Politics

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faced criticism this week for its decision to pay the Sons of Confederate Veterans $2.5 million, and hand over the Confederate monument Silent Sam which was erected during the Jim Crow era and loomed over the school’s campus until it was toppled in August, 2018.

Now that incumbent North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis lost his Republican primary challenger Garland Tucker, will he stick close to President Trump or try to appease centrists in the state? Political Junkie Ken Rudin analyzes Tillis’ strategy with host Frank Stasio.

Nancy McFarlane has seen a lot of changes in Raleigh in her 12 years on the City Council. She was first elected in 2007, just before the recession slowed growth around the nation.

Darren Jackson wants to be the next Speaker of the North Carolina House.

Jackson (D-Wake) is currently the Democratic leader in House. He says if Democrats can take back the chamber he will insist on redistricting reform at the General Assembly.

In a wide ranging conversation, Jackson discusses candidate filing for the 2020 elections, which began Monday. And he addresses a friendship with David Lewis (R-Harnett) that soured after a controversial budget-override vote on September 11th.

The North Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans are now the official owners of the controversial Silent Sam statue that once stood on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill.

A state court has given the green light to open candidate filing for North Carolina's 2020 congressional elections. The judicial panel ruled Monday that the importance of holding the state's March 3 congressional primaries on time was more pressing than the need to resolve lingering legal questions about North Carolina's new congressional map.

Democratic Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg worshiped at Greenleaf Christian Church, a majority black church in Goldsboro, on Sunday.

Plans to overhaul North Carolina's Medicaid program are on an indefinite hold — another casualty of the budget impasse. 

A Republican-led investigation concluded Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper improperly handled negotiations over a mitigation fund related to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.

And, on the heels of legislative redistricting, a five-term state senator has announced his retirement. 

Rob Schofield of NC Policy Watch and Becki Gray of the John Locke Foundation give their takes — from the left and the right — on what's behind the week's political news. 

This week’s impeachment hearings featured bombshell testimony, but is it reliable? Gordon Sondland, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, testified Wednesday and confirmed a quid pro quo with Ukrainian leaders —  a meeting with President Donald Trump in exchange for investigations into the president’s political rivals.

An investigation launched by the Republican-controlled General Assembly has concluded that Gov. Roy Cooper improperly handled negotiations over a $57.8 million fund related to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.

Rufus Edmisten knows something about impeachment hearings.

In the summer of 1973, while working as a staffer to U.S. Senator Sam Ervin, it was Edmisten who hand-delivered a subpoena to the White House. He called it a footnote in American history.

Following his role in the Watergate hearings, Edmisten served as North Carolina Attorney General, and later Secretary of State. Edmisten was also defeated during a bruising 1984 gubernatorial campaign. Edmisten discusses these topics, as well as his passion for gardening, on the latest episode of the WUNCPolitics Podcast.

The people of Asheville successfully fought against an effort from the North Carolina state legislature to change how the city’s local elections were run.

North Carolina's General Assembly approved a replacement congressional map. 

Newly elected Republican Congressman Dan Bishop tweeted out the name of the person he believes is the whistleblower at the center of the ongoing impeachment inquiry. 

And state lawmakers adjourned an extra-long legislative session without resolving a budget impasse.  

Rob Schofield of NC Policy Watch — on the left —and Mitch Kokai of the John Locke Foundation— on the right — weigh in on the week's political news. 

Republican Dan Forest wants to be promoted to governor of North Carolina.  

Forest, in his second-term as lieutenant governor, says  Democratic incumbent Roy Cooper is too liberal.

On this edition of the WUNC Politics Podcast, Forest gives his take on Medicaid expansion, why he believes a significant expansion of charter schools would benefit public education, and why he's happy to have a primary opponent for 2020.