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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Stein’s Party Lines

By Gary Pearce January 14, 2025

Governor Josh Stein wisely ignored my semi-serious suggestion that he devote his inaugural speech to denouncing power-obsessed Republican bosses in the General Assembly. But he made the point. He said, “We have real problems to solve. And we do not have time to settle petty political scores or fight divisive culture wars.” The Governor noted…

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Disaster Duty

By Gary Pearce January 12, 2025

Climate change has changed governors’ jobs. They now must be masters of disasters: floods, fires, hurricanes and winter storms. As soon as he was sworn in, Governor Josh Stein signed executive orders for Hurricane Helene relief. He went to hard-hit communities to see the situation and talk to victims. Just like with Roy Cooper eight…

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The Past, Never Past, Just Keeps Repeating Itself

By Carter Wrenn January 10, 2025

The Past, Never Past, Just Keeps Repeating Itself Off and running, campaign racing down the road, Thom Tillis ran head on into two threats: Can he beat Roy Cooper in a General Election? Can he win a primary if Trump opposes him? Three years ago, flailing in the primary, running for Senate, Congressman Ted Budd…

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Devil’s Whispers

By Carter Wrenn January 9, 2025

One voice roared the man who killed fourteen people in New Orleans was angry because he was broke; nodding, another pointed out he’d also lost his job. The man in Las Vegas, another said, blew up a bomb in front of a hotel because he suffered from PTSD. Psychologists, sociologists, professors, wizards in newspapers pointing…

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Burying Dignity

By Gary Pearce January 9, 2025

America inters a decent, honest President and inaugurates a dishonest, indecent President. Jimmy Carter called on the best in us. Donald Trump calls up the worst in us. Carter had humility, empathy and compassion. Trump calls that “weak” and “woke.” Carter called it living his Christian faith. When he was running for President in 1976,…

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Inaugural Punch

By Gary Pearce January 7, 2025

Governor Josh Stein likely will seek common ground with Republicans in his inaugural speech Saturday. Instead, I wish he’d punch them in the nose from the get-go and pummel them across the stage until he sits down. I wish he’d say, “The greatest threat to North Carolina’s strength, growth and progress in the coming four…

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A Price?

By Carter Wrenn January 6, 2025

Before the election, looking from Trump to Harris, a lot of my friends without hesitation thought, Trump, amen. Trump fit their political world – he’d avoid foreign wars, cure the economy But hardly a soul asked, ‘What’s more important in a president: Politics or Character?’ Sitting in the White House, how does a president’s character…

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Finding a Genius

By Carter Wrenn January 3, 2025

Happy, naming cabinet members, on his way back to the White House, Trump says he sees phenomenal days ahead. Oddly, there’s one word you hardly ever hear these days: Covid. People like to forget hard times. But Covid was Trump’s toughest challenge. How’d he do? When the plague first reared its head he told us…

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Governor Stein

By Gary Pearce January 2, 2025

Because he grew up in Chapel Hill and went to Ivy League colleges, Josh Stein sometimes is portrayed as a departure from past Democratic governors in North Carolina. He’s actually the latest in a political bloodline that goes back to Terry Sanford in 1960 and runs through Jim Hunt, Mike Easley and Roy Cooper: a…

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The World of RNC Politics

By Carter Wrenn November 21, 2023

After Ronna McDaniel‘s spat with Vivek Ramaswamy the RNC stumbled again, telling Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley,…

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A Piece of the Political World

By Carter Wrenn November 20, 2023

Vivek Ramaswamy’s fast-talking, quirky, untouched by humility and staring at Ronna McDaniel sitting in the audience…

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Picking Apart Polls

By Gary Pearce November 17, 2023

My opinion of the Meredith College poll is higher than of media polls – because of…

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