WUNC Politics

It's been a wild week in North Carolina politics, so in addition to our Wednesday election analysis episode, we're sharing our Week in Politics segment, which airs on WUNC News each Friday during Morning Edition.WUNC news political editor Dave DeWitt spoke with reporters Colin Campbell and Adam Wagner about what's next in ballot counting and recounts, the prospects for a November lame-duck...

Tuesday’s election brought a massive blue wave to North Carolina and other states across the country. Democrats won a huge margin in the state’s U.S. Senate race and flipped several Republican congressional districts that no one thought would be competitive just a few months ago.And in the state legislature, Democrats flipped the state House with a comfortable majority, while coming close to...

A leading GOP strategist says low turnout numbers for Republicans has the potential to lead to Democratic majorities in the state legislature. Early voting statistics and last-minute polling across the country seem favorable for Democrats, and that’s made their party optimistic about a big blue wave on November 3rd. But Republicans are hoping their voters will turn out in bigger numbers on...

High voter turnout for Democrats could be putting multiple Republican-held Congressional seats in North Carolina in play for the first time in years. Early voting is now well under way, and we’re getting some early statistics on turnout. The numbers look so concerning for the GOP that at least six of North Carolina’s incumbent Republicans in Congress are now buying TV ads in what had been...

Democratic Congressman Don Davis is considered one of the most endangered incumbents in the country this year, after state lawmakers redrew his 1st Congressional District boundaries to make it more Republican. But some polls show Davis still has a lead over Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout. So why is Davis so hard to beat, and why has he previously outperformed fellow Democrats in...

Democrats are hoping to pick up seats in the legislature this year to bolster Gov. Josh Stein’s vetoes, but to expand their margins, they’ll have to defend seats they flipped two years ago. That includes House District 32 in Vance and Granville counties north of the Triangle. The race is a rematch from 2024, when Democrat Bryan Cohn defeated Republican Frank Sossamon by just 228 votes. Sossamon...

There's only one seat on the N.C. Supreme Court on this November's ballot, and while the outcome won't change the partisan makeup of the state's highest court, it could help determine whether Democrats have a shot at retaking the court majority in 2028. Justice Anita Earls, a Democrat seeking a second eight-year term, faces Republican Sarah Stevens, who recently stepped down from the N.C. House...

Research Triangle Park has been a driving force in North Carolina’s growth, but it started with a group of business and political leaders who saw potential to capitalize on the area’s three universities.70 years ago, the region around Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill wasn’t known as the Triangle. And the park filled with major employers between the three communities was just undeveloped woods. The...

In July, Gov. Josh Stein signed a bill that makes big changes to the laws governing state government employment. He says the laws largely haven’t been updated since the 1960s. Among the changes. state employees will find a faster hiring process, more parental leave and bereavement benefits. The bill passed the legislature unanimously, thanks in part to a bipartisan group of lawmakers and advocacy...

More than 50 years after his role in the Senate’s Watergate investigation, a North Carolina political veteran is taking a look back at his career and how the political world has changed.Rufus Edmisten recently turned 85 and has had a long career in North Carolina, from working with U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin on the Watergate investigation to serving as attorney general and secretary of state and facing...