NC Capitol Wrap

Helene relief aid and a bill to invest the NC Pension Plan in Bitcoin and other cyrptocurrencies are moving forward in the legislature. So are bills to ban DEI in public schools or to crack down on students using cell phones during class time. But other education worries could be on the horizon: The state's biggest school district is implementing a hiring freeze, citing in part the efforts by President Donald T...

On this week's edition of the Wrap, Jefferson Griffin's challenge to 60,000 voters moves forward in both state and federal courts. Which one will rule first? WRAL's Laura Leslie and Will Doran also break down Stein’s executive action on reproductive rights ahead of the Trump inauguration, and doctors opposed to RFK’s nomination to HHS put Tillis on the spot as 2026 looms.

WRAL Capitol Bureau Chief Laura Leslie and WRAL State Government Reporter Will Doran talk about the opening of the 2025 legislative session and what legislative leaders say their...

Jefferson Griffin's campaign for Supreme Court has been trying to throw out the ballots of 60,000 people who voted this year, and now the NC Democratic Party is suing to try to block his strategy. If they're successful it's likely that Justice Allison Riggs will win re-election; she led by 734 votes after a recount. Another recount is underway, but Republicans' main strategy to help Griffin is the ballot challe...

A Helene aid bill contained little money for disaster relief but lots of unrelated provisions stripping power from Democrats who won election to key offices including incoming Governor Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson. One of the biggest is the latest in the GOP's nearly decade-long fight to sieze control of the State Board of Elections, which keeps being thwarted by courts and voters. Republican la...

Nearly the entire country voted more pro-Trump in the 2024 elections compared to 2020, but only one other state had a smaller rightward shift than North Carolina. Republicans are celebrating that win and their continued dominance of the state's judicial elections. But Democrats see a silver lining in the fact that the state didn't trend as far right as other states, which was part of the reason why Democrats wo...

The final round of polls from WRAL News and SurveyUSA released in this final week of early voting, as more than half of all voters have now already cast a ballot, breaking the record set in 2020 for early voting. The polls show an evenly tied presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in North Carolina, and both candidates plan to return to the Tar Heel State this weekend for the final push in the...

As influential Republicans in the most pro-Trump wings of the party suggest a Kamala Harris victory in North Carolina will be illegitimate due to potential voting difficulties in western North Carolina. But state elections officials say voter turnout in Helene-hit counties is actually higher than the state average so far. And in a North Carolina campaign stop, Trump running mate JD Vance doesn't agree, telling ...

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is suing CNN for defamation. Multiple lawyers, including the man who won $1.4 billion from Alex Jones and InfoWars, spoke with WRAL about the lawsuit's chances of success and what more we can expect from legal procedings before the election. Meanwhile, NC voters set a new record for the first day of early voting even amid new efforts to spread misinformation about elections...

NC lawmakers came back to Raleigh this week to pass the first round of relief funding for Helene. The bill, signed into law Thursday, also extends flexibility to boards of election in the 25 counties included under the federal disaster declaration. Meantime, political tempers are rising over misinformation about the state and federal response to the storm and about the security of the upcoming election.

It's been just over a week since CNN reported on comments North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson allegedly made on pornographic website Nude Africa praising Hitler, calling himself a "Black NAZI" and using slurs to talk about Martin Luther King Jr., among other topics. Donald Trump's campaign has since tried to distance itself from the Republican candidate for governor Trump endorsed and has heaped praise upon, ...

Joe Biden is out, Kamala Harris is in, and North Carolina's Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is among the top vice presidential candidates for the Harris 2024 campaign. WRAL's state politics team explains the benefits he could bring to the ticket, but also how Republicans might try to use it against Harris. Plus, we cover the lawsuits targeting the NC State Board of Elections over recent decisions to deny Cornel West...

There's major turnover in state government with the resignation or retirement of multiple state lawmakers, chiefs of staff and university chancellors. Josh Stein and Mark Robinson are obliterating campaign fundraising records as voters key in on the race to replace Gov. Roy Cooper....who's now at the center of veepstakes rumors. If President Joe Biden shutters his reelection campaign and turns the reins over to...

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke in Greensboro and had high praise for Gov. Roy Cooper, who has been rumored as a potential VP pick if Harris takes over the presidential nomination. We asked Cooper, who said he still supports Joe Biden for president. Meanwhile the State Board of Elections approved the Constitution Party to be on the ballot but not Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Cornel West. Republicans cried foul, ...

North Carolina state lawmakers begin working to outlaw tianeptine, a drug marketed as a mood enhancer or diet supplement that critics call gas station heroin. Predatory roofers and towing companies may face stricter state scrutiny soon, and a bill to force polluters to pay for cleaning up PFAS chemicals from local drinking water supplies also gets a warm reception in the state House. The state budget is on thin...