Free Republic

North Carolina may not be “First in the South,” but the so-called “valley of humility betwixt two mountains of conceit” has become an increasingly competitive state in general elections (to the extent there’s really a “contest” between Democrats and “Republicans” anymore). Of more immediate relevance to GOP presidential campaigns is North Carolina’s role as one of twelve states holding primaries or caucuses on March 1, 2016 – a.k.a. “Super Tuesday.” Looking to boost his Tar Heel State support is U.S. Senator Ted Cruz – who will spend part of the coming weekend in Raleigh, N.C. as the state’s “Republican” party...

On and off the campaign trail in the Carolinas, voters say they have ‘no hard feelings’ toward Hillary Clinton. They say the opposite about Republicans.Bryan Burns could not make up his mind. Here was this African-American voter in khaki shorts, a v-neck T-shirt and black-rimmed eyeglasses, browsing shops at the Crabtree Valley Mall, on a swelteringly hot Friday in the not-yet summer of the American south. And there was Hillary Clinton, who needs to win the minds of exactly this kind of voter, a 30-year-old Virginia native who has spent the last decade living in North Carolina, a state that...

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz will be a keynote speaker at next month’s NC Republican Party State Convention. Cruz, a US Senator from Texas, will keynote a luncheon reception on Saturday, June 6, at the Raleigh Convention Center. The GOP says the convention’s other featured speakers include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who may also run for president next year, Donald Trump and Amb. John Bolton, who is expected to announce tomorrow if he will run for the White House.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Ted Cruz arrived in Raleigh Monday to help dig an even deeper foothold with conservative voters. Since the junior senator from Texas announced he was running for president in March, he's shot up in the polls here. PPP, a Democratic pollster in Raleigh, showed a dramatic rise in support from North Carolina Republican voters. Cruz's support rose from 5 percent over the winter to 16 percent now. Cruz found a receptive audience at the North Raleigh Hilton where he addressed a crowd of conservatives from across the state at a $100 a ticket luncheon hosted by the...

The latest North Carolina survey from Public Policy Polling suggests that conservative U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz entering the race is stunting Scott Walker's momentum in North Carolina. The PPP poll released on April 10 shows Jeb Bush now leads the GOP field in North Carolina with 19 percent to 16 percent for Walker, with Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio each at 11 percent, Ben Carson at 9 percent, Chris Christie at 7 percent, Rand Paul at 6 percent and Rick Perry at 2 percent. Cruz is up 8 points from his 3 percent standing a month ago, while Walker...

Raleigh, N.C. — Republican legislative leaders say they plan to file further legislation to regulate abortion this year, even as abortion-rights groups called on them to keep their hands off rules proposed by state regulators for North Carolina abortion clinics. "I'm sure there will be a pro-life bill this year," said House Speaker Pro Tem Paul Stam, R-Wake. The state Department of Health and Human Services last month released rules for clinics drafted under a 2013 law that proposed major changes to the state's abortion laws. Several Democratic lawmakers said Thursday that they fear social conservatives dissatisfied with the result...

RALEIGH — Is North Carolina ready to be an early stop on the road to the White House? Thanks to recent legislation, the Tar Heel State has abandoned its traditionally late presidential primary, held in May. State lawmakers couldn’t let Iowa, New Hampshire, and especially South Carolina have all the fun. So they separated North Carolina’s presidential contest from the state’s other primaries and moved it to the Tuesday after South Carolina’s Saturday primary. Although some of the dates remain tentative, here’s how the nomination battles may unfold according to Josh Putnam, an Appalachian State University political scientist who maintains...

More GOP cavalry arrived in Georgia today as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz stumped with David Perdue and Gov. Nathan Deal in Canton, invoking memories of long gas lines and stagflation as he attacked their Democratic rivals. “Here in Georgia, we’ve got on the ballot Jimmy Carter and Sam Nunn,” he said. “It’s like ‘That 70’s Show.'” The Texas firebrand echoed Perdue’s talking points by saying that an election of Michelle Nunn, the Democratic nominee, equals a stamp of approval for President Barack Obama’s agenda. Republicans need a net gain of six Senate seats to take control of the chamber, and...

Dawn McNair said she was surprised Sunday when her daughter pointed out the background on a political flier urging people to get out and vote. The front of the flier blares: "Kay Hagan doesn't win! Obama's impeachment will begin! Vote in 2014." The words are superimposed over a grainy reproduction of a photograph of what appears to be a lynching. Someone tucked the flier under McNair's windshield wiper while her car was parked at her church, Kingdom Impact Global Ministries on Murchison Road. "My daughter said, 'Mom, look in the background. They're lynching somebody.' It's the lynching of an African-American...

With Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) locked in a tight reelection bid and in need of a good Democratic turnout in a few short weeks, Democrats appear eager to promote the claim that North Carolina Republicans and their candidate for Senate are hostile to African Americans. Monday evening Hagan and MSNBC host Chris Matthews charged that the new North Carolina voting rules are intended to target African Americans, not because they are Democrats, but because they are African Americans. “African Americans think that they're being targeted because they're African Americans not because they're Democrats,” Matthews said on his MSNBC show. Hagan...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned President Barack Obama Wednesday that Republican lawmakers would call for his impeachment if he released prisoners from Guantanamo Bay again without notifying Congress. “It’s going to be impossible for them to flow prisoners out of Gitmo now without a huge backlash,” Graham said, according to The Hill. “There will be people on our side calling for his impeachment if he did that.” The comments come days after Obama approved a deal to release five prisoners from the detention camp, in exchange for the Taliban releasing Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the last remaining prisoner of the Afghanistan...

The state Republican convention in Cherokee is still lacking that big national headliner; some 1,200 to 1,400 people are expected in Jackson County June 5-7, and organizers are feeling the pressure. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, the Tea Party darling from Texas, turned down an opportunity to speak in North Carolina because he’ll be attending his state’s convention. Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor, wanted $15,000 to secure his presence, an engagement fee North Carolina officials aren’t prepared to pay. “We don’t have that kind of money,” Ralph Slaughter, chairman of the Jackson County Republican Party, said last night during a county...

“Twenty-four times” is Thom Tillis’s answer, delivered with a faint flicker of a Cheshire Cat smile. The question was: How many times, that his campaign knows of, has Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) said on camera that under Obamacare, if you like your health insurance, you can keep it? Tillis will be sharing some of her video promises with voters as he seeks to become part of a Republican Senate majority in January.

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is endorsing the main challenger in the 3rd Congressional District’s Republican primary. Taylor Griffin, who worked with Palin during Sen. John McCain’s failed 2008 presidential bid, released a statement Wednesday with Palin’s endorsement. “Todd (Palin’s husband) and I are happy to honor your request and support your candidacy,” Palin said. “In Washington, we need you to stay true to your beliefs of smaller government, protecting life and furthering conservative principles.” ******* Do you think an endorsement from Sara Palin helps or hurts a candidate? Vote at reflector.com.

In his inaugural address Wednesday, incoming New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to establish an intellectual pedigree for his focus on economic inequality. He invoked Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Al Smith, Frances Perkins, Fiorello La Guardia, Jacob Riis, David Dinkins, Mario Cuomo, and Harry Belafonte. It reminded me of when Democrats, eager to prove their national-security bona fides, tell audiences they hail from the party of Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy. As if there wasn’t some other Democrat after Kennedy who dabbled at war and peace, some guy from Texas. De Blasio’s speech was a bit...

Openly gay “American Idol” runner-up could run in North Carolina Clay Aiken may dedicate his knack for winning voters’ hearts to something besides “American Idol”: The runner-up on the show’s second-season is reportedly mulling a run for Congress in North Carolina. The Washington Blade says Aiken, 35, has consulted with political operatives including Betsy Conti, a political strategist who worked for Al Gore and former North Carolina Gov. Bev Purdue. Conti is based in Aiken’s hometown of Raleigh. He would potentially seek the seat now held by second term Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers, the Blade reported. Aiken, who came...

UPDATED: Moments after Gov. Pat McCrory left the stage, former Secretary of State Colin Powell took aim at North Carolina's new voting law Thursday, saying it hurts the Republican Party, punishes minority voters and makes it more difficult for everyone to vote. "I want to see policies that encourage every American to vote, not make it more difficult to vote," said Powell, a Republican, at the CEO Forum in Raleigh. "It immediately turns off a voting block the Republican Party needs," Powell continued. "These kinds of actions do not build on the base. It just turns people away." The retired...

On yesterday’s edition of “All In with Chris Hayes” we were greeted with narrative creation at its finest as host Chris Hayes attempted to define the arguments in favor of Voter Identification laws in North Carolina as merely the spoils of victory as opposed to any type of actual reasoned position.(VIDEO-AT-LINK) HAYES: If a skeptical person looks at what’s going on in north carolina and says, look, this is why we had elections, we had elections, the republicans won, they won the governorship, they haven’t had it since 1988, they’ve got all three branches of state government for the first...

North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan said Wednesday she backs marriage rights for same-sex couples, joining a growing number of Democratic Party politicians ahead of her re-election race next year. Hagan announced her position as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, a law that denies federal benefits to married same-sex couples. "Marriage equality is a complex issue with strong feelings on both sides, and I have a great deal of respect for varying opinions on the issue," Hagan said on her official Facebook account. "After much thought and prayer, I have come to...

Just a quick thing I wanted to point out about NC early voting, one of few states that breaks it out by age: 2008: 18-29 14.9% 30-44 23.5% 45-64 40.2% 65+ 21.4% 2012: 18-29 10.8% (DOWN by 4.1%) 30-44 18.3% (DOWN by 5.2%) 45-59 29.1% (DOWN by 11.1%) 60+ 41.7% (UP by 20.3%) Older voters favor Romney...and are showing up in WAY higher numbers for early voting compared to 2008 early voting...while young voters who favor Obama are down to only 10% of early votes (from nearly 15% in 2008).