sets up shop in Durham

What is the Justice Project
The Justice Project focuses on state supreme courts, with an emphasis on five states: Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Each state has a dedicated page for upcoming court elections, including one for North Carolina.

Per its website, the group claims it is “a nonpartisan organization that seeks to educate voters through reliable information and help them make informed decisions in the voting booth.”

The website also says “State Supreme Courts are often the final backstop for interpreting laws and upholding our rights. We believe voters deserve accurate information.“

There is no navigation menu, contact information or staff list on the Justice Project’s website. However, both the main Justice Project website and the North Carolina page have a disclaimer at the bottom “Paid for by The Justice Project Action.”

The Justice Project Action (TJPA) is not the same as The Justice Project, a legal aid type group that also does political lobbying.

A profile for TJPA at ProPublica says the group is a 527 organization registered as such in 2024. Being a 527 means donations are not tax deductible and the primary purpose of such groups is to influence elections of a person or persons at the national, state or local level. In other words, a partisan political outfit.

TJPA’s profile also lists Ben Unger as President, Christine Holt as Treasurer, and Jamie Kantrowitz as Director.

TJPA also has a hybrid super PAC that took in over $4.520 million in 2023-24, according to Open Secrets data. The largest 2024 recipient was Planned Parenthood Votes with $1.750 million. Additional PAC filings can be viewed on the Federal Elections Commission website.

Top contributors to TJPA include billionaire progressive philanthropist Lynn Schusterman and the Democratically aligned Our American Future Action at $4 million each. A closer look shows Schusterman gave $4.75 million to TJPA in 2024.

A 2026 IRS filing spanning April 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026 shows contributions of $3.3 million. For other years, records show $4.7M in contributions and $2.2M in expenditures in 2025 and $9.2M in contributions and $9.2M in expenditures in 2024.

A closer look at the 2024 expenditures shows $1 million to North Carolina Families First on Sept. 26, 2024.

NC Families First was registered with the NC Secretary of State by Raleigh attorney Michael Weisel in 2011. At last check, Secretary of State’s online search showed Weisel as the agent for at least 35 similar left-leaning or Democrat-linked organizations, like Real Facts NC and A Better North Carolina.

Back in 2014, NC Families First was hit with a campaign ad complaint by the Civitas Institute. This is the same NC Families First that has begun running ads against Republican Sarah Stevens in the NC Supreme Court race.

The current ad released this month was clearly an attempt to undermine her legislative record of tightening sex offender laws, child welfare protections and bolstering victims’ rights.

Uncoincidentally, Holl reposted the ad on X:

A week or so after NC Families First got a million from TJPA in 2024, the NC Democratic Party also received $1 million from TJPA.

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This past Thursday, FOX News reported on an undercover video of Cooper in which he is asked about signing the Pledge to America, disavowing Socialism.

Cooper responded by saying he didn’t feel he needed to sign it and the party needs “all kinds of folks.”

Here’s the transcript of Cooper’s remarks after being asked about the pledge:

“Here’s my point of view. I think the party needs a wide spectrum, particularly at a time when the Republican Party is shrinking and having all kinds of loyalty tests.

I think we need to have all kinds of folks to be a part of our party, particularly now, when we’re in such difficult straits and we’re all in a foxhole right now.
We’ve all got to keep together to take back our government. We could tilt into autocracy at any time if we don’t stick together.

I don’t see the need to sign something. I don’t see the need to.”

The Fox News’ report noted the New York Times asked Cooper if he was a Communist, to which he replied” For the record, no.”

Cooper then said, “I have a record of working across the aisle. The people of North Carolina know that I can be a senator that puts them first. Before power, before party, before politics.”

That statement rings a bit hollow given his record breaking 104 vetoes, most with an ideological objection, and the fact he and the NC Democratic Party targeted members, like Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed, who broke ranks on those vetoes.

Fox News reported Cooper was asked if his platform is at odds with the DSA’s views and wrote, “Cooper’s campaign declined to comment, noting that his commitments are reserved for his constituents.”

“The only pledge Roy makes is to the people of North Carolina. Roy is not a socialist, and he will work with anyone, including Republicans, as he has done his entire career to lower costs for hardworking families and fight for North Carolina,” Cooper’s campaign told Fox News Digital.

The video surfaces after controversy in North Carolina regarding access to Senate campaigns, with Whatley denying access to left-leaning outlets and Cooper’s campaign kicking out a photographer for North State Journal as well as a Blue Ridge Times reporter.

More to the Story

The Promise to America denounces very specific platforms espoused by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) without actually naming the DSA.

DSA platforms include ideas such as abolishing the Senate, police, and emptying prisons. The platform also calls for an end to the presidency, the Supreme Court and abolishing ICE; creating an open borders situation.

The very first item in the Promise to America states, “We are capitalist, not socialist.”

The other Promise to America items included:

• We want safety, not lawlessness.

• Fiscal Discipline: We are responsible, not reckless.

• We believe government should solve problems, not create them.

• Free Speech, Respect, and Common Purpose. We are mainstream, not extreme.

• We are proud, not ashamed of America.

The signature section of the pledge states, “By signing below, you will join in supporting the elected officials, candidates, and everyday Americans bringing common sense back to the Democratic Party.”

Signing it seems like a no-brainer, yet, only around 20 Democratic politicians and political figures have signed it as of Sept. 12, including NC-01 Congressman Don Davis, NC-11 Democratic candidate Jamie Ager, and longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, who has appeared in several of Cooper’s senate race fundraising emails.

The fact such a promise pledge exists, and that so few have signed it since its launch over two months ago, is problematic for the Democrats.

Cooper’s refusal is not much of a surprise given his activities and his state party’s activities over the past two years.

Last August, Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his “fight the oligarchy” tour to Greensboro and Asheville. Cooper’s campaign refused to confirm or deny he would be attending alongside high-profile progressives like Durham’s Nida Allam, who nearly unseated Congresswoman Valerie Foushee in 2024.

A year earlier, in August 2024, Cooper and Sanders participated in a sit-down interview together with Politico ahead of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

North Carolina’s top Democrats gathered earlier this year at the NC Democratic Party’s 2026 Unity Dinner, where the keynote speaker was Sen. Elizabeth Warren, known to back socialist-style policies and candidates.

During her remarks, she applauded Attorney General Jeff Jackson for blocking the Paramount merger and endorsed Cooper because he will “take on corporations and health insurance companies,” before spending the rest of her speech on attacking President Trump.

Cooper is pitted against Republican Michael Whatley, whose campaign has centered on public safety and has attacked Cooper on his past “soft on crime” policies, as well as Cooper pandemic settlement agreement which released upwards of 4,200 prisoners, many of which were violent offenders. At least half of those prisoners have gone on to reoffend.

Whatley’s campaign spokesperson DJ Griffin issued a statement on Cooper’s refusal to sign the pledge.

“Roy Cooper finally put his real colors on display,” said Griffin. His statement is not surprising because Cooper’s track record is about as far-left as they come.”

“Cooper was the most partisan governor in the history of North Carolina with more vetoes than all other governors combined, while pushing radical policies that hurt our families but bow down to the far-left mob,” Griffin said.

“Cooper’s embrace of socialism shows what he would be in the Senate, another member of the far-left that would work to eliminate private property and turn our country into Venezuela,” Griffin added.

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Never Forget.

THE BIG STORY

The Republican Midterm Convention was held on Sept. 9 and 10 in Dallas, Texas. Themes were clear: tax cuts, public safety, and defining the Democrat Party as crazy, socialists and the “Party of hatred.”

Among the speakers were Michael Whatley, the Republican candidate for NC’s senate seat, and Laurie Buckhout, the Republican running for the NC-01 congressional seat. NC Congressman Richard Hudson was also in the lineup and other speakers were named in a report by Axios.

Whatley spoke at around 5:18 p.m. on night one and Buckhout gave remarks during the 4 to 5 p.m. slot on night two. Hudson also spoke on night two during the 5 to 6 p.m. spot.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman made a surprise appearance during the first night’s lineup, applauding his Pennsylvania colleague, Republican Sen. Dave McCormick. Fetterman, standing against the backdrop of a steel plant, said he would work with Trump to “defend the steel way of life” in Pennsylvania.

The live streams for both nights can be viewed here and the hourly programming schedule is here. I’ll have a recap at North State Journal on this next week.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Both Chambers gaveled in briefly this week and won’t be back again until Monday, Sept. 28.

Guilford Democrats dump Headen
Shelly Headen, the Democratic candidate for House District 62, has lost all backing and support from the Guilford Democratic Party over social media posts she made, including one calling for “attacks” on U.S. soil.

But that’s not all she’s posted about. One reply on X said Republicans are too “ignorant” to understand the Bible and Jesus was a Democrat.

Headen invoked Jesus again, defending herself in a comment to the left-leaning The Assembly, stating in part, “I’ve sacrificed myself just like Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross, and Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln and all the people that put themselves out there to sacrifice for our country...”

Headen also said she spent “$30,000” on a firm to scrub her social media. Well, she should ask for her money back.

House Republicans also dug up police reports showing her as the suspect and her husband as the victim in two domestic dispute calls to her home.

Possibly the worst item unearthed was Headen visiting a Nazi concentration camp, with an image of the crematoriums used to murder Jews in the background, saying, “This is where Trump supporters belong.”

Headen has many other controversial posts, such as calling the vice president a “disgusting creep.” For more, see my thread.

NCGA Quick Hits:

• Tillett tapped to replace Hanig in Senate

• House Speaker out stumping for Walsh

CONGRESS

Balkcom joins MAGA Majority
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has added Jennifer Balkcom to its MAGA Majority lineup, which also includes Laurie Buckhout, who is running in the NC-01 district.

Here’s the video that dropped on Tuesday:

Balkcom was picked to replace Chuck Edwards on the ballot after he withdrew his reelection candidacy following his House censure for inappropriate conduct with female staffers. Balkcom is the representative for state House District 117, and with her moving up to the congressional race, Chelsea Walsh was tapped to fill Balkcom’s spot on the November ticket.

The same day, Balkcom also dropped her first ad:

There’s an app for that
Congressman Hudson Hudson (NC-09) announced the 2026 Congressional App Challenge is now open for NC students in his district.

“North Carolina’s students have the creativity and talent to build the next generation of technology,” said Hudson. “The Congressional App Challenge gives them an opportunity to turn an idea into something real. I look forward to seeing this year’s submissions, and I encourage every eligible student in our district to participate, whether they are an experienced coder or just getting started.”

According to Hudson’s release, the challenge involves students creating an app and the winning app will be put on display in the U.S. Capitol, as well as on the House.gov and Congressional App Challenge websites.

Details on the App Challenge, including rules and a signup, can be found on Hudson’s official House website.

Congressional Quick Hits:

• No DCCC ads for NC Dems

• Democrats find their Midterms villains (more here)

NC SENATE

CCCP-linked campaign cash
According to the NY Post, per campaign finance records, “A manufacturing magnate suspected of helping the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wage economic war on the US has donated thousands of dollars to Democratic Senate candidates...”

The post goes on to report, “Pin Ni, the president of Illinois-based Wanxiang America Corporation, gave $7,000 to the campaigns of Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.”

Related: Trump Forces Departure of Chinese Solar Firm Roy Cooper Lured to North Carolina With Tax Incentives

Healthcare, not handcuffs
Breitbart News reported on a recently unearthed audio clip of Roy Cooper making the case to donors at a campaign event that prisoners in jails needed healthcare and “not handcuffs.”

The articles goes on to detail Cooper’s history of being “soft on crime,” including the Racial Justice task force he set up in the wake of the George Floyd riots that “reimagined public safety,” and included topics like cashless bail.

NC Media on defense
Two media outlets, WFAE and the News and Observer, have published articles defending Roy Cooper against attack ads casting Cooper as soft on crime.

The ads involve fathers of murder victims, who essentially imply Cooper’s policies were responsible for the deaths of their loved ones. Both ads refer to Cooper’s secret agreement to release 3,500 prisoners during the pandemic and that Cooper’s 40 years as a politician is “enough.”

Whether his policies were directly responsible or not, the fact these outlets are running defense for Cooper are a strong indicator the ads have gained traction. Cooper even had his campaign manager defending him on the campaign’s substack account. The old political phrase, “if you’re explaining, you’re losing” comes to mind.

The ads were put out by the Senate Leadership Fund.

The first ad “Logan’s Story” features Stephen Federico, the father of Logan Federico, a young North Carolina woman who was murdered by a career criminal during a home invasion at a home she was visiting in South Carolina.

Federico has allegedly received death threats over the ad and gave that information in interviews with over half a dozen outlets, yet not a single one has reported it.

Federico gave emotion-filled testimony last year during a House Judiciary field hearing held in Charlotte over the murder of Iryna Zarutska. That hearing zeroed in on policies like cashless bail, a policy backed by Cooper’s “Racial Equity in Criminal Justice task force” which has allowed offenders to get back out on the streets very quickly.

The second ad, called “ Roy Cooper: Releasing Criminals Back on the Street,” features the father of 24-year-old Shemar Hayes, who was murdered in 2024 by 18-year-old Tyzavian Smith. Smith was later arrested after a standoff with police.

Hayes’ father has since regretted making the ad, according to an article by left-leaning NC Newsline which falsely claims the ad implies Cooper’s prisoner release is tied to the Hayes murder. What Hayes does do in the ad is highlight the catch and release policies that “give these offenders a second chance.”

The WFAE article claims Hayes says he is a Democrat who plans to vote for Cooper and he was ‘misled’ about the ad, which is kind of hard to believe given what Hayes says in the ad.

While media ran interference, Cooper continued his “make stuff cost less“ tour stops this past week, with one in Wayne County. His COVID prisoner release dumped at least five convicted murderers back into that county.

NC Senate Race Quick Hits:

• Undercover video exposes Dem Senate nominee’s plan to embrace socialists: ‘Got to be together’

• Is This Democrat Too Good for His Own Good? - NY Times | Opinion

• Republicans Chances of Losing Senate to Democrats, Per Nate Silver Forecast - Newsweek

• The nine midterm races that will decide control of the US Senate - Reuters

• SCOTUS blocks ruling for Cooper, Dems on broadcast advertising rates - Carolina Coastline

• 4th Circuit jumps back into ad rate dispute involving Cooper - Carolina Journal

• Roy Cooper Put Far-Left Politics Over Female Athletes Like Me - Townhall

POLLING

Real Clear Polling’s average is unchanged from last week; Cooper up by 8 points over Whatley.

WHAT I AM READING

• The Untold Pre-History of 9/11

• 9/11 events, observations across central NC

• McClatchy cuts more than 90 staff in its most severe layoffs in years

• Secretary Rubio Went Full Scorched Earth on What the Left-Wing Does to Nations

Also, an important article from me at NSJ: Shrimp industry faces new pressure after ruling

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Greenfield is a member of the North Carolina Democrats legislative Progressive Caucus.

In an Aug. 27 Facebook post, Greenfield said she was slated to be a speaker at the “Drag Brunch for a Cause” event, which she said was cancelled due to a “bigoted misinformation-driven campaign.”

The post included the flier for the event.

Greenfield posted a follow up video on her Facebook page on Aug. 30. The post included the text, “Kids. Books. Glitter. That’s it. That’s the whole “scandal.”

Greenfield defended drag queen shows, saying they are family friendly just like there are family friendly broadway shows. She said those criticizing them should go see one and there is “nothing sexual” about them.

Greenfield’s original post said the event was “raising money for the Carolina Migrant Network, an organization doing real, good work supporting immigrant families in our state.”

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More To The Story

The Carolina Migrant Network (CMN) was established in 2017. Per CMN’s website, its core mission is “to provide legal services for individuals in removal proceedings.”

“We provide legal education on the US Immigration System and empower immigrant communities to participate in everyday and civic life,” CMN’s site says. “We envision a world of empowered, self-determined, organized communities free from fear of family separation.”

Additionally CMN’s site boasts it “is the ONLY organization in the Carolina’s to provide free legal representation to people facing removal proceedings and in Immigration detention facilities.”

CMN has an offshoot for “community organizing” called Comunidad Colectiva, which is a “Latinx Women-led organization focused on organizing and educating young people to advocate against anti-immigrant policies at a state and local level to support immigrant communities.” CMN’s website says it “absorbed“ that offshoot in 2022.

What CMN’s website doesn’t say is that it has participated in political “No Kings” protests alongside groups like Indivisible, 50501, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. CMN was specifically named as a partner participant in a June 2025 “No Kings” protest in Charlotte.

CMN’s website says the organization is a 501(c)3 nonprofit and it uses Act Blue for receiving donations.

Flush with cash

Why the drag brunch was raising money for CMN is curious given the organization doesn’t seem to be hurting for money. Since 2021, CMN has reported total receipts of $2,615,788.

According to its IRS filings, it pulled in over $1.305 million in 2024 and $768,106 in 2023. The 2024 filing shows CNM’s two co-directors were each paid over $93,000 and that salaries/wages were the organization’s largest expense.

A search of CMN’s tax ID number in ProPublica’s nonprofit database showed its donors are almost all left-leaning and include George Soros’ Tides Foundation, Southern Vision Alliance, Foundation for the Carolinas, Hispanic Federation Inc., Neo Philanthropy, and Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund.

Additionally, over the last five years CMN has regularly received large contributions from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, one of the most prolific funding groups for left leaning and progressive organizations in North Carolina.

2020: $70,000 - One grant for general operating support
2021: $210,000 - Three grants of $70,000 for general operating support
2022: $108,200 - Three grants of $70,000, $30,000 and $8,200 for general support with the last grant tied to an internship program at Guilford College.
2023: $74,800 - Two grants; $70,000 for operating support and $7,400 for a UNC internship.
2024: $88,000 - One grant for general operating support

Total funding from Z. Smith Reynolds: $659,480

At the bottom of the CMN website is a series of group names and their logos, including Z. Smith Reynolds. Among those listed is NC IOLTA, which stands for North Carolina Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts.

NC IOLTA is a NC State Bar program created back in 1983 that makes interest funded grants used primarily for civil legal aid in cases like eviction defense, domestic violence protection, benefits, and family law, plus some administration-of-justice work.

Cumulative awards by NC IOLTA have exceeded $134 million. In 2025 alone, NC OLITA distributed about $12 million to dozens of organizations, including Legal Aid of North Carolina, which was the largest recipient, Pisgah Legal Services, and the left-leaning North Carolina Justice Center.

Former statehouse Sen. Graig Meyer (D-Orange) resigned earlier this year to head up the Justice Center. Meyer was replaced by NC Democratic Party Vice Chair Jonah Garson.

The Justice Center was the parent organization for Blueprint NC — known for its memo calling for its partners to “cripple, slam, eviscerate” all Republicans, with a focus on former Gov. Pat McCrory. Blueprint NC’s main funding has also come from Z. Smith Reynolds.

Lawmakers cut the cord on funding to NC IOLTA beginning in 2025 by freezing awards and in the most recent budget.

The July freeze involved a provision in the Public Safety Act (SB 429), which barred IOLTA from awarding any grants from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 and only allowed for administrative costs.

Republican lawmakers cited concerns that grants were supporting organizations with “leftist ideologies” or that were engaged in political advocacy, and they wanted time to take a look at the board’s composition and grantee selection.

Following the freeze, Legal Aid of North Carolina closed some rural offices and reduced staff. Other grantees later reported layoffs.

The House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing in October 2025 with representatives from IOLTA, who were questioned about some of the organizations that received grants - in particular those with partisan political or an ideological bent. The full hearing can be viewed on YouTube.

In April 2026, State Auditor Dave Boliek’s performance audit found that grant awards complied with eligibility rules and identified no instances of misspending. However, the audit found weak post-award monitoring and said that IOLTA relied heavily on self-reported data and didn’t independently verify how around $30 million in grants was used.

“The lack of adequate monitoring practices comes as IOLTA’s revenues and grant awards have risen significantly,” Boliek’s press release stated. “IOLTA’s revenues increased from $3 million in 2018 to $16.7 million in 2024, and grant payments nearly doubled from $6 million in 2023 to $11.9 million in 2025.”

Boliek said in his statement that grants were going to organizations “with clearly partisan, political agendas.”

In response, IOLTA and the State Bar emphasized the compliance finding but said they would strengthen oversight.

CMN appears as an approved IOLTA grantee in the appendices of Boliek’s audit under a section title “2024-22 - Immigration Legal Representation,” beginning on page 70. The amount in the following report shows an IOLTA amount of $50,000.

The 2026 budget, signed by Gov. Josh Stein in July, made the 2025 freeze permanent for civil legal aid and restructured the program.

Key changes included:

Up to $2.5 million per year from pre-July 2025 accumulated funds is allowed to go to “administration of justice” grants. Organizations that provide immigration legal services, like CMN, are no longer eligible recipients nor are those that represent or advocate for “gender-affirming” health care, or engage in policy advocacy or grassroots organizing.

Up to $15 million per year of future IOLTA interest earned after July 1, 2025, was directed to the Office of Indigent Defense Services Private Assigned Counsel Fund, which pays private attorneys for court-appointed criminal defense of indigents. That type of activity is one the state is constitutionally required to fund.

Additionally, the nine-member Board of Trustees was revised, with three appointed by the State Bar Council, two by the Chief Justice, two each by the Senate and House. The Chief Justice also gets to select the chair. Previously all members were appointed by the State Bar Council.

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Reminders
The Old North State Update will be off for Labor Day weekend.
There are 67 days left until the Nov. 3 midterm election.
Absentee ballots are set to go out on Sept. 4; Early voting is Oct. 15 - Oct. 31.

THE BIG STORY

We will always love you, Dolly
Country music icon Dolly Parton passed away this week at age 50.

FOX News Digital’s updates included a statement from her family saying her death was related to losing a battle with cancer:

“Our beloved Dolly Parton spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched. Her unmatched generosity reached the lives of countless people whom she would never meet, yet she was always there to offer a helping hand. Whether it be the hundreds of millions of books donated through her invaluable Imagination Library or funding research that helped create a lifesaving vaccine used around the world, Dolly’s unconditional love for all people was the guiding force for her lasting impact. After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones.”

President Trump issued a statement on Truth Social and ordered flags to half staff in her honor.

Dolly’s death eclipsed the passing of another iconic star: Tim Curry.
Like Dolly, Curry was also 80 when he died on Aug. 26. People remember him best for his Rocky Horror Picture Show role, but out of all movies he was in during his prolific career, one of my favorites was his performance as the butler in “Clue.”

General News Quick Hits

• The official NC Judicial Voter Guide is out

• The RNC’s Midterm Convention released its programming

• Trump issued an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Assembly returns briefly next week for one of its scheduled skeleton sessions.

Hanig resigned
Sen. Bobby Hanig (R-Currituck) announced his resignation from the legislature earlier this week.

Hanig withdrew from seeking reelection when he opted to run for the NC-01 Congressional seat. The current matchup for his state senate seat this November is Democrat Melissa Zehner versus Republican Jerry Tillet. Per state law, the appropriate Republican Party committee will pick his replacement; it makes sense for it to be Tillet at this late date.

CONGRESS

Hudson in Fayetteville
Congressman Richard Hudson (R-NC09) gave remarks at the Greater Fayetteville Chamber’s State of the Community event in Fayetteville.

According to a press release from his office, Hudson talked about getting over $140 million in project authorizations for Fort Bragg and North Carolina in the National Defense Authorization Act, including “new facilities for Special Operations Forces, aircraft maintenance, and backup power.” Related to those funds and “backup power,” is a big get for NC by Hudson: Ft. Bragg has been picked as one of five military sites to get a microreactor.

Sex offender freeze tag returns
Democrats are still trying to Make Fetch Happen... for any candidate at this point. Axios Raleigh’s newsletter this week promoted the Democrats’ messaging, writing, “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is placing a new digital ad in North Carolina’s competitive 1st Congressional District tying Republican Laurie Buckhout to a fundraising picnic hosted by Harvey West, the committee tells Axios.”

NC SENATE RACE

Cooper & Fauci
Anthony Fauci’s diary, released by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), has an entry on Roy Cooper. NC finally gets to know why Cooper delayed handing out his NC K-12 school reopening decision back in July 2020.

It’s important to remember Cooper had put a self-imposed deadline of July 1 on that decision. When the date rolled around, he held a briefing and announced he was delaying. He offered little explanation why, saying only that he wanted “buy-in across the board.”

Logan’s Story
A new Senate Leadership Fund ad hits Roy Cooper on policies he pursued which created a revolving door for criminals. This one features Stephen Federico, whose daughter Logan was murdered by a career criminal during a home invasion. In the ad, Federico says his daughter was the “victim of an agenda.”

The “soft on crime” campaign angle by the Whatley campaign continues to gain traction, as evidenced by the News & Observer running defense for Cooper this week. After seeing that article, my gut is telling me that the Cooper camp’s internal polling on this front is not good.

Happening Today
Michael Whatley and National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez will host a roundtable in Raleigh today with North Carolina Angel Families and families with loved ones killed by illicit fentanyl.

Data centers flip flop?
The Cooper campaign tried dunking on Whatley for an RSVP to a data center event. While AI advancements and a flood of foreign propaganda have changed the narrative on data centers, Cooper’s latest batch of emails shows he was for them before he was against them:

Look for an update next week from me at North State Journal on the number of data center moratoriums being passed by towns and counties in North Carolina.

Related reading: As data center criticism grows, focus turns to N.C. Senate race (Spectrum News)

NC Senate Race Quick Hits:

• Cooper laments energy costs that rose during his governorship (Center Square)

• 4th Circuit rules for Cooper, Dems in FCC campaign ad rule dispute (Carolina Journal)

• Senate Leadership Fund announced record breaking $500M haul (SLF)

POLLING

Real Clear Polling’s average is unchanged from last week; Cooper up by 8 points over Whatley.

More Polling
Decision Desk HQ’s Podcast, Episode 41: Are Senate Polls Overrating Democrats’ Chances? With Patrick Ruffini of Echelon Insights

Gallup: Americans Still Skeptical That UFOs Are Aliens (Well, not this American)

WHAT I AM READING

• North Carolina’s Early Voting Plans Are Finally Final. Here’s What They Show.

• DHS Inspector General Finds FEMA Employees Violated the Law by Skipping Homes of Trump Supporters After Oversight Committee Investigation

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The second superseding indictment charges Heidi Beirich and the SPLC with “new charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank.”

According to the release, the new indictment adds Beirich as a “defendant to the previously charged count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering and charges the SPLC with an additional count of concealment money laundering.”

Beirich is the same SPLC employee identified as having had a romantic relationship with “F-9,” a member of the neo-Nazi group National Alliance who was one of the alleged field sources paid off by the SPLC.

The SPLC indictment stated, “Beirich and F-9 shared a house and two bank accounts.”

“Between 2015 and 2021, approximately $140,000 in donors’ money flowed from the SPLC operating account, through the Tech Writers account, and was ultimately deposited into the joint bank accounts held by F-9 and Beirich,” per the indictment. “This amounted to approximately 66% of all money ever deposited into their joint bank accounts. Beirich then used donors’ money to pay the couple’s personal living expenses.”

Beirich exited employment with the SPLC in 2020. She then founded the “Global Project Against Hate and Extremism” that same year.

Read the second superseding indictment on my document cloud.

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