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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A World Lit Only by Fire – Part III

By Carter Wrenn May 3, 2024

A peasant’s son Martin Luther never knew the year he was born. Believing children were wicked his father whipped him, his mother caned him. Luther’s harsh life led him to take refuge in the cloister. The Saxon prince started a college – Luther moved to Wittenburg, taught about St. Paul. Believed, like Paul, truth and…

A World Lit Only by Fire – Part II

By Carter Wrenn May 2, 2024

After Rodrigo Borgia died, soft-spoken but cunning Leo de Medici became pope, after bribing cardinals ended up strapped for cash. A German prince said he wanted to be an Archbishop. Leo told him that would cost him 12,000 gold ducats – 1000 for each of the Apostles. The prince frowned: How about 7000, one thousand…

A World Lit Only by Fire – Part I

By Carter Wrenn May 1, 2024

It was a time, Tom Hanks wrote describing the end of the Middle Ages, when dukes and serfs paid popes to keep from going to hell. The Holy Roman Empire was not holy, not Roman, and not an empire. He’d read A World Lit Only by Fire, William Manchester’s last book, five times. Popes hid…

Trust Flies Out the Window

By Carter Wrenn April 29, 2024

Planned Parenthood’s spending a ton of money – $10 million – to elect pro-abortion candidates in North Carolina. Eyes locked on white suburban women it’s running digital ads, knocking on a million doors to elect Joe Biden, the Democrat candidate for governor, and break the Republican super-majority in the state House and Senate. The first…

A School Test

By Gary Pearce April 29, 2024

The Republican legislature may not vote for Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s school plan, but North Carolinians can in November. The Governor has drawn a line in the sand – and a clear line of difference between the two parties. Cooper’s plan: 5% teacher pay raise this year $1,500 retention bonus restore master’s degree pay for…

Democrats’ Country Inroads

By Gary Pearce April 25, 2024

New data shows that North Carolina Democrats are right to look for votes on country roads and small-town streets. A group called Rural Democracy Initiative – “Communities, Not Corporations” – will release a poll next month saying that “rural voters tend to be economic populists who would overwhelmingly support parts of the Democratic Party’s agenda…

A Lost Soul

By Carter Wrenn April 23, 2024

We don’t know much about him – he grew up in a village on the coast of Long Island, bowled in high school, sang karaoke, got two college degrees, moved to St. Augustine, Florida. His mother, struggling with pulmonary disease, died – he wrote, “I am proud to say she navigated the awful challenges of…

Rachel Hunt and MAGA Meltdown

By Gary Pearce April 23, 2024

Two things this past weekend made me feel good about this election. First, I crashed a women’s fundraiser for Rachel Hunt, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. Second, I posted on X/Twitter this photo of Hunt and me, showing off the Jim Hunt Dark Brandon shirt my wife got me for my birthday. A mega…

Trump’s Ordeal – Week 1

By Carter Wrenn April 22, 2024

Trump rolled through two civil trials, hardly blinking, defiant, but at the end of the first week of his criminal trial sitting at the defense table staring straight ahead, eyes sagging, he looked weary. Worn down. A born street fighter, living by the sword, like a reflex Trump punches back whenever someone punches him –…

Getting the News

By Gary Pearce March 13, 2026

How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…

MAGA-gator

By Gary Pearce March 12, 2026

Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…

Enough is Enough

By Gary Pearce March 11, 2026

Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…