WUNC Politics

It was an extraordinary week in American history. After a failed insurrection on Capitol Hill, Congress certified the election of Joe Biden over Donald Trump. In our weekly political roundup, Clark Riemer and Aisha Dew discuss.

Democratic U.S. House Representative Deborah Ross was sworn into the 117th Congress on Sunday. Ross now serves a redrawn Wake County district, and is optimistic about politics in 2021. On this episode she talks about crucial Senate runoffs in Georgia, and shares how many GOP colleagues she has cell phone numbers for.

2020 was an exhausting year for North Carolinians, and in the world of news and politics.

It was unprecedented, exhausting, unrelenting and — to at least one local reporter — bananas. The 2020 calendar will be remembered for a pandemic, racial reckoning and a once-in-a-generation election. On this episode of the WUNC Politics Podcast, journalists reflect on what they will remember most from this wild year.

Several elected officials from North Carolina are in the mix for positions within President-elect Joe Biden's administration. State Environmental Secretary Michael Regan, for one, has been tapped to lead the EPA.

What is the typical gubernatorial profile in North Carolina? Are there patterns in the background, upbringing or political composition of those who have occupied the Governor's Mansion during the last 50 years? And what might these patterns tell us about who could be chief executive going forward?

With hospitalizations and new cases of COVID infections surging, a curfew takes effect on Friday night. Meanwhile the Attorney General joined a lawsuit against Facebook.

Congressman-Elect Madison Cawthorn is set to steal the seat last held by former Representative Mark Meadows. Cawthorn, a Republican, will become the youngest member of the U.S. House of Representatives by six years. On this episode of The Politics Podcast, Cawthorn discusses plans for Capitol Hill, and allegations of anti-semitism.

Republican Congressman Mark Walker announced this week that he will vie for an open North Carolina Senate seat. Meanwhile this week in state politics, a federal appellate court ruled in favor of a photo voter ID requirement. And, the closest statewide race in North Carolina history isn't over quite yet.

In the beginning of the new year, the 117th Congress will be sworn in and North Carolina will welcome three new representatives to its delegation. Congresswoman-elect Kathy Manning will be among them, representing the state’s 6th District that encompasses most of the Triad. She'll be the first woman to represent that district and North Carolina's first Jewish congresswoman.

Jim Morrill started covering politics during the Reagan administration. After reporting on dozens of elections, 11 national conventions and countless elected officials, the longtime Charlotte Observer journalist is retiring.

Election Day month rolls on with a recount in the North Carolina Chief Justice Supreme Court contest. A crowded field of candidates is forming for a vacant U.S. Senate seat. In our latest review of North Carolina politics, Aisha Dew and Becki Gray discuss those races, the likelihood Republicans will decriminalize marijuana, and what they're appreciative for this November.

In the last 40 years, North Carolina has voted for a president and governor from separate parties in seven out of 11 elections. Each time the state has split the vote, North Carolinians have elected a Republican president and a Democratic governor. The 2020 election produced the same result, as thousands of people voted for President Donald Trump and Governor Roy Cooper.

County elections boards have finalized their official vote tallies. Still, on Friday the race to be chief justice of the state Supreme Court looked almost certainly headed for a recount.

For all the hundreds of millions of dollars that were spent in North Carolina during the 2020 election cycle, not all that much changed. The GOP will maintain legislative majorities, and likely again spar with a Democratic Governor. Conservatives were able to add seats on the state courts, which may benefit them when it comes time for the next round of redistricting. On this latest episode of the...

Election Day brought little closure for our nation or our state in 2020.

Virtual learning has changed almost everything about the classroom experience in North Carolina, but implicit racial biases remain as a hindrance to students' education. Microaggressions and discriminatory behavior from teachers and other classmates can have detrimental effects on students of color, especially young children in preschool.

At least 4 million North Carolina voters won't be at the polls next Tuesday because they've already cast their ballots. And the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week officials can keep counting mail-in ballots for nine days after Election Day.

With less than two weeks until November 3, more than two million people have already voted. In our review of the week in state politics, Democratic strategist Aisha Dew and former chair of the North Carolina Federation of Young Republicans Clark Riemer discuss when they expect to have results and how they’re feeling about the races. Plus, what to make – if anything – about the Governor’s comment o...

This week: North Carolina voters turned out in record numbers for the start of in-person early voting. Lines were made longer by social distancing — the polls are open as cases of COVID-19 across the state are surging.

The stakes in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race were already significant – with the winner potentially signaling which party could control the chamber in the next Congress. In recent days, the campaign narratives were upended as Republican incumbent Thom Tillis tested positive for COVID and Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham acknowledged sending sexual text messages to a woman that is not his wi...

This week: Donald Trump’s positive coronavirus test has upended the already unstable political landscape. With just more than a month until Election Day, it is unclear how the president going into quarantine will affect the key battleground of North Carolina. In their review of the week in state politics, Rob Schofield and Becki Gray react to the major news, reflect on the final debate for North C...

This week: Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and his Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham had their first debate. The Democrat's answer to a hypothetical question about the COVID-19 vaccine caught some attention.

When Lanisha Jones went to vote in the 2016 election, she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong. She thought she was simply exercising her right to vote. But in 2019, the district attorney in Hoke County charged her with voting illegally because at the time she was still on probation from a felony conviction.

This week: A Washington Post story alleged Postmaster General Louis DeJoy cajoled GOP campaign donations from employees of the logistics business he ran in Greensboro.