Welcome back to the Old North State Update. This is edition #23 for 2026.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Flipping the script
Democrats in the North Carolina House who have been in the “defund the police camp” since the George Floyd BLM riots of 2020 are now suddenly wanting to invest in public safety. In fact, they want over $1B in a safety package they pushed this week.
Where’s BLM? Say her name?
The House Oversight Committee held a hearing with various state and local Charlotte officials about the horrifying death of six-year-old Dominique Moody.
I have a thread with links to the meeting materials on X for those who want to peruse it. There is a brief but good write up at Carolina Journal.
Veto override delivers huge School Choice win
This week the House completed the veto override of House Bill 87, which enters NC into President Trump’s school choice tax credit program. Two of the former Democrats targeted by their own party in the primary helped secure the override.
Check out my thread on X:
Bookmark for the midterms
NC Free dropped its legislative partisan ratings heading into the midterms. Few surprises there and most are districts I am already watching. I’ll drop my watch list in a separate post.
U.S. SENATE
Dark Money and Roy Cooper
Over at the NY Post: Records reveal ties between Dem Senate hopeful Roy Cooper and dark-money group
This story about Cooper’s ties with “Moving NC Forward” may be news to some, but I was on it back in 2019 when I was NC bureau chief for the Tennessee Star and then later again at NSJ.
Whatley in Zebulon and New Bern
Mid-week Whatley was in Zebulon, holding an event with hospitality and food service workers on the positive impact of “no tax on tips.” The event was held at Smash Masters restaurant and featured around half a dozen servers and bartenders whose lives have changed by being able to keep more of what they earn.
I was at the Zebulon event and will have a recap for NSJ next week, but the broad strokes include food service staffers talking about how no tax on tips has put a lot more money in their pockets and more economic security. The point of the event was a contrast with Cooper’s ‘make stuff cost less,’ campaign, which the bare bones plan attached to it now has possible AI origins.
Speaking of AI, there was a kerfuffle at Whatley’s Zebulon event press gaggle when the media gaggle was hijacked by a reporter (Bryan Anderson) from the left-leaning The Assembly. He was more interested in forcing gotcha questions about an AI graphic that had an image of a man not on the Hurricanes team that Whatley posted than asking real ones about the event. Check my thread on X for the details.
Anderson then employed some revisionist history of his actions after I and others called him out on it. Check the replies for this post by radio host Nick Craig for that exchange, but also the sub-thread where Anderson tries to gaslight me and my response.
My irritation with this stems from watching the young servers and bartenders who put their stories out there being disregarded and disrespected in favor of a reporter chasing a viral (yellow) story.
Whatley also held a roundtable in New Bern discussing how “agriculture drives the North Carolina economy.” In attendance were U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, NC Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler, NC Commissioner of Labor Luke Farley, and a collection of North Carolina family farmers.
Going back to AI — again
Whoever is running Cooper’s social media strategy needs a new job. It sure feels like an AI bot is writing Cooper’s social media posts on X, which have become a constant drumbeat of revisionist history and projection in recent months. Users on X have been torching them in the comments one by one but the campaign keeps posting them.
One recent example — Cooper dropped an ad on social media starring Cooper himself. It was campy and low-energy despite Cooper trying to seem excited. If you read the replies to the posting, it did not go over well. Neither did this post, which he was nuked for in the replies:
POLLING
Real Clear Polling’s average in the NC Senate race is unchanged from last week; Cooper up 6.8 points.
GALLUP: Economic Confidence Sinks Further, Worst Since 2022
ENTEN: Predictive markets show supporting Nazi-tattooed Graham Platner has Democrats 14 points underwater to take back the Senate. Dave Rubin has the clip:
WHAT I AM READING
How CMPD tracked down man they say organized south Charlotte street takeover (Key quote at the very end: “Hernandez-Moreno was arrested, but the jail shows the Honduran national was released even though he has an ICE detainer.”)
NEA teachers union accused of hostile work environment, discrimination against Jewish members
Also: WFAE’s Steve Harrison took a look at the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s activities in Charlotte. Unlike my column on PSL a week ago, there’s nothing in his write up about who is funding them.
Plus: Be sure to scroll down Carolina Partnership for Reform’s newsletter this week to check out how bad the media bias is in covering Roy Cooper’s scandals.