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Carter Wrenn

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Gary Pearce

Carter is a Republican. Gary is a Democrat.

They met in 1984, during the epic U.S. Senate battle between Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt. Carter worked for Helms and Gary, for Hunt.

Years later, they became friends. They even worked together on some nonpolitical clients.

They enjoy talking about politics. So they started this blog in 2005.

They’re still talking. And they invite you to join the conversation.

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Yes He Will

By Gary Pearce July 15, 2025

Almost every day, somebody asks me, “Will Roy Cooper run for Senate?” Yes. I have no inside information. But the former governor is putting together his campaign team. He’s speaking out on social media. And he’s wise to wait. Waiting keeps the focus on who Trump picks to run for Senator Thom Tillis’ seat. Trump,…

Love

By Gary Pearce July 14, 2025

A veteran of North Carolina politics said something that surprised me: “The more I look at the world, the more I’m convinced that the answer to our problems is love.” Love is a word you don’t hear much in politics today. The Time of Trump is a time of hate. Every day, he searches for…

The Pilgrim – Part 1

By Carter Wrenn July 11, 2025

Seven years old, in 1933, waking up in a strange bed, staring into the semidarkness, he thought he was in Grand Central Railroad Station in New York. He wasn’t. He was in a hospital in his hometown near the border of Wales. He’d never set foot in New York City. Turning his head he saw…

MAGA World

By Carter Wrenn July 9, 2025

Let’s talk about the MAGA world. Trump tells a Republican Congressman ‘Vote for this’ and even though the Congressman thinks it’s a bad bill he votes the way Trump wants. How did Trump get that kind of power? Let’s take a look at North Carolina: We have 10 Republican Congressmen, all elected in ruby-red Republican…

Trump Disasters

By Gary Pearce July 9, 2025

While deadly floods hit Texas and North Carolina, Trump is gutting the National Weather Service, gutting FEMA and aggravating climate change, which causes more calamitous storms. He golfs while Americans drown. A headline in the Guardian said, “Deadly floods could be new normal as Trump guts federal agencies, experts warn.” Talking about the Texas disaster…

Tillis Told the Truth

By Gary Pearce July 7, 2025

Democrats have been gloating over Senator Thom Tillis’ political demise. We should be quoting him. Tillis is the single best validator of Democrats’ single most powerful issue against Trump and Republicans: the deep, devastating and life-threatening cuts in healthcare they rammed through Congress last week. He challenged them in a floor speech: “So, what do…

No End in Sight…

By Carter Wrenn July 7, 2025

Do an independent campaign, John Bolton told me a year before the 1980 election. Puzzled, I frowned, What’s an independent campaign? No corporation could give an independent campaign a penny, no person could give more than $5000. But 200,000 conservatives across the country had given $25 or $50 contributions to Jesse Helms’ 1978 campaign so…

GOP Sheep

By Gary Pearce July 6, 2025

The sheep, not the elephant, should be the symbol of today’s Republican Party. N.C. House Speaker Destin Hall said this last week about who will replace Senator Thom Tillis: “We must unify behind whoever President Trump picks.” “Whoever President Trump picks”? As of last week, there were 2,290,923 registered Republican voters in North Carolina. But…

Never Boring…

By Carter Wrenn July 2, 2025

You see a lot of strutting, and the truth can fly out the window in the blink of an eye, but the one thing you have to say about politics is…it’s never boring. Ole Thom Tillis sat in the Senate happy until the day Trump posted on Truth Social ‘he’s got to go’ – so…