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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Bonding Over BBQ

By Gary Pearce September 20, 2023

Anderson Clayton reminds me of Jim Hunt: the same energy, the same enthusiasm and the same determination to make North Carolina better – through the Democratic Party. A couple of us old Hunt hands saw that this week when the 86-year-old four-term governor and the 25-year-old first-term party chair met for the first time, at…

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Cooper’s Casino Blast

By Gary Pearce September 18, 2023

Governor Roy Cooper measures his words carefully, so his tweet Saturday afternoon was striking: “GOP demand for passage of their backroom casino deal in exchange for a state budget and Medicaid expansion is the most brutally dishonest legislative scheme I’ve seen in my 3+ decades. People are right to be suspicious. Something has a grip…

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Lauch Faircloth

By Gary Pearce September 17, 2023

Former Senator Lauch Faircloth, who died last week at age 95, was a Democrat before he got mad at Terry Sanford. Faircloth got his revenge and got elected to the U.S. Senate. Then he got beat by John Edwards. I was there for the whole Shakespearean saga of vengeance, ambition and – sometimes – comedy.…

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Calling Out Liars

By Gary Pearce September 15, 2023

Good for the Biden White House! The day after Speaker Kevin McCarthy caved in to the ultra-right and launched a bogus impeachment of the President, the White House fired back – and took a pointed jab at the media: “It’s Time For The Media To Do More To Scrutinize House Republicans’ Demonstrably False Claims That…

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FUBAR

By Gary Pearce September 13, 2023

In Washington, Republicans block military promotions (still), vowed to shut down the government (again) and launched a bogus impeachment of President Biden. In Raleigh, Republicans can’t pass a budget (still), adjourned without doing anything (again) and were at each other’s throats over casinos. In the press room of Raleigh’s Legislative Building, there’s a FUBAR Meter…

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Trump Versus Biden

By Carter Wrenn September 13, 2023

Biden’s itching to run against Trump – he’s the Republican Biden’s most likely to beat. And it looks like Biden may get what he wants – in a poll last week Trump had 52% of the vote, a big lead, in the Republican primary. But there’re warning signs (for Trump): A block of his voters…

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24 Hours

By Carter Wrenn September 12, 2023

Ole Trump’s a law unto himself. Back during COVID he speculated that injecting bleach in your arm might kill the virus. Last week, in New York, he said that when he was president he prevented a nuclear holocaust and saved millions of lives. Running for president, again, he says he’ll end the Ukraine War in…

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How Low Can They Go?

By Gary Pearce September 11, 2023

You’ve hit bottom when Donald Trump Jr. accuses you of “shady back room deals.” He tweeted about North Carolina legislators’ machinations on casinos: “What’s going on in NC? Outrageous. Shady back room deals and crony capitalism are not the path to #MAGA!” One thing the Trumps surely know is The Art of the Shady Deal.…

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The Inescapable Issue

By Carter Wrenn September 11, 2023

Powers beyond our control, breeding crises no one saw coming, have changed politics in the blink of an eye: Pearl Harbor did that. So did 9/11. And Covid. The ‘unexpected’ makes predicting the outcome of an election a year away risky business. For all we know Putin may invade Poland next. Or Kim Jong Un…

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Jimmy Carter

By Gary Pearce December 31, 2024

The peanut farmer from Plains was a blessing to North Carolina Democrats in 1976. In 1972,…

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Hitting the Nail on the Head

By Carter Wrenn December 27, 2024

Staring at a title, tempted by two words, I clicked – it looked like a knife…

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Cooper for President

By Gary Pearce December 27, 2024

Roy Cooper could be just what the Democratic Party will need in 2028. A progressive with…

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