By JOHN HOOD Campaigns for president, U.S. Senate and House, governor, and hundreds of other political races have spent staggering sums to market their candidates to North Carolina voters. But will all that spending really change anyone’s mind? If you look at empirical research, you’ll f
By JOHN HOOD There are about 300,000 fewer jobs in North Carolina today than there were in February, before the start of the COVID-19 recession. That’s a 7.5% drop in total employment — the biggest decline in the southern United States. Our labor market also compares poorly on other meas
By John Hood, Carolina Journal News Service For 16 years, former state Rep. Cherie Berry has served as North Carolina’s labor commissioner. Now she’s retiring, and another Republican state representative, Josh Dobson of McDowell County, is running to replace her. Dobson’s opponent is Dem
By JOHN HOOD RALEIGH — North Carolina, like most of the country, has become increasingly polarized in our political thinking and behavior. But what does that really mean? Well, we know it doesn’t mean that all North Carolinians are so rigidly partisan they support onl
By JOHN HOOD Carolina Journal RALEIGH — In this seemingly endless year of disease, destruction, dissension, and despair, what’s an optimist to do? This is no hypothetical question for me. I’m a naturally optimistic person. As one of my favorite songs goes, “Grab your coat and get
by John Hood When Democrat Jen Mangrum and Republican Catherine Truitt first filed to run for state superintendent of public instruction, neither could have expected that the central issue of the 2020 race would be whether to allow public schools to provide in-person instruction to N
by John Hood North Carolina’s economy, battered by COVID-19 itself as well as government’s costly attempts to contain its spread, is still struggling to recover. There were about 350,000 fewer jobs in August than in February. That’s a 7.6% decline in total employment — the worst in t
by John Hood The post of lieutenant governor is a constitutional office in North Carolina, and the only one empowered to exercise both legislative and executive powers. Those powers are rather limited, however — casting a vote in the state senate when there is a tie, “presiding” over
By JOHN HOOD North Carolina is already the homeschooling capital of the United States. Now the attraction of this education option is soaring higher than ever — thanks not to the actions of its proponents but to the antics of its opponents. According to data compiled by the organization&
JOHN HOOD RALEIGH — According to the latest jobs report, North Carolina’s headline unemployment rate fell to 6.5% in August, down from 8.5% in July. Good news worth celebrating, right? Don’t pop the cork on that champagne just yet. This was mostly a statistical artifact, not a major imp
by John Hood I have repeatedly criticized Roy Cooper’s troubling efforts to amass power in the governor’s office at the expense of other elected state leaders, local governments, and private citizens. I have related the history of Cooper’s conflict with the General Assembly. I
by John Hood RALEIGH — North Carolina’s state government began its 2020-21 fiscal year with $1.5 billion in cash left over from last year plus another $1.8 billion in rainy-day funds and other earmarked reserves. Since then, the state has collected some $1.5 billion more in General F
