RALEIGH — Having spent most of my career building, financing, and leading conservative institutions — in North Carolina and around the country — I’ve learned many critical lessons, often the hard way. One of them is that if you truly want to persuade and influence, rather than just perform or provoke, you can’t do it alone. You must be willing to cooperate with people who may share only some of your views and goals.
RALEIGH — It was 250 years ago this week that North Carolinians fought in their first formal battle for American independence. But they didn’t fight it in North Carolina — and they didn’t fight British redcoats.
RALEIGH — Pointing to a projected $1 billion budget hole in North Carolina’s health plan for teachers and other public employees by 2027, State Treasurer Brad Briner and his team are implementing an array of program changes and premium hikes. Their response may not be popular among beneficiaries — but reform is essential if the state is to continue providing health benefits at a reasonable cost.
RALEIGH — The odd-year elections yielded precisely what all the warning signs of 2025 portended: a strong Democratic wave that crushed Republican nominees in the gubernatorial races of New Jersey and Virginia, gave Democrats their largest legislative majorities in decades in both states, delivered left-wing results in various ballot initiatives, and elected a hate monger as attorney general of Virginia and a socialist as mayor of New York.
RALEIGH — Because I’m a fiscal conservative, you might think I reflexively oppose government borrowing. You’d be mistaken. I believe that public finance and toxicology share a common rule: the dose makes the poison.
RALEIGH — According to the latest count by the U.S. Census Bureau, North Carolina has added yet another metropolitan area. Has our state become an urban colossus?
RALEIGH — Having spent nearly 40 years analyzing and writing about North Carolina politics and public policy, I often find myself placing today’s challenges and controversies into historical context.
After wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to rig congressional maps, the House passed a few bills that were dead on arrival in the Senate. But Senate leadership took the extraordinary step of outright refusing to accept the bills from the House because they were so outside the bounds of regular order.
RALEIGH — The North Carolina General Assembly is about to redraw the state’s congressional districts for the 2026 elections. It will be the fourth-such map employed this decade — and a terrible idea.
Republican lawmakers made clear today that they plan to come back to Raleigh and disenfranchise the voters of this state.
RALEIGH — Having expanded its Opportunity Scholarship program and strengthened its charter-school laws, North Carolina got a solid “B” in the latest American Legislative Exchange Council ranking of educational freedom. About a quarter of our students attend chartered public schools, private schools, or home schools.
"The allegations against Rep. Brockman are serious and, if true, would disqualify him from public office," House Democratic Leader Robert Reives said. "This is a developing situation and it is important to let the legal process unfold."
