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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Carter Wrenn

Gary Pearce 2024

Gary Pearce

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Crossing the Line

By Carter Wrenn 2023-07-25

The first time Trump said, ‘The election was stolen,’ I thought it was his vanity speaking – afraid he’d be seen as a ‘loser’ he spun a tale. But Trump said it so often, over and over, and so many people – like Rudy Giuliani – told him he was right, he came to believe…

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Changing Sexes

By Carter Wrenn 2023-07-24

I read the story on the front page of the newspaper: A four-year-old girl told her parents she wanted to be a boy. Her parents said no. Angry, the child threw fits, hyperventilating. Her mother searched for the words ‘gender identity’ on the internet, talked with therapists, doctors. A year later her family, starting down…

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Wolfpack Howled, Too

By Gary Pearce 2023-07-22

A fellow N.C. State alum emailed that it wasn’t just UNC students who protested the infamous Speaker Ban Law in the 1960s – a precursor to today’s legislature squelching free speech at our universities. My blog “Free Speech Under Attack – Again” (link below) was inspired by Hugh Stevens’ story of how the Speaker Ban…

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Trump’s Delusion

By Gary Pearce 2023-07-20

There’s no reasoning with Trump and MAGA, but there’s a good reason President Biden isn’t “weaponizing” the Justice Department to knock Trump out of the 2024 race: Trump is the Republican Biden is most likely to beat. As 2016 showed, there are no certainties in politics. Trump could win and execute his plan to vastly…

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Riveting

By Carter Wrenn 2023-07-19

“Deranged Jack Smith,” Trump tweeted, “the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.” It…

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Big Mark and Big Pharma

By Gary Pearce 2023-07-18

When it comes to Big Pharma, Lt. Governor Mark Robinson goes from roaring lion to purring pussycat. The Republican candidate for governor told the New Hanover County GOP, “I don’t intend to do like our current attorney general did and sue the drug company.” Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democratic candidate for governor, did sue…

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Not This Kennedy

By Gary Pearce 2023-07-14

A recent poll showed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. getting 20% of the Democratic vote against President Biden. I’ll wager that most all of the 20% who picked Kennedy know just one thing about him: He’s a “Kennedy.” They don’t know – yet – that he’s an anti-vaccine, anti-science, conspiracy-spewing misogynist who said recently, “I’m proud…

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A Flash of Lightning

By Carter Wrenn 2023-07-12

A year into the toughest campaign I was ever in when Jesse Helms trailed popular Governor Jim Hunt by 25 points, Arthur Finkelstein walked into my office, dropped a poll on the table, looked from me to Tom Ellis, pursed his lips. “It’s time you two learned something new.” Arthur pointed to the 4-inch-thick poll…

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Free Speech Under Attack – Again

By Gary Pearce 2023-07-11

Sixty years later, history has hit “repeat” on the fight for free speech at North Carolina’s public universities. In 1963, it was one bill – the infamous Speaker Ban law – passed on one day at the end of the legislative session. Now, it’s bill after bill, step after step, day after day: the legislature,…

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A Lost Soul

By Carter Wrenn 2024-04-23

We don’t know much about him – he grew up in a village on the coast…

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Rachel Hunt and MAGA Meltdown

By Gary Pearce 2024-04-23

Two things this past weekend made me feel good about this election. First, I crashed a…

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Trump’s Ordeal – Week 1

By Carter Wrenn 2024-04-22

Trump rolled through two civil trials, hardly blinking, defiant, but at the end of the first…

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