North Carolina – Republicans
“Conservative Successes”?
Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the most stunning defeat in North Carolina politics in modern times. His column this week – “Let’s Not Miss Our Chance to Continue North Carolina’s Conservative Successes” – shows he’s out of touch with voters across North Carolina. On the…
Read MoreBerger Hurt Schools
In 15 years as boss of the Senate, Phil Berger has done incalculable damage to North Carolina’s public schools and to our state’s future. The day he conceded, Wake County’s school board was wrestling with – and rejecting – budget cuts that would have eliminated 130 special-education teachers. That’s just one consequence of Berger cutting…
Read MoreDethroning the King
Senator Thom Tillis told “wealthy potential donors” on a Zoom call last month that Phil Berger “had become too power hungry” and “had to go.” That scoop comes from Eduardo Medina, a Durham-based reporter for The New York Times, who has done some of the best reporting on Berger’s abrupt and stunning fall from power.…
Read MoreAnother School Study? Yes.
Some progressives groaned when Governor Josh Stein announced a bipartisan “Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education” last week. “Does NC Really Need Another Commission to Study Public Education?” asked Public Schools First NC. Yes, we do – if we want to break the political logjam that has blocked education progress in North Carolina for too…
Read MoreIndependents Turn Against GOP
North Carolina voters don’t like either the Democratic or Republican parties. But Independent voters – who are the key swing voters and who will decide the 2026 election – really, really dislike the GOP. That’s good news for Democrats this year. The poll we did last month of 1,069 voters across the state found they…
Read MoreMAGA-gator
Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote at PoliticsNC that, “In January 2011, State Senator Phil Berger and then-State Representative Thom Tillis entered the North Carolina political stage at the same time. As Republicans took control of the legislature for the first time in more than…
Read MoreToo Long
“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade…. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.” – General George Patton. Like Liston Ramsey and Marc Basnight before him, Phil Berger…
Read More2 Votes!
Because of just 2 votes, North Carolina politics will be consumed – and the General Assembly will be paralyzed – by recounts and court battles over the Phil Berger-Sam Page election. This could take even longer than the six months it took to settle the 2024 state Supreme Court race between Jefferson Griffin and Justice…
Read MoreWhy is Cooper Up by 10?
As Paige Masten wrote in The Charlotte Observer, our statewide poll showed Roy Cooper twice as far ahead in the U.S. Senate race as did another recent poll. She noted, “In the latest poll, conducted by Change Research, Cooper leads Michael Whatley, the likely Republican nominee, by 50% to 40%. A poll released last month…
Read MoreTrump Falls, Cooper Leads, Stein is Strong
We’re all drowning in polls, but still thirsting for reliable data about North Carolina voters this crucial election year. So, four of us (see below) did our own poll – an in-depth online survey of 1,069 North Carolina voters about Trump, the 2026 and 2028 elections, and a broad range of issues. We found: Trump’s…
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