Elections

The State Board of Elections has hired new top staff members who have previously worked for Republican elected officials. The hiring moves come after the legislature moved the agency into the state auditor's office and gave the board a Republican majority.

Political experts say North Carolina's Senate race next year could see around $500 million in campaign spending, and the contest between former Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley could set a new record for the most expensive Senate race in the country.

A Republican-backed spending bill would allow the hiring of political appointees to state elections administrations staff.

While the legal battle over last year’s N.C. Supreme Court election is now settled, it’s not the last unresolved election contest remaining in North Carolina. A legal dispute over the 2023 election for mayor of the Robeson County town of Pembroke is still dragging on.

The North Carolina House passed a bill that would put that question to voters in 2025.

Nickel joined the WUNC Politics Podcast this week to talk about how he plans to take on incumbent Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, the prospects that former Gov. Roy Cooper could enter the race, and what he thinks Democrats should do differently to fight the Trump administration.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission is now central to President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to overhaul elections. One of the commission’s boards will meet Thursday in North Carolina, the first commission-related meeting since the directives were announced.

Democrat Josh Stein has already sued to block legislative Republicans from taking away his powers

North Carolina trial judges have dismissed a lawsuit challenging redrawn legislative and congressional district lines on the argument that they run afoul of an indirect constitutional right to "fair elections." The judges wrote this week that a recent affirmation by the state Supreme Court that redistricting policy decisions are left to the General Assembly still applies.

A divided North Carolina election board has blocked for now the official party recognition of political groups that collected signatures and want Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West on this fall’s presidential ballot.