North Carolina legislative leaders are demanding that the State Board of Elections release data on total outstanding ballots to provide transparency.
The co-chairs of the State Senate and House Elections Committees sent the demand in a letter Friday to Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which is controlled by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The announcement was made by N.C. Senate Leader Phil Berger.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Crom Carmichael to the studio to outline how the Georgia and North Carolina races may determine the future of America’s constitutional republic.
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Welcome to the Friday edition of our daily Virginia Trump campaign update! We will provide our readers with daily updates on the Trump Virginia campaign from today to November 3 (and after…if need be!).
We are in Election Day +2, and the nation is currently still awaiting results in several key battleground states.
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Over 50 million Americans have voted early with 11 days remaining until Election Day, far surpassing the 47 million early ballots cast in 2016.
While nearly every state has begun early voting, Texas, California and Florida lead the way, with 6.3 million, 5.8 million and 4.2 million ballots cast in each state, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
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The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday, allowing it to count absentee ballots that arrive before Nov. 12 as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3.
“All ballots must still be mailed on or before Election Day,” said Circuit Judge James Wynn in the court’s 12-3 ruling. “The change is simply an extension from three to nine days after Election Day for a timely ballot to be received and counted. That is all.”
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Tennessee is ranked fourth in the nation for COVID deaths per 100,000 people, WUOT reports, citing the White House Coronavirus Task Force’s red zone report, which calls for Gov. Bill Lee to implement a statewide mask mandate.
The controversial report is from earlier this month. The task force issues frequent red zone reports.
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President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee on Saturday filed suit to prevent North Carolina officials from adopting measures that would allow a greater number of absentee ballots to be counted in November.
The State Board of Elections said Tuesday that it would allow November ballots with incomplete information to be fixed without requiring the voter to redo their ballot, leading Republicans to file suit arguing that the system would lead to “fraud, coercion, theft, and otherwise illegitimate voting,” the Associated Press reported.
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A free speech advocacy group has sent two letters to East Carolina University after the public college banned gatherings of more than 50 students, but allowed a Black Lives Matter protest on campus.
Southeastern Legal Foundation sent a letter to the North Carolina public university on September 16 seeking information on its enforcement of its coronavirus policies. After receiving no response, the public interest law group sent a follow-up letter on September 24.
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On September 29, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will face off in Cleveland, Ohio for the first of three nationally televised debates. Unfortunately, by that time, some North Carolinians will already have started voting, as the first batch of absentee ballots were sent by the state on September 4th. That means that some North Carolinians won’t have the benefit of seeing the candidates on stage together to debate their visions for America prior to casting their vote. As you make your decision, it is important that you have the facts: President Trump’s leadership and policies built the world’s strongest economy once already, and he’s doing it again, providing opportunity and prosperity for North Carolina’s families and seniors.
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Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in six of the most competitive battleground states as both candidates amp up their fundraising efforts and place multimillion dollar ad buys just over seven weeks out from the election, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review.
In 2016, Trump pulled off an upset win after flipping Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Now, those three states, in addition to Arizona, Florida and North Carolina, are likely to decide the winner of November’s presidential election.
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Shortly after announcing that the fall semester would begin online, the board of education of the Durham, North Carolina public school department said it will charge families $140 per week to send their children to “learning centers” at various local schools.
The school board, which last month said it planned to activate its “Plan C” and start school in the fall with virtual learning, this week “authorized the opening of six learning centers to provide support for students who need supervision” while schools remain online, according to the school district’s website.
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Here is a transcript of what Vice President Mike Pence said while participating in a roundtable discussion on Wednesday talking about how to reopen schools safely.
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Vice President Mike Pence will visit Thales Academy on Wednesday while he is in North Carolina, according to ABC11.
Pence is going to view Thales Academy to see “how school choice works and to advocate for its further implementation,” ABC 11 reports.
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With news that Gov. Mike DeWine’s minor league baseball team cashed in on the Paycheck Protection Program, one may ask how Ohio’s top executive came to own a team in North Carolina or why he needed a taxpayer handout.
DeWine has a 32 percent stake in the Asheville Tourists minor league team, The Ohio Star reported this week.
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A company partly owned by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is among those that received loans from a $600 billion-plus coronavirus aid program.
The data released Monday shows DeWine Seeds-Silver Dollar Baseball received a loan under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program for a range of $150,000 to $350,000.
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Spectators in North Carolina’s capital cheered Sunday morning as work crews finished the job started by protesters Friday night and removed a Confederate statue from the top of a 75-foot (232 meter) monument.
Across the country, a peaceful protest in Portland, Oregon, against racial injustice turned violent early Sunday after baton-wielding police used flash-bang grenades to disperse demonstrators throwing bottles, cans and rocks at sheriff’s deputies near downtown’s Justice Center.
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The Tennessee House passed a resolution Thursday inviting the Republican National Committee to host its August convention in Nashville.
The resolution was passed after President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that he would be pulling the convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, whose Democratic governor refused to guarantee a full-scale convention amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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Uncertainty surrounding the 2020 Republican National Convention increased Tuesday as Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper rejected the GOP’s request to have a full, in-person convention.
In a letter addressed to the Republican National Committee (RNC), Cooper cited his concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
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Gov. Bill Lee confirmed Tuesday afternoon that GOP leaders are considering Nashville as an alternative site for August’s Republican National Convention just hours before President Donald Trump announced that he will be pulling the convention from North Carolina.
Lee’s office told WTVF that officials with the Republican National Committee will be visiting Nashville Thursday to tour the city.
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After President Donald Trump took to Twitter to threaten pulling the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte, N.C, other southeast states with Trump allies as governor have offered to host the convention.
The GOP convention is scheduled for late August in Charlotte. North Carolina entered phase two of its reopening plan amid the coronavirus pandemic last week under Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who has been cautious in lifting restrictions.
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In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper has adopted the policy premise that anything done in the name of safety from the coronavirus trumps all other interests, including economic, religious, or other health considerations. Despite comparatively low numbers in the Tar Heel state, the ninth most populous state in the United States, and with no evidence of the healthcare system being overwhelmed, North Carolina has been in full lockdown for over a month.
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Mayor John Cooper extended Davidson County’s safer at home order until at least May 8.
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An urgent appeal to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper:
For every COVID-19 case in North Carolina (4,500 estimated), 125 people have lost their jobs (500,000 unemployed across the state). You created this tragedy.
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Mayo Clinic announced last week that it is exploring the possibility of 3D printing face masks and other personal protective equipment items to employ in the national fight against COVID-19.
The famous clinic said its 3D Anatomic Modeling Laboratories across the country as well as its Division of Engineering are working together to “reverse-engineer, 3D-print and machine solutions for patient care.”
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Several companies in North Carolina are now 3D-printing protective face masks to provide locals with relief from the national shortage of N95 respirators.
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The Justice Department is probing a series of stock trades that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) made in the weeks after receiving briefings about the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reported.
The Justice Department is coordinating with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the matter, and the FBI has contacted Barr, a North Carolina Republican, according to CNN, which cited two people familiar with the matter.
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A North Carolina court on Monday temporarily blocked the state from using its congressional map in next year’s elections and strongly suggested it would eventually rule the districts were illegally gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
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Authorities have charged yet another out-of-state resident with TennCare fraud, and this time the alleged culprit is from North Carolina. According to a press release, officials with the Tennessee Office of Inspector General this week announced the arrest of Julie Carpenter of Mitchell County, North Carolina. The arrest is the result of a joint effort with the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office of North Carolina. Authorities transported her to the sheriff’s office of Johnson County, Tenn. where they have her housed, according to a press release. Carpenter is charged with one count of obtaining benefits through TennCare despite not qualifying for the program and one count of theft of services over $10,000, the press release went on to say. “Investigators say Carpenter reported that she had custody of her son when in fact the paternal grandparents of the child had court-ordered custody elsewhere,” according to the press release. “Additionally, it was discovered that Ms. Carpenter was not a resident of Tennessee and was in fact residing in Mitchell County, North Carolina. Carpenter continued to report this status to TennCare over a period of approximately a year and a half. Had Carpenter properly reported her household composition or out of state residency,…
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On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Leahy welcomed Rockingham County, North Carolina’s Sheriff of 20 years, Samuel ‘Sam’ Page to the show to speak about illegal immigration and how it’s affecting his county and those across the nation.
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Republicans managed to successfully hold both seats in the House of Representatives from North Carolina that were up for grabs in special elections Tuesday, marking three consecutive wins in special elections to the House this year.
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Detention centers across North Carolina have released hundreds of illegal aliens in their custody, defying detainer requests made by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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Hurricane Dorian has weakened to a Category 1 storm, after generating tornadoes and flooding roads in North and South Carolina.
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New polling shows U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) in serious trouble from a primary challenge by businessman Garland Tucker.
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A North Carolina gun shop is facing backlash after putting up a billboard that calls four Democratic congresswomen “idiots.”
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by Tyler Arnold A narrowly divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that federal judges have no authority to block politically gerrymandered maps. The 5-4 decision fell along ideological lines with the five conservative judges signing onto the decision and the liberal judges dissenting. “We conclude that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in his opinion. “Federal judges have no license to reallocate political power between the two major political parties, with no plausible grant of authority in the Constitution, and no legal standards to limit and direct their decisions.” Roberts said that the court has been asked to overturn politically gerrymandered lines for the past 45 years, but that it has never done so. If the court made decisions on whether maps were gerrymandered to favor a specific party, he said that judicial reviews would recur with every new round of redistricting. “That intervention would be unlimited in scope and duration,” Roberts said. He said it would be “an unprecedented expansion of judicial power.” Roberts emphasized that the Court is not condoning politically gerrymandered maps, but that the issue can be resolved by state courts enforcing state laws…
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by Pedro Gonzalez On a Sunday afternoon in May, Etta Nugent found Marco Cobos, a Mexican national, at her doorstep in Houston after his truck had broken down nearby. Cobos knocked and Nugent, described by friends as “gentle soul” and a “good Christian woman,” answered. When Cobos asked her to help him fix his truck, the septuagenarian politely declined, citing her age. Feeling entitled to a different answer, Cobos forced his way into Nugent’s home and stabbed her in the chest. He proceeded to show himself to kitchen to look for “more knives,” he told prosecutors, while his victim lay grievously wounded. As Nugent attempted to flee, Cobos killed her in her home of 50 years, across the street from St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church where she had worshiped for most of her life. With cash stolen from the house, Cobos drove Nugent’s car to an auto parts store to buy a new battery for his truck. He stopped for food before returning to Nugent’s home, where he ate and lounged for hours, helping himself to Nugent’s credit cards, even paying his phone bill with one of them. Nugent’s horrific fate has become all too common in an America…
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by Joshua Nelson A billboard campaign in North Carolina is taking aim at Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper after his announcement proposing freezing a scholarship program that has benefited minority students—more than 30 percent of which are African-American. The billboard says the governor is “failing when it comes to helping minority students” and encourages residents to call Cooper to reverse his decision. A group called the Job Creators Network launched the campaign on May 15 following Cooper’s recent budget proposal that included halting the North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship Program, a state voucher system that gives up to $4,200 to children from low-income households to attend a private school of their choice. The Job Creators Network is a nonpartisan organization that educates business owners, entrepreneurs, and employees on government policies they deem harmful to “Main Street America.” As a former benefactor of a school voucher program, Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the group, has been outspoken against Cooper’s decision. “One of our members who lives in North Carolina made me aware of [Cooper’s decision],” Ortiz said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “And again, because it is the kind of a personal thing with something like this where scholarships…
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by Henry Rogers North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows said that important documents relating to the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign will be released soon on Monday. In an appearance on Fox News’ Fox and Friends, the House Oversight Committee member responded to the former committee chair Trey Gowdy’s comments that the FBI possibly withheld “game-changing” evidence regarding the origins of the Russia probe. Meadows said he agreed with Gowdy that former Trump campaign associate George Papadopoulos was being taped and recorded by FBI informants and that the unreleased transcript was never released to the FISA court. “[Gowdy] has seen documents that actually I have not seen,” Meadows said. “But we have come to the same conclusion and that is, indeed, George Papadopoulos was actually taped and recorded,” saying the documents would expose exculpatory information on the question of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. “I think the delay is over,” Meadows continued. “I think the president is serious. I’ve spoken to him recently and I think declassification is right around the corner and hopefully the American people will be able to judge for themselves.” Meadows also said he and Papadopoulos have spoken about the possible declassification…
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North Carolina teachers took to the streets Wednesday for the second year in a row with hopes that a more politically balanced legislature will be more willing to meet their demands. Teachers, auxiliary staff and supporters marched in Raleigh with scheduled speakers including Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. When an estimated 20,000 people marched for teachers last year, Republicans held a veto-proof majority in the state House and Senate. The results of November’s election changed that, and now Cooper’s vetoes can stand if Democrats remain united. The House budget released Tuesday includes some of the teachers’ demands: higher pay for veteran teachers and restoration of a salary bump for teachers with masters’ degrees. Teachers in neighboring South Carolina also rallied Wednesday and Oregon teachers plan to gather next week as walkouts that began in West Virginia last spring continue across the country, with many proving successful. In Raleigh, teachers were going to meeting spots Wednesday morning ahead of the march and rally. One group of teachers donning red shirts with the North Carolina state outline walked to the state legislative building Wednesday morning. Among them was a seventh-grade student,…
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by Grace Carr Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a born-alive bill Thursday that sought to explicitly direct physicians to provide care for infants who survive abortion procedures. Cooper vetoed SB359, also known as the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” which passed the state legislature Tuesday. The state Senate first passed the bill Monday and the House passed the bill in a 65-46 vote Tuesday, according to The News & Observer. “Any infant born alive after an abortion or within a hospital, clinic, or other facility has the same claim to the protection of the law that would arise for any newborn, or for any person who comes to a hospital, clinic, or other facility for screening and treatment or otherwise becomes a patient within its care,” according to the legislation. Physicians who violate the bill would be charged with a Class D felony and fined up to $250,000. Cooper’s spokesman, Ford Porter, criticized the bill ahead of the governor’s Thursday veto. “This unnecessary legislation would criminalize doctors for a practice that simply does not exist,” Porter said, according to the Observer. “Laws already exist to protect newborn babies and legislators should instead be focused on other issues…
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The North Carolina Association of Educators is showing its true (Red) colors by using communist logos in promoting a May Day strike, which is also communist-inspired, says Pete Kaliner of News Radio 570. Kaliner posted an investigative report on the topic on Monday. He said the association has long said it is not a union and is not operated by “leftists.” But the upcoming May 1st demonstration leaves little doubt who is running that organization. Kaliner referenced Twitter posts with photos showing the group using a logo of a red fist, such as this one by The Chad Adams Show:“It’s one thing for folks to THINK you’re a communist organization, quite another when you adopt a communist symbol to represent your group. BAD CHOICE of the week @ncae for choosing Soviet Era CCCP logo as theirs! @TimBoyumTV @wuzzardo @RaleighReporter @TravisFain @PeteKaliner” It's one thing for folks to THINK you're a communist organization, quite another when you adopt a communist symbol to represent your group. BAD CHOICE of the week @ncae for choosing Soviet Era CCCP logo as theirs! @TimBoyumTV @wuzzardo @RaleighReporter @TravisFain @PeteKaliner pic.twitter.com/B77AEJfzhQ — The Chad Adams Perspective (@Chad_Adams) March 29, 2019 Kaliner also quoted Longleaf Politics, which reports…
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A crisis pregnancy center in North Carolina is the subject of a 93-page complaint filed by the Campaign for Accountability (CfA), a Washington, D.C. non-profit with ties to progressive activist and Media Matters founder David Brock. CfA is calling for state officials such as North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Attorney General Josh Stein and Secretary of Health and Human Services Mandy Cohen to” investigate and terminate” a contract between the Human Coalition and Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”). “The state granted Human Coalition funding to help support women with unplanned pregnancies, yet the reality is, those taxpayer funds have been spent proselytizing, which is not the same as actual healthcare,” said CfA Counsel Alice Huling (pictured, above) in a press statement. North Carolina’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein has waged his own war using North Carolina taxpayer funds by pulling the state into a multi-state suit challenging the Trump Administrations ‘Protect Life Rule‘ as part of Title X. “North Carolinians should be leary of a Washington, DC-based liberal nonprofit that uses litigation and aggressive communications in an attempt to defund pregnancy centers at a time when Marist poll finds more Americans are pro-life,” responded Tami Fitzgerald, NC Values Coalition…
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The United States Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments Tuesday on a pair of cases that could lead to the Ohio electoral map being completely redrawn. The two cases, Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisekm, could both set precedents that could supersede a similar Ohio case making its way to the Supreme Court. On August 5, 2016, Common Cause, the North Carolina Democratic Party, and a group of voters filed a complaint against Robert A. Rucho “in his official capacity as Chairman of the North Carolina Senate Redistricting Committee,” and several other key members who presided over the drawing of the 2016 North Carolina congressional map. The complaint alleged that the map is an: unconstitutional partisan gerrymander that violates the First Amendment (Count I), the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Count II), and Article I, section 2 of the Constitution of the United States (Count III), and also to declare that in adopting the 2016 Plan the legislature exceeded the authority granted by Article I, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that state legislatures “determine the times, places and manner of election” of members of the U.S. House of Representatives (Count IV). They also alleged that Democratic votes…
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Another North Carolina Sheriff says he will not uphold ICE detainers and will release criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets. In response, state lawmakers are taking action to protect the public with a bill the would require law enforcement to cooperate with immigration enforcement officials. “The sheriff’s office will continue to comply with all applicable state and federal laws, however, we do not make or enforce immigration laws; that is not part of our law enforcement duties,” Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said at a March 19th press conference. Miller is the latest in a line of sheriffs from Durham, Wake and Mecklenburg counties who are refusing to contact ICE or honor ICE detainers on illegal aliens they have in custody. ICE spokesman Bryan Cox responded to Miller’s remarks, telling the Asheville Citizen-Times that “as a direct result of this policy, persons in Asheville will see an increased presence of ICE.” North Carolina’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General Josh Stein, has made similar moves. In February, Stein contemplated joining a 16 state coalition which is suing President Trump over his emergency border declaration. The official North Carolina Department of Justice account tweeted a statement from Stein that said…
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On Monday, March 18th, former Democratic state house Representative Rodney Moore was indicted by a Mecklenburg County Grand Jury on nine felony charges involving false campaign finance disclosure reports. Moore had turned himself in to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department sometime on Wednesday. According to a press release from the State Board of Elections, “Moore knowingly certified under oath that false campaign finance reports were true, a violation of N.C.G.S. § 163A-1449. Each count is a Class I felony.” Also charged is Tammy Neal, Moore’s campaign treasurer. Neal is charged with one felony count of common law obstruction of justice. “We are grateful to the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office for its work on this case, as we are to all prosecutors who take election matters seriously,” State Board executive director Kim Westbrook Strach said in a statement. Strach said that audits like these help “detect those who try to use their campaign accounts as personal piggy banks.” “We hope these prosecutions highlight the importance of accurate campaign finance disclosure. Voters have a right to know how candidates are raising and spending campaign cash,” said Strach. The State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement voted unanimously in October of 2018 to…
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A complaint filed by multiple law firms wants the North Carolina State Employees Health Plan to cover transgender sex-reassignment surgeries and hormone treatments. The complaint was filed by Lambda Legal, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (LLTDEF) and local attornies affiliated with Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis. “The only reason our plaintiffs are being denied coverage for medically necessary health care is because they are transgender or they have children who are transgender,” said Lambda Legal’s Taylor Brown in a press release. The filing accuses the State Health Plan of discriminating against transgender employees and their dependents by depriving “transgender enrollees of coverage for the treatment of gender dysphoria – the clinically significant distress that can result from the dissonance between an individual’s gender identity and sex assigned at birth.” The suit claims ‘targeted discrimination’ due to the lack of “coverage for the treatment of gender dysphoria – the clinically significant distress that can result from the dissonance between an individual’s gender identity and sex assigned at birth.” The suit says that the State Health Plan is not providing “counseling, hormone therapy, surgical care, and any other health care provided in relation to a person’s transgender status and/or gender transition.…
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Every major North Carolina Democrat, including Governor Roy Cooper, is focused on pushing for the expansion of Medicaid. Cooper included Medicaid expansion in his budget and in his State of the State speech. In both instances, the tax hit to North Carolinians went unaddressed by Cooper but not by state lawmakers. “Governor Cooper is pushing this idea that his Medicaid expansion proposal is revenue-neutral to the state, but that idea is just not based in reality,” said Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) in a press release. “There is no such thing as ‘free’ money, someone always has to pay. In this case, it’s the taxpayers in the private insurance market who at the end of the day will pay the price of this new tax to fund expansion.” Part of the argument to expand is a ‘but the other states are doing it’ argument. As of February 2019, 36 have expanded Medicaid and 14, including North Carolina, have not. What the current debate on the topic has left out is the millions of Medicaid fraud cases each year. According to the North Carolina Department of Justice, settlements in Medicaid fraud cases have totaled over $65.5 million just in the last…
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North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper announced the appointment of Judge Mark Davis to the state’s supreme court this week. “Right now I’m the most excited human being in the state of North Carolina to be able to join the Supreme Court,” said Judge Davis during the announcement at the Executive Mansion. “This is truly the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me, and I feel like I have been preparing for this moment for my entire professional career,” Davis said. “I know Judge Davis is dedicated to his work and to serving the people of North Carolina, and I know he will continue to serve with distinction as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court,” said Gov. Cooper. More on the announcement here: https://t.co/3gS1oKapfb pic.twitter.com/mPQGZyNhoC — Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) March 11, 2019 “I know Judge Davis is dedicated to his work and to serving the people of North Carolina, and I know he will continue to serve with distinction as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court,” said Governor Cooper in a statement. The appointment of Davis keeps the state supreme court overwhelmingly partisan with six Democrats and one Republican. The maintaining of a hyperpartisan court is a…
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Over two dozen candidates have filed for the North Carolina 3rd Congressional District’s special election. Filing closed on March 8th with a tally of six Democrats, seventeen Republicans, two libertarians and one Constitution party candidate. The Democrats considered front-runners are Richard Bew, a Retired Marine who was a pilot at the North Carolina Marine Corps Cherry Point station, and Allen Thomas, the former mayor of Greenville who currently serves as the Executive Director of the Global TransPark located in Kinston. Other Democrats in the race are Isiah ‘Ike’ Johnson, a retired Marine; Gregory Humphrey, a retired Deputy Fire Chief and Vietnam Vet; Dana Outlaw, the mayor of New Bern; and Ernest Reeves, a retired Army Captain who took on Jones in 2016 but lost big with only 32.8% of the vote compared to Jones’ 67.8%. The Republicans have 17 candidates in the running with three current state house representatives and the former vice chair of the NC GOP being considered as competitive ‘tier one candidates’. Phil Shepard is the state house representative for Onslow and Greg Murphy represents Pitt County. Both have five terms in the North Carolina General Assembly under their belts. There had been speculation that Shepard’s Onslow…
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North Carolina’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein has pulled the Tarheel state into a multi-state suit challenging the Trump Administrations ‘Protect Life Rule‘ as part of Title X. “Title X clinics screen for cancer, prevent unintended pregnancies, and reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections,” said Attorney General Josh Stein in a press release. “These are critical healthcare services that change and save lives. This proposed gag rule would prevent women in North Carolina from making the healthcare decisions that allow them to lead happy, healthy lives.” The national suit was filed March 4 by 20 other states and District of Columbia with California filing its own version. North Carolina will be the only state in the south to join the suit. The other states involved are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. All of the states involved have Democratic attorney generals. “North Carolina Values Coalition supports the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule, which redirects Title X family planning program funds away from the abortion industry and bars taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring patients to abortion providers,” said Tami Fitzgerald, NC…
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