All eyes are fixated on former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial, which got underway this week in New York City. Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for alleged hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.  President Joe Biden’s campaign said they wouldn’t comment on the trial, other than Biden making a flippant comment last week at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania that Trump was “busy right now.” But Biden is “busy right now,” t ..read more

A federal election lawsuit In North Carolina tied to Democratic operative Marc Elias’ law firm could be put on hold for the rest of the 2024 election cycle. All parties in the case are asking a judge to issue a stay. Lawyers filed a motion Friday for US District Judge Thomas Schroeder to issue a stay in the case Voto Latino v. Hirsch. The motion arrived 16 days after Schroeder granted a similar request in a lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee and North Carolina Democratic Party. Plaintiffs in both cases were willing to pause legal action after Schroeder issued a preliminary inju ..read more

Democrat Mo Green is handily besting Republican Michele Morrow in total fundraising to date in the state’s race for superintendent of public instruction, according to recent campaign disclosures. Green has $315,913 on hand compared to Morrow’s $58,265, which includes 48-hour reports for independent expenditures. The race for state superintendent is likely to become heated headed into the summer and fall. Morrow pulled off a rare upset of a sitting incumbent member of the Council of State — the 10-member executive body that includes offices like governor, lieutenant governor, state au ..read more

The legislative hallways were bustling with politicos on Wednesday as North Carolina’s General Assembly convened for its short session. While members and staffers greeted one another with excitement for the first day back, they were also greeted by several advocacy groups voicing their concerns to legislators. The gun rights group Grass Roots North Carolina was seen handing out literature and speaking with legislators around the building. The group is calling on the General Assembly to pass constitutional carry in North Carolina, eliminating concealed carry permit requirements to better comply ..read more

In-person early voting for the May 14 second primary/runoff election began Thursday at 8 am. It will end on Saturday, May 11 at 3 pm. You can keep up with the latest data with John Locke Foundations’s Vote Tracker. Republican nominations for lieutenant governor, state auditor, and Congressional District 13 are up for grabs.  The top vote-getters in those races in the March 5 primary failed to secure the required 30% of the vote, the threshold to avoid a runoff election.  Hal Weatherman received 19.59% (181,818 votes) for lieutenant governor, followed by Jim O’Neill with 15 ..read more

A judge has temporarily blocked certification of a Robeson County commissioner primary election. The losing candidate in the March 5 Democratic primary has leveled accusations of bribery against the winning incumbent and another sitting commissioner. Judy Oxendine Sampson defeated Lacy Cummings by five votes, 875 to 870, in the District 5 primary. It was the only county commissioner race on the primary ballot. Sampson is set to face Republican Lynn Locklear in November. The Robeson County elections board rejected Cummings’ election protest on March 27. The State Board of Elections denied an ap ..read more

A federal judge will not split the bribery and fraud retrials of Greg Lindberg and John Gray. Both are scheduled to return to court on May 6. Lindberg was once North Carolina’s top election campaign donor. The retrial is based on the federal government’s argument that Lindberg and Gray bribed state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey after the 2016 election. Causey worked with federal investigators, including wearing a surveillance wire during interactions with the defendants. Gray filed paperwork in March asking to sever his retrial from Lindberg’s. Federal prosecutors objected to that request ..read more

A three-judge panel overseeing former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr’s “fair elections” lawsuit has delayed a hearing in the case until June 13. The delay stems at least in part from the recent death of longtime Republican redistricting lawyer Thomas Farr. A hearing had been scheduled for May 22 to address Republican legislative leaders’ motion to dismiss Orr’s suit. Farr was a member of the legal team representing state lawmakers. In an April 8 court filing, Farr’s colleagues cited two reasons for seeking a delay. First, a federal three-judge panel had scheduled a May 22 hearing for two ..read more

On Monday, the eve of Passover, Rep. Kathy Manning, D, NC-06, was among four members of Congress calling for an end to antisemitism at Columbia University and on college campuses across the country, calling for those students breaking rules to face possible expulsion. In a letter to Columbia’s administrative leadership, Foxx called for the termination of faculty promoting violent rhetoric. “Clearly, we have a lot of work to do,” Manning stated at the beginning of her press conference at Columbia. She was joined by Reps. Daniel Goldman, D-NY, Jared Moskowitz, D-FL, and Josh ..read more

The UNC Board of Governors’ Committee on University Governance voted unanimously Wednesday in support of a resolution to remove and replace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) language from the UNC System’s policy manual. DEI initiatives and associated policies swept over Universities and colleges across the nation following the 2020 George Floyd murder and the associated deadly riots that animated the “woke” social justice movement. An offshoot of Critical Race Theory (CRT), DEI proponents accuse traditional American systems of structural racism and believe universities should be used to ..read more