North Carolina Democrats spent a Tuesday press conference painting Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley as an extremist, pointing to his support of former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who lost his gubernatorial bid last year after numerous inflammatory remarks.

At the state Democratic Party headquarters, state Rep. Phil Rubin (D-Wake) called Whatley a “Washington big oil lobbyist” who has “consistently elevated the most extreme forces in this party and in North Carolina,” specifically mentioning Robinson.

Whatley, who has served as the national Republican Party Chair since March 2024, announced last month he will seek the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Thom Tillis. His announcement, which came with the support of President Donald Trump, followed on the heels of former Gov. Roy Cooper declaring his candidacy for the seat, setting up what is expected to be one of the most expensive races in the country in next year’s midterm elections.

Rubin referenced a 2022 remark by Whatley, then the state Republican Party chair, in which he called Robinson “the greatest lieutenant governor in the United States” amid controversy over Robinson’s apparent incitement to violence against transgender people and libraries hosting “drag queen story hour.”

“His support for Robinson was steadfast even as Robinson said vile things about women, attacked victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and said, ‘We are called to be led by men, not women,’” Rubin said. “This election is a clear choice between results and resentment, between competence and culture wars.”

Shortly after Robinson’s victory in the 2024 Republican primary, Whatley endorsed his campaign for governor on social media. “North Carolina voters have delivered a resounding message that they want change in the Governor’s mansion and Mark Robinson is ready to deliver it!” he wrote in March. In the months that followed — as Robinson’s campaign collapsed into scandal over a CNN investigation into his online presence — Whatley expressed disappointment, but stopped short of disavowing the candidate.

“Those comments are absolutely antithetical to Republican values, and if Mark Robinson is going to continue in this race, then yeah, I do think he is going to have to demonstrate to the voters of North Carolina that those are not his words, his actions, or his values,” he told Bloomberg Radio in September.

Former N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, criticized Whatley that same month for enabling Robinson’s rise. In an interview with CNN, he said the former state Republican Party chair “ignored many known flaws that many of us knew about [Robinson] and just assumed they’d be brushed over,” calling Robinson “a ticking time bomb for several years now.”

World Tabernacle Church Pastor James Gaillard, a state Senate candidate, said at the press conference that Whatley “spent years here in North Carolina and also nationally elevating really dangerous people to powerful offices.”

“One of those dangerous individuals was our former lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, and I think it’s important that we connect those dots,” Gaillard said. “North Carolina doesn”t need someone representing us in the U.S. Senate who wants to be rewarded for having given us Mark Robinson.”

Ironically, before Tillis announced his retirement, Robinson had hinted that he might mount a primary challenge against him for the seat. Robinson bowed out in January the same day he announced he was dropping a defamation lawsuit he filed against CNN during his gubernatorial campaign.

Little known by voters

Democrats are eager to define Whatley by his past support for Robinson as he prepares to face an electorate that knows little about him. An August 1 poll by Emerson College found that a plurality of registered voters who were surveyed do not know who he is, with 36% responding that they “have never heard of this person.” Another 30% said they had no opinion or were unsure how they felt about him.

That survey found Cooper leading Whatley 47% to 41%, with 12% of respondents unsure how they would vote. A popular two-term governor, Cooper boasts much higher name recognition than Whatley, with only 3% of those surveyed not recognizing his name. About 6% did not know who the retiring Tillis was.

Robinson ultimately lost the 2024 governor’s race by nearly 15% of the vote, the largest margin in more than 40 years. If Democrats successfully tie Robinson to Whatley, it could deliver them their first Senate victory in the state since 2008.

“We cannot afford a senator like Mr. Whatley who called gutting Medicaid for over 650,000 North Carolinians, undermining our rural hospitals, ‘a big win,’ ” Rubin said. “We should reject Michael Whatley’s radical agenda and send a senator to Washington who will protect health care, lower costs, defend our freedoms, and safeguard our democracy. North Carolina deserves nothing less than Roy Cooper in the United States Senate.”

Jen Kalinowski, the mother of a girl born with a rare genetic disorder known as dup15q who requires constant care through Medicaid, also spoke at the press conference. Kalinowski said losing that care would have life-altering consequences for her family.

“She will never be able to gain any independence without her therapies. She certainly will not have the quality of care and support she needs. She will die without control of her seizures,” Kalinowski said. “We can’t elect a U.S. senator who rips away health care from those who need it more. I implore my fellow North Carolinians to please stand up for what’s right.”

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs joined a U.S. Senate “spotlight forum” on voting rights Wednesday to deliver a stark warning to Democratic lawmakers: efforts to throw out ballots and overturn elections are just getting started.

Riggs took part in a two-hour panel convened by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), ranking member on the Rules Committee, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, alongside former Attorney General Eric Holder and other voting rights experts.

She said that through her opponent Judge Jefferson Griffin’s challenge to around 68,000 ballots, “we came perilously close to watching out system of rules-based elections crumble before our eyes.”

“For six months and two days after the election, I fought to make sure every eligible vote was counted,” Riggs said. “What we experienced wasn’t even just about one person’s vote, or 68,000 people’s votes. It was a more fundamental dispute: Do voters, not politicians decide elections?”

At stake, she stressed, is whether someone can cast a ballot and feel confident it will count. “Instead, it will depend on whether partisan politicians have enough money to throw at a race to litigate the outcome after the fact,” Riggs said.

While the North Carolina Court of Appeals and state Supreme Court ruled in Griffin’s favor — ordering all or at least some ballots to be disposed of, respectively — a Trump-appointed federal judge found that doing so would violate the constitutional rights of voters who did everything they were asked to do.

“Today, even after Justice Riggs has taken her seat, the Trump administration has now taken up the cause and sued North Carolina, threatening to disenfranchise around 100,000 previously registered voters,” Padilla said. “That is not democracy, that is sabotage.”

After the Justice Department sued North Carolina in March on some of the same grounds as the Griffin challenge, the state Board of Elections unveiled a plan to collect missing information from more than 100,000 registered voters, pledging that no one will be removed from voter rolls. North Carolina Democrats have said they remain concerned that eligible voters will be disenfranchised by the effort.

Among the voters challenged in 2024, Riggs noted, were those who cast military and overseas ballots and did not include photo identification — which the North Carolina State Board of Elections instructed they did not need to provide. And she pointed out that the Griffin campaign challenged these ballots specifically in heavily Democratic counties.

Janessa Goldbeck, the CEO of Vet Voice Foundation — a nonprofit voting rights group that intervened in the Griffin-Riggs litigation — told lawmakers that many of the military voters they contacted had no idea their ballots were being challenged, months into the election lawsuit.

“We used every tool in our toolbox to find these folks — social media, phone banking, volunteers going through day after day — but we’re a nonprofit, and the nonprofit organizations that do this work have limits in terms of their capacity,” Goldbeck said. “We can’t compete with a disinformation campaign that is backed by state actors or an administration that has ill intent, and that’s why it’s so important to have proactive voter protection laws.”

Durbin said there should be a “sense of outrage” that Republicans would try to throw out ballots from soldiers serving overseas.

“It just strikes me that this is a ripe political issue in terms of military veterans standing up and saying, ‘stop it,’” Durbin said. “If these military [personnel] are willing to go overseas, endure hardship in their lives and this danger in their lives, the last thing we ever ought to do is challenge their right to vote.”

Veterans were also ensnared in the other, larger pool of ballots challenged by Griffin — voters alleged to have not provided a partial Social Security number or driver’s license number when registering. That dispute included the ballot of Riggs’s own father, she said.

“My father served his country in uniform for 30 years and was deployed in war,” Riggs said. “My father registered using his retired military ID, an eligible form of photo identification that does not have a driver’s license number or Social Security number on it. After registering, he also showed a valid picture ID every time he voted.”

“In an attempt to selectively overturn the results of an election that disgruntled partisans and disappointed politicians disagreed with, my father and these voters nearly lost their fundamental right to vote,” she added.

Riggs said that in total, her efforts to defend her election victory in court cost roughly $2 million on top of the $5 million spent during the election itself. As a former election attorney, she said she was “uniquely suited” to fight back against the effort, and warned that other candidates may be unable to do the same or could be deterred from running altogether.

“Is part of the strategy on the other side to make sure that they spend so much money, the average person can’t fight them?” Durbin asked.

“Absolutely,” Riggs said. “We absolutely should understand it as a cynical ploy to tie up resources and time instead of focusing on the very pressing issues before the people of this country and the constitutional work that people in my seat should be doing.”

“You saw firsthand in North Carolina the challenges, the burdens that happen when there’s these kinds of attacks on democracy when your challenger tried and then failed to throw out tens of thousands of votes,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.). “Do these challenges make voters, especially those who decide to skip the elections from time to time, feel welcome to continue participating in our democracy?”

“It’s obvious that they don’t,” Riggs said. “When we erect barriers to political participation, we are sending a clear message about whose voice matters, whose say we want heard in the political process.”

Much of Wednesday’s discussion also centered on Texas Republicans’ efforts to redraw the state’s congressional map to eliminate five Democratic members of Congress — which has provoked retaliatory initiatives from the Democratic leaders of New York, California, and Illinois. North Carolina came under fire for its own 2023 congressional redistricting, which eliminated three Democratic lawmakers and drew a slew of gerrymandering lawsuits.

“In response to a fair 7-7 congressional map in battleground North Carolina, Republicans stole three congressional districts with a judicially sanctioned, egregious gerrymander,” said Holder, the former attorney general. “In my view, partisan or ideological state Supreme Court justices in that state cast aside their own very recent precedent to make possible a gerrymandered 10-4 congressional delegation. Politicians were, in essence, allowed to choose their voters.”

That state Supreme Court decision played a large role in the stakes of the Riggs-Griffin race. Democrats have said they must win a majority on the state Supreme Court by 2030, the next redistricting year, to again strike down gerrymandering in North Carolina. That means winning four out of five judicial races from 2024 to 2028, including Riggs’. After her Democratic colleague Anita Earls’ 2026 race, the next three seats in contention are all Republican-held.

“A state like North Carolina, which is likely to have the most competitive U.S. Senate race, where my colleague, Justice Anita Earls, is in a tough fight to keep her seat — we can do this,” Riggs said at the panel. “I want folks to understand that folks only try and silence voices and votes that they’re scared of.”

Toward the end of the panel, Riggs highlighted what she saw as cause for optimism — the fact that during her team’s efforts to cure military and overseas ballots that the state courts had ruled should be thrown out, they were able to reach a military member stationed as far away as Antarctica.

“North Carolinians can reach as far as the South Pole to make sure that each other’s voices are heard,” Riggs said. “We will find that silver lining, keep fighting, and even though we know we these will keep coming until policymakers push us in a different direction, we’re up to that fight.”

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Following the release of a video showing a North Carolina state trooper and his supervisor agreeing to lie about the police chase that led to the death of Tyrone Mason, attorneys for the family demanded they be fired for their actions.

Renowned civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Bakari Sellers also condemned Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman Thursday after a report from her office indicated she would not seek criminal charges against the troopers despite footage showing State Trooper Garrett Macario denying that he pursued Mason — a false account that was relayed to Mason’s mother.

Crump and Sellers had been pushing for the release of the footage surrounding Mason’s fatal crash in the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2024 for months. A Wake County Superior Court judge ordered it to be made public on May 16 following a lawsuit that included several newsrooms seeking the videos.

“Now you got the video evidence in your hand, and you refuse to file charges against the killer cops,” Crump told members of the media outside the Wake County Courthouse. “She’s slapping us in our face because she says, ‘I don’t care what evidence you have, it doesn’t matter, I’m still going to take the cop’s word over whatever evidence you have.’”

In an interview Thursday afternoon, Freeman pushed back on these assertions and said Mason’s family and their attorneys are welcome to review the full investigative findings. Though her office declined to prosecute, her office dropped more than 180 cases that would have relied on testimony from the state troopers.

“One of the reasons I opened up this investigation to begin with is that I believe that Mrs. Mason, who had been given the runaround for months, deserved to have the answers of what happened to her son that night,” Freeman said.

A piece of common ground between the Mason family attorneys and Freeman: a belief that the highway patrolmen involved should lose their jobs for misconduct. “I do not believe that these officers should be in law enforcement,” she said.

Henrietta Mason, the mother of Tyrone Mason, brought a civil rights lawsuit against Macario on May 21, citing the false claims about the crash and a failure to render timely aid, which attorneys for the family believe could have saved his life.

“Miss Freeman, you told me to my face you was on my side. You told me you was on my side. But no, you’re on the side of the state troopers, the men that lied,” she said at the press conference. “If they did this to my baby, how many other babies have they did this to?”

‘A bad chase’

In footage released by the State Highway Patrol and Raleigh Police Department, Macario and his supervisor, Sgt. Matthew Morrison, can be heard creating the false account of events, which Macario then relays to Raleigh police.

The footage, which includes both dash camera video from the trooper’s cruiser and body camera video after arriving on the scene, shows Macario pursuing Mason until he crashes into a concrete barrier, around which point Macario appears to turn off his emergency lights and return to the scene from the other direction. Macario said on the call that he “did not feel it was a safe chase.”

“I wouldn’t mention anything to them about you trying to stop him,” Morrison can be heard saying on the call with Macario. “Just say, ‘Hey, man, I drove up on this,’ and leave it at that.”

Five minutes after the call with his supervisor, Macario can be seen on the RPD footage relaying that version of the narrative to officers who subsequently arrived on the scene.

“Were you like pulling him over or something?” Raleigh police officer R. Urena asks in the footage.

“No, this is a little area I work,” Macario answers. “I came up on him and I saw the smoke and heard all the cars hitting the debris.”

That account was then given by Raleigh Police to Henrietta Mason when they informed her of her son’s death — a lie that only unraveled when a witness came forward to tell her he heard the police pursuit, including the deactivation of the trooper’s siren at roughly the same time as the crash.

“You got a video of the officer lying through his teeth,” Crump said. “Not only is he lying, but he’s conspiring — they are conspiring to cover up the crime. They conspire and say, you know, ‘I was chasing him,’ his supervisor says, ‘Well, you don’t want to admit that.’”

Sellers, the lead attorney for the family, said he was also disturbed by Macario’s failure to attempt to render aid to Tyrone Mason. Though Macario witnesses the crash and calls his supervisor immediately afterward, no one checks on Mason’s status until six minutes after it occurs, when Urena and another officer knock on the window and open the driver’s side door.

“We’re not just talking about the lie. We’re not just talking about the obstruction,” Sellers said. “We’re talking about a bad chase and bad policies and bad procedures. We’re talking about a refusal to render aid. We’re talking about the fact that this county lied to this woman month after month after month after month.”

‘The evidence would not support a successful prosecution’

In her report declining to prosecute the troopers, however, district attorney Freeman — who announced earlier this month that she would not seek reelection in 2026 — wrote that while “inexcusable,” Macario and Morrison’s actions do not rise to the level of criminal conduct.

“While their dishonesty violates the standards to which law enforcement officers must adhere, the District Attorney is not pursuing criminal charges as the evidence would not support a successful prosecution,” she wrote. “The District Attorney has shared her concerns about their conduct with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol who has the authority to decide whether they will remain employed.”

According to Freeman’s report, released May 21, Macario subsequently gave a truthful account of the chase to two other members of the Raleigh Police, who confirmed he did so when interviewed. Though there is video footage of Macario speaking with one of the officers who said he told the truth, no audio of that conversation exists. But this account never made it to Henrietta Mason, as the investigator in the case only received the earlier statement.

“[Macario’s] subsequent truthful statements within the relevant time frame prevent the State from being able to move forward with a successful prosecution,” Freeman wrote. “Moreover, evidence would tend to suggest that Sergeant Morrison’s and Trooper Macario’s intent in initially not disclosing the effort to stop Mr. Mason was to keep them from having to manage the crash scene and do the crash reconstruction investigation.”

That conclusion, she said, is evidenced by Morrison’s remark on the video that “it sounds like Raleigh’s problem.”

Henrietta Mason and her attorneys were not satisfied with this outcome, and supporters of the family made Freeman one of the primary targets of their ire at the press conference Thursday. “Lorrin Freeman, Tyrone’s blood is on your hands too!” one demonstrator’s sign read.

“Let me get this straight: You’re going to take the word of a liar, the person you knew just lied, you don’t got no evidence of what he’s saying now, but you’re going to take his word?” Crump asked. “I don’t ever profess to be the smartest guy in the room, but that logic just ain’t logical.”

Freeman said in an interview that while initially, “we were skeptical ourselves” when members of the Raleigh Police came forward to attest that Macario gave them an accurate version of events, there was sufficient evidence to support it, including notes from the night of the crash by a Wake County forensic investigator. In those notes, the investigator records the officer who came forward informing her that a trooper attempted to stop Tyrone Mason prior to the crash.

“We went to great lengths — and that was part of what took so much time in this investigation — to try to nail that down,” Freeman said. “Part of that was finding through the course of that information that shows that Trooper Macario basically tells different stories to different people on the scene.”

‘Justice for Tyrone Mason’

Despite the lack of a criminal prosecution, Sellers and Crump vowed to continue pursuing justice for Tyrone Mason and his family through the courts, primarily through the ongoing lawsuit against Macario.

Sellers said the revelation of “how grossly negligent the Raleigh Police Department has been” means that they may pursue legal action against them as well. He told members of the media Thursday that they will be filing a notice of claim against RPD, which is a prerequisite for seeking damages.

The Raleigh Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations. Sellers said Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce offered to meet with Henrietta Mason, but she and her attorneys declined in light of the meeting with the district attorney.

In her report, Freeman wrote that she relayed concerns over handling of the incident to both the State Highway Patrol and the Raleigh Police Department, and is also providing the findings to the North Carolina Criminal Justice Training and Standards Division, the body that certifies members of law enforcement.

The State Highway Patrol is also still pursuing an internal review of the crash and aftermath, and Macario and Morrison remain on administrative leave, according to Department of Public Safety spokesperson Christopher Knox, who called Mason’s death a “heartbreaking occurrence.”

“We do recognize and take ownership that words spoken and captured by video in the moments after the collision’s occurrence do not reflect the high standards we place upon our members nor the lifesaving work that we see them carry out daily,” Knox wrote. “We do believe, however, that this collision was a result of Mr. Mason’s actions alone and that is reflected in the unbiased collision report completed by the Raleigh Police Department.”

Rev. Gregory Drumwright, an activist with Justice 4 the Next Generation who prayed over the press conference, said in his view, this case has “redefined what the purpose of police wearing body-worn cameras is.”

“Somebody tell me, if we are not going to use as evidence the truth, transparency, and undisputable facts that audio and video presents, then what is the purpose of body-worn cameras in the first place?” Drumwright asked. “Why did they have the cameras on if they can lie thinking the cameras is off and still get away with their lies?”

Also speaking in support of the family’s efforts was state Sen. Natalie Murdock (D-Durham), who said she plans to use her position to push for greater oversight and probe more deeply into the circumstances of the case.

“We have a right to make a justice system that was not built for us to see us, hear us, and hold it accountable,” Murdock said. “We will continue to ensure that Tyrone Mason gets the justice that he deserves. His life mattered and had value, and we will continue to lift up his name.”

In addition to law enforcement, Sellers expressed disappointment in top elected officials for not putting their weight behind the case. Calling Governor Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson “two very good friends” of his, he lamented that neither had spoken out about Tyrone Mason’s death. “Their silence is not just deafening, but their silence is acquiescence,” he said.

Spokespeople for Jackson and Stein did not respond to requests for comment.

Crump said all Henrietta Mason is seeking is “simple justice,” something that should not require such extreme lengths to receive.

“We always believed that if we had it on video where they could see it and hear it, that Black people would have a chance at equal justice,” Crump said. “Don’t say no more, look at the video — and that’s our case.”

While North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis began fundraising for his 2026 reelection campaign at the Carolina Country Club Friday morning, more than 100 protesters demanded he meet with them for a town hall.

That evening, hundreds more gathered at the Raleigh Brewing Company for an “empty chair town hall,” where voters voiced their frustrations to a chair used as a Tillis stand-in.

As frustrations mount over Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the rising count of federal programs that have become its casualties, Tillis is preparing for what may be the most contentious Senate race in the country next year, coming under fire from both his left and right flanks.

So far, Tillis has toed the party line, voting for all of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees. Even as he privately lobbied the former sister-in-law of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to come forward with abuse allegations — promising it would convince senators to oppose his nomination, the Wall Street Journal reported — he ultimately provided the crucial 50th vote in favor himself.

In nearly 10 years in the Senate, Tillis has not held an in-person town hall. A fellow North Carolinian, Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson told colleagues to stop holding them earlier this month, according to Politico, with GOP leaders dismissing angry voters as “professional protesters.”

Voters at Friday’s events described calling, texting, and emailing his office, as well as meeting with his staff and sharing their concerns. All said they were dissatisfied with the responses they received, describing them as formulaic and not specific to the issues they raised. But as pressure on Tillis continues to rise, many of the North Carolinians who spoke out Friday said they believe he will feel the heat and hear them out — or face the consequences at the ballot box.

Tillis’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

A fundraiser protest

About 110 North Carolinians lined up across the street from the Carolina Country Club Friday, as Tillis hosted a “campaign kick-off luncheon” featuring state and federal Republican lawmakers and prolific fundraisers.

The group of demonstrators, which included federal workers and veterans, chanted “Thom Tillis sucks,” “Tillis is a coward,” and “Get a spine or resign!” They held up signs that branded him as “Country Club Tillis” and denounced Trump, Musk, and DOGE. Some of the cars streaming down Glenwood Avenue honked in support, including a Tesla, as the demonstrators cheered for the approval.

Kelly Keating, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2065, said she came out to demand Tillis “honor his oath” as his constituents lose their livelihoods. She noted that roughly a third of federal workers are veterans, and by gutting federal agencies, the administration is simultaneously “decimating” their hospitals and eliminating their jobs.

“He needs to have a town hall so that people can communicate with him,” Keating said. “Our people have called several times, but they’re not getting any kind of responses back.”

The protest was organized by the Triangle Labor Council, which demonstrated against federal worker firings and Social Security office closures at Raleigh’s Terry Sanford Federal Building earlier this month. But the event drew a large number of North Carolinians dissatisfied with Tillis beyond the federal workforce, including veterans and workers in related fields.

Dave Smith, who served in the North Carolina Army National Guard, said he’s reached out to Tillis with concerns about the cuts to veterans’ services, but received nothing but “boilerplate” responses. He said he was especially galled by Tillis’s vote for Hegseth, calling the Defense Secretary a “disastrously unqualified choice.”

“He talked a good game, but then when it came time, rubber meet the road, he tucked his tail and caved,” Smith said. “Our nation, our national security is suffering because of that.”

Mike Senn, a software engineer in Raleigh who attended both Tillis protests Friday, said he has been calling the senator once a week since Trump’s inauguration to share his concerns, but every time, it goes straight to voicemail.

“I’m calling to get attention from him, to tell him to pick up the phone, to tell him to listen to his constituents and to hold a town hall with his constituents here in North Carolina,” Senn said.

A veteran’s daughter, Audrey Fischer said she showed up Friday to demand Tillis hear the human impact of the federal cuts he has supported. Fischer, who volunteers with the Wilson County Democratic Party, expressed outrage that the Trump administration is interfering with veterans’ benefits as well as Medicaid programs and labor protections.

“Sometimes you are able to get through to a person by showing that their constituents do not believe in the policies that they are pushing, do not believe in platforming billionaires over workers,” Fischer said. “Sometimes, it’s also to show that there are other people in your neighborhood who believe the same as you.”

She noted that bus drivers and truckers were among those who honked in support of the protest, which she said is evidence that anger over the DOGE cuts are emerging across social and economic lines.

“If we show them what are beliefs are, that anyone can participate, everyone is needed,” Fischer said, “we want them to come to our side and see the light of day and see that we can be stronger together.”

An ‘empty chair’ town hall

Six hours later and an 11-minute drive west of Tillis’ fundraiser at the Carolina Country Club, hundreds of his constituents packed into the Raleigh Brewing Company for the chance to demand answers of a stand-in for the senator: a stuffed chicken.

The event, organized by the Triangle Area Indivisible Collaborative, brought together state Democratic Party figures and disaffected voters in an effort to pressure Tillis to hear their concerns directly. It drew around 700 North Carolinians who wanted to make their voices heard, about 200 of whom packed into the brewery’s main hall to hear speakers. Some held signs, including one that read “Tillis Do Your Job” and another that depicted the senator’s head on the body of a chicken.

Jake and Aden Kalinowski spoke about their seven-year-old sister Evelyn, who was born with a rare genetic disorder known as dup15q syndrome that causes chronic seizures. Her treatment, they said, is only possible because of Medicaid coverage that is now in jeopardy because of cuts to federal funding by the Trump administration and Congress.

Aden Kalinowski, 21, told the crowd that while less than a year ago, he wanted nothing to do with politics, after seeing his sister put at risk, he realized he did not have a choice but to speak up.

“Even though she can’t walk or talk or even say to me my name, she has given me so much love and so much of everything that I am as a man and a brother,” he said. “Why do people like her have to get her medicine taken away, or get her physical therapy taken away, or get her everything taken away — her equipment, her school — for what? For more money in billionaires’ pockets? I will never understand it.”

Jake Kalinowski, 23, choking back tears, thanked the crowd for showing up to stand up for his sister and others in need.

“It really breaks my heart to know that, if she loses the support she has, that something may happen to her and I may not see her again. And I don’t understand why people like you can’t see that,” he said, addressing Tillis. “We need to keep fighting for people like her.”

Federal workers who spoke at the town hall denounced cuts to agencies that safeguard the environment and protect consumers as well as the Department of Education, which provides substantial funding to schools all across North Carolina.

Anna Ruderman, a pediatrician and a co-founder of Bull City Indivisible, said she met with Tillis’s staff last week and explained to them that her work, the treatment of children with complex medical issues, is “not efficient and it shouldn’t be.” She recounted the story of a young child who nearly died before being brought by CPR and who now needs speech therapy dependent on Medicaid. “It takes longer. It’s important. Their lives are important,” she said.

Also among the speakers were state Democratic politicians, including North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton, former U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel, former Commissioner of Agriculture candidate Sarah Taber, and Chapel Hill town councilor Theodore Nollert.

Nickel called for Tillis to hold a town hall, countering that he participated in 16 while he was a member of Congress. He also condemned Republican U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx for dismissing town halls as “just an opportunity for people to yell” at their representatives. “When you decide that you’re not gonna go serve, you’re not gonna go answer questions, it’s time for you to go,” Nickel said.

He recounted how despite promising Pete Hegseth’s former sister-in-law his nomination would fail, Tillis ultimately voted to confirm him for Secretary of Defense.

“When you fold once like that — when Trump says he’s going to primary you and Elon Musk says he’s going to spend a bunch of money — you will fold every single time,” he said. “His vote is no longer for North Carolinians; it is just for Donald Trump.”

Clayton drew some of the loudest cheers of the night, as she blasted the General Assembly for working to pass a law stripping Attorney General Jeff Jackson of the power to challenge executive orders and condemned Judge Jefferson Griffin for continuing to litigate the state Supreme Court election nearly five months after he lost the final tally by 734 votes.

“Y’all need to understand that your vote means something and that is why Republicans are trying to disenfranchise it, to take it away and to make it so we don’t feel like it matters,” Clayton said. “They’re trying to steal an election, and you know what we’re going to do? Stop them.”

Richard Scott, an unaffiliated voter living in Fuquay-Varina, said after the town hall that he hopes Tillis takes the initiative to get in touch with North Carolinians about the issues that matter to them, but as a “realist,” he thinks it is unlikely the senator will be responsive. Though he has reached out to Tillis’s office several times, Scott said he has received little more than a “pat on the head.”

“I think the American people want to see less destruction and some idea that there’s a plan in the works here,” Scott said. “It’s about time that in North Carolina, we begin to realize there’s a whole lot of people that aren’t in one party or another, and you should be listening to them.”

A challenging reelection bid

The protests foreshadow a contentious campaign ahead for Tillis, who after Susan Collins of Maine, faces the most challenging reelection battle of any Republican in the Senate.

Tillis’s close adherence to Trump’s positions, even on issues like Hegseth’s nomination where he displayed an inclination to vote the other way, suggests more concern over a primary challenge from the right than losing moderate voters in the general election.

Thus far, Tillis has drawn two Republican primary challengers, according to FEC filings — Don Brown of Charlotte, a constitutional attorney and former U.S. Navy JAG Officer, and Andy Nilsson of Winston-Salem, a businessman and former lieutenant governor candidate. Neither has garnered significant support from Republican opponents to Tillis, though Brown has ties with Hegseth and former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

The most well-known North Carolina politician floated as a Republican primary challenger, former Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, has said he has no plans to run for the Senate, despite frequent criticism of Tillis on the 2024 campaign trail. But the possibility of Trump endorsing a primary opponent is a constant shadow over the senator’s reelection prospects, after a career of seeking to portray himself as a pragmatist and moderate.

According to the New York Times, Trump asked a group of North Carolina lawmakers in January whether any of them would like his support to primary Tillis ahead of a potential defection on the Hegseth vote.

At least some Republicans lawmakers in the state are withholding their support from Tillis for now. Punchbowl News reported that U.S. Representatives Pat Harrigan and Mark Harris are not endorsing Tillis at this time, and that the Tillis campaign included Harrigan as well as Rep. Addison McDowell and Rep. Brad Knott as special guests on the invitation for the Friday fundraiser without their knowledge.

On the Democratic side, Tillis may face former Gov. Roy Cooper, one of North Carolina’s most popular politicians and the architect of the state’s Medicaid expansion, though he has so far not made his plans explicit, only telling supporters “we’re not done” at a farewell rally last year. Also considering a run is Nickel, the former congressman, who has filed with the FEC as a candidate but has not yet formally launched a campaign.

In a state where a plurality of voters are unaffiliated with either political party, how Tillis allays the concerns of voters who feel the Trump administration has gone too far may be critical for his reelection bid. So far, these demonstrators say he has not done enough to stand up for the issues that matter to them.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Just hours after a hearing on Judge Jefferson Griffin’s challenge to more than 65,000 ballots in the state Supreme Court election, a state judge upheld the state election board’s rejection of those claims in a late Friday ruling.

Judge William Pittman ruled in favor of the North Carolina State Board of Elections on its rejection of challenges to voters of three separate categories — military and overseas voters who did not include photo IDs with their mailed ballots, early and absentee voters who Griffin alleged had incomplete voter registrations, and a group Griffin called “Never Residents” consisting of the children of North Carolina citizens living abroad.

“The Court concludes as a matter of law that the Board’s decision was not in violation of constitutional provisions, was not in excess of statutory authority or jurisdiction of the agency, was made upon lawful procedure, and was not affected by other error of law,” Pittman wrote in an order issued Friday afternoon.

Both Griffin and incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, his opponent in the contested election, attended the hearing before the Wake County Superior Court in person Friday morning. Pittman presided over the hearing, which included attorneys for Griffin and the Board of Elections, as well as those representing Riggs and impacted North Carolina voters and nonprofits.

“The court, having reviewed more than 5,000 pages in the record and all of the briefs — have some other information acquired today that I’ll have to review, so I’m going to take it under advisement,” Pittman said at the hearing’s conclusion. “I can promise you I will do it as fast as I can.”

Pittman’s determination only concerns matters of state law — a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the case will remain in state court, but reserved jurisdiction over potential federal civil rights issues for the federal courts.

“Today’s decisions denying Judge Griffin’s challenges of more than 65,000 ballots are a victory for North Carolina voters and the rule of law,” said Justice Riggs in a statement. “Voters decide elections, and I remain committed to seeing this fight through and upholding North Carolinians’ constitutional freedoms.”

Last month, the state Supreme Court returned the case to the Wake Superior Court for a hearing on whether the Board of Elections erred in rejecting Griffin’s petitions to discard military and overseas ballots he says improperly failed to include photo ID, as well as more than 60,000 early and absentee ballots from voters whose registration forms, he said, failed to include necessary information.

Attorneys for Griffin and the Board of Elections sparred for more than two hours Friday over Griffin’s challenge — and specifically, whether it constituted an attempt to change the election rules after the fact, or to enforce them as they were already written, as well as the question of whether challenged voters received adequate notice.

The Griffin argument

Craig Schauer, an attorney for Griffin, defended his client’s decision to challenge only early and absentee ballots from voters whose registration forms he said did not include a driver’s license number or a partial Social Security Number, while refraining from challenging in-person Election Day votes.

“The state board doesn’t identify who votes on Election Day until after the protest deadline; therefore, you cannot identify who voted on Election Day and include them in an election protest,” Schauer said. “Second, those people who vote on Election Day — my understanding is, those ballots aren’t retrievable.”

He added that it’s irrelevant that errors in the database indicated that some individuals’ registrations lacked driver’s license numbers or a partial Social Security Number — instead, Schauer said, “this exception simply prove the rule” by allowing some voters who have followed the legal requirements to provide this information and vote.

“The fact that there is an exception that allows you to vote if you provided this information and there’s a mismatch simply proves that you must provide the information in the first place,” Schauer said. “This is not a waiver of the obligation to provide the information in the first place.”

He added that he did not see it as a violation of voters’ equal protection rights to specifically dispose of military and overseas ballots that did not include photo ID’s, but only from a set of heavily Democratic counties. He analogized it to someone challenging the ballot of a neighbor who they know is a felon, but failing to challenge the ballots of felons in other counties.

“The reality is, they’re in different situations. The individual in Wake County had their vote challenged, the individual in the other counties didn’t have their vote challenged,” Schauer said.

“Retroactive disenfranchisement”

Ray Bennett, an attorney for Riggs, condemned Griffin’s challenge as an attempt at “retroactive disenfranchisement,” which he called “anti-democratic” and a violation of state law.

“To listen to my friends on the other side, you would think that this is an anodyne, routine election protest process and that this sort of thing happens all the time,” Bennett said. “The reality is that this is unprecedented. The arguments have been tried in some other states, but they’ve not succeeded.”

He accused Griffin of “cutting corners” in providing notice to voters whose ballots were being challenged, arguing that he was required to serve all parties with proper legal notice. Instead, Bennett said, Griffin and the state Republican Party sent out a “postcard” addressed to the voter “or current resident” in a manner identical to election campaign bulk mail.

Bennett said that the notice was also deficient in that it provided only a QR code to view the election protests, which took voters to a set of 300 links for each individual challenge filed by Griffin that “often included attachments with dozens or hundreds of names attached that were not sorted in alphabetical order.” Some of the challenged voters, he said, did not own cell phones or if they did, do not know how to use QR codes.

Bennett argued that Griffin’s challenge amounted to an attempt to “change the rules after the game has been played” — and that the challenges to election rules Griffin’s case relies on either had been attempted before the election and failed, or were not brought despite ample opportunity to do so.

In his view, the arguments brought by Griffin for requiring photo ID’s with military and overseas ballots are made on policy grounds, not statutory ones — he noted that the North Carolina Constitution only requires photo ID for in-person voting, and it was an act of the General Assembly that expanded this to absentee ballots. He said Griffin’s attorneys incorrectly combine two separate articles of statutory law, which do not explicitly require photo ID for military voters.

“…Trying to impose a requirement where there is none under state law”

Terence Steed, an attorney for the Board of Elections, concurred with Bennett that the postcards did not amount to “real, effective notice” — which he said requires the materials in question, not just “a link to thousands of pages of spreadsheets.”

He said that even if voters registrations lacked the information Griffin charges, that does not render them ineligible to vote — the law in question does not create new requirements or qualifications to vote, and instead, was aimed at standardizing voting practices across a single database. He added that regardless, Griffin had not actually identified any voters who did not provide the information, only those where the information could not be found in the digital database.

“These are voters from all walks of life who from everything we can tell, did everything they were told to do when registering, but for many innocuous reasons may not have a driver’s license or Social Security Number in their registration records,” Steed said.

“Petitioner is trying to impose a requirement where there is none under state law,” Steed said. “He has failed to identify a single voter that has actually registered without this information, he has only identified voters who potentially don’t have this data field, filled out in their registration records.”

“I am committed to upholding the rule of law…”

Riggs spoke to observers outside the courthouse after the hearing concluded, and was followed by voters who spoke about their experiences of having ballots challenged. Some said they never received a postcard at all, while others were unable to find their names using it even though they were in fact listed. One voter reported requesting the purportedly “incomplete registration” documents only to find that it included all the requisite information Griffin specified.

“No matter how long this takes, I am committed to upholding the rule of law, standing up for the voters who elected me to keep my seat, standing up for the 65,000 voters whose constitutional rights would be infringed by the relief sought in this case, and ensure that we have accountability for any elected official who would disregard the solemn oath that we all take to uphold, maintain, and defend the state and federal constitutions,” Riggs said.

Hilary Klein, an attorney representing some of the voters whose ballots have been challenged, had said right after the hearing that she expected a ruling from Pittman to be issued sometime in the coming weeks — though the turnaround was ultimately far shorter. She said there would likely be appeals regardless of the hearing’s outcome — a development that could ultimately bring the case back up to the North Carolina Supreme Court.

After that, parties in the case could seek to stay the high court’s ruling and be heard on the federal civil rights issues implicated in the case through the federal courts — portending the possibility of a lengthy legal saga to come.

An overflow crowd

The Wake County courtroom where the case was heard was full to capacity following calls by voting rights organizations to pack the hearing — more than 100 tried to get in, with many observers turned away and left to wait outside.

Daikwon Redfearn, a recent NC Central University graduate, waited outside the courthouse as the hearing was underway. Redfearn said he worked to have young voters turnout at the polls last year, and he wanted to represent those voters whose ballots are being challenged.

“I’m here to let people know your vote counts and you need to fight for your vote,” he said. “If I need to be one man fighting for 60,000 people, I will.”

“This is the case that Trump would have brought if he hadn’t quite won in North Carolina and that is a national story,” said Ann Webb, policy director at Common Cause North Carolina. “This is important for all of us to be following, and it has implications not only for North Carolina — all of North Carolina’s voters — but voters all across the country.”

Lynn Bonner contributed to this report.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

In some of his first post-gubernatorial remarks on state politics, Roy Cooper condemned Judge Jefferson Griffin’s ongoing election lawsuit as an “egregious attack on the right to vote” that threatens to disenfranchise tens of thousands of North Carolinians.

“For those who don’t follow elections closely, it’s important for you to know that this is just not another step in the recount process,” Cooper said during a Monday afternoon virtual news conference with Democratic Party officials. “This is a scheme to throw out legal votes en masse by eligible voters who even showed their voter ID to be able to vote.”

Also present on the call were outgoing Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison of South Carolina and North Carolina party chair Anderson Clayton. Harrison tied Griffin’s efforts to the Jan. 6 insurrection following Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, reminding attendees that “democracy is not something guaranteed to us” and must be fought for.

The race for incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs’s seat was the closest statewide election in North Carolina last November. Though Griffin, her opponent, appeared to lead in the race after Election Day, Riggs pulled ahead once all ballots were counted, and a full machine recount showed her prevailing by a 734-vote margin. A partial hand recount left that result in place.

In the wake of the election result, Griffin brought election protests seeking to throw out more than 60,000 early or absentee ballots on the grounds that voters failed to provide either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when registering and so could not legally vote. A federal judge dismissed a challenge premised on a similar argument prior to the election last year. Among those whose votes face challenges are some Republican elected officials and Riggs’s own parents.

An analysis by political scientist Chris Cooper found that voters who were challenged were disproportionately nonwhite, young, and less likely to be registered Republicans. On the call Monday, Clayton blasted Griffin for “targeting Black voters, young voters, women in our state” for exclusion. “It’s truly terrifying right now that in 2025, we’re in a position where a candidate could possibly succeed in tossing out ballots and rejecting democracy,” she said.

The North Carolina Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Elections not to certify the race as it considers the case. Riggs, as a candidate in the election in question, has recused herself from the case. It is the only election in the state yet to be certified. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is separately considering whether to return the case to federal court and will hear arguments on Jan. 27.

“They just want to win so badly that they will do anything in order to be able to win, and it’s deeply concerning that the North Carolina Supreme Court has stopped the certification of this election,” Cooper said. “The eyes of the entire country are on this race because the implications of having free and fair elections that are being questioned and potentially overturned are devastating.”

He said he expects “copycat lawsuits” around the country should Griffin’s challenge succeed from other candidates unwilling to concede defeat in their elections. “Voters in North Carolina will be unable to walk out of a voting booth ever again and feel confident that their vote will count.”

He called for a return to nonpartisan judicial elections and connected the lawsuit to other efforts by Republicans to expand their power in the state, including Senate Bill 382, which moved the State Board of Elections from under the governor’s authority to the state auditor, who is now a Republican. This will allow Republicans to hold a majority of the seats on the election board.

“The people of North Carolina had no idea that the state auditor would be involved in running elections, and this is just simply another attempt for [Republicans] to control elections in this state,” Cooper said. “With this kind of lawsuit that they are backing, that spells trouble for democracy.”

Cooper is considered a top potential U.S. Senate candidate in 2026 as Democrats seek a challenger to Republican incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis, but so far, he has not confirmed his plans. He refrained from public comment on the race until after concluding his term in office, but has repeatedly condemned the effort by Republicans as an attack on democracy in his post-gubernatorial life.

“Whether candidates win or lose, they need to respect the results, because we do live in a democracy,” Cooper said. “We’ll continue to fight for Justice Riggs because 60,000 North Carolina eligible voters will be silenced if she is not declared the rightful winner in this race.”

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

In March, about 100 gathered in Judge James Wynn Jr.’s hometown of Robersonville to throw him a surprise retirement party.

Nine months later, Wynn revealed his own surprise: he’s not giving up his seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals after all.

In a letter Wynn, 70, wrote to President Joe Biden Friday that was released the following afternoon by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — who rebuked the judge’s decision — he rescinded his January announcement that he would assume senior status, a form of semi-retirement where federal judges hear a reduced caseload and vacate their permanent seat on the court.

“I write to advise that, after careful consideration, I have decided to continue in regular active service as a United States Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit,” Wynn wrote. “I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused.”

Wynn’s decision to remain in active service is the culmination of a monthslong drama over his seat on the bench. Biden named North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park as his choice to succeed Wynn, an Obama appointee, in July — and was immediately met with strident opposition from North Carolina Senators Tillis and Ted Budd.

“This nomination is a non-starter and the White House has already been informed they do not have the votes for confirmation,” the senators wrote in a joint statement at the time. “We still hope to work together to find a consensus nominee who can earn bipartisan support and be confirmed.”

The results in the Senate backed up that threat. In a deal to advance a slate of district court nominees, the Biden administration raised the white flag on his four remaining circuit court nominees, all of whom were said to lack the votes for confirmation. Park formally withdrew himself from consideration Thursday, and the following day, Wynn announced his reversal.

Tillis called Wynn’s decision “brazenly partisan” and a “slap in the face to the U.S. Senate” after the deal to hold the seat for Trump to fill. He urged the Senate Judiciary Committee — set to be controlled by Republicans beginning in January — to hold a hearing on the matter.

Carl Tobias, an expert on the federal judiciary who teaches at the University of Richmond, said he was not surprised by Wynn’s decision given the politicized process that prevented Park’s confirmation — Tobias had called Park an “extraordinary nominee” and a “consummate lawyer.”

“Judge Wynn certainly can retract his decision, and he’s done that, and I think partly due to what happened during the confirmation process for his successor,” Tobias said. “Article III judges are independent and they do whatever they need to do.”

The reversal denies Trump the opportunity to name what would have been his fourth appointee to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in a second term where he looks set to reshape the federal courts that cover North Carolina. The court has a roster of 15 active status judges, plus three who are on senior status. Wynn is the second federal judge from the state to “unretire” in the wake of the 2024 election, after Judge Max Cogburn Jr. for the Western District of North Carolina did the same in November.

Since that decision, Cogburn has been the subject of ethics complaints calling into question his integrity and impartiality. The conservative Article III Project submitted a letter to the Fourth Circuit alleging that Cogburn’s decision violated Canons 2 and 5 of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges — which require upholding impartiality and avoiding political activity, respectively.

Such complaints are certain to follow for Wynn from judicial activists on the right. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said prior to his announcement that should any circuit judge go back on their decision to take senior status, that would warrant “significant ethics complaints.”

“Never before has a circuit judge unretired after a presidential election. It’s literally unprecedented,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “As I have repeatedly warned the judiciary in other matters, if you play political games, expect political prizes.”

Xiao Wang, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law who has studied retirements in the federal judiciary, said the precedent Wynn has set could pose challenges to future deals like the one to advance several Biden district court nominees. He said it may also encourage conservative judges to take senior status decisions that appear political, particularly as Trump takes office and seeks to fill as many vacancies as possible.

Wynn is not the first circuit judge to go back on a planned retirement. Judge Robert King, a Clinton appointee who serves with Wynn on the Fourth Circuit, also rescinded his plans to take senior status after Biden opted not to name his preferred successor. Judge Michael Kanne, a Reagan appointee who served on the Seventh Circuit, did the same for similar reasons.

With Wynn choosing to remain on the bench, judicial observers are turning their attention to Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch, 71, who serves on the Sixth Circuit and like Wynn, announced plans to take senior status only to see her planned successor, a former clerk of hers, fail to get a vote in the Senate.

Wang said the backlash to Wynn’s decision, including the ethics complaints he is expected to receive, could serve as a deterrent to other judges considering the same.

“The first one certainly makes it possible that there could be a second one,” Wang said. “Just depending on what the reaction is and if there are any consequences for this.”

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina approved wide-ranging legislation Wednesday that was billed as another round of hurricane relief, but instead primarily shifts power within state government away from Democratic officials.

Senate Bill 382 is advertised as the third round of relief for western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene caused unprecedented damage in the state’s western counties. But it provides just a fraction of the spending allocated in the previous packages — instead making major changes to the distribution of power within the executive branch.

The bill places new restrictions on the governor’s and attorney general’s offices, limiting their authority months before newly elected Democrats take office. It redirects some of that power to state offices soon to be controlled by Republicans.

And it makes a litany of changes to other parts of state law, including absentee voting, ballot counting, the highway patrol and the judiciary.

It passed the Senate on Wednesday on a 30-19 party-line vote, ending a fast-tracked legislative process of a 131-page bill that did not become public until an hour before debate began on Tuesday.

The bill previously passed the House 63-46, with three Republicans who represent districts in western North Carolina joining Democrats in voting ‘no.’

It now heads to Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk. He blasted lawmakers on Wednesday for using “financial crumbs to cover for massive power grabs.”

He could veto the legislation; an override in the House would likely require opposing Republicans to change their votes.

Republicans backing the bill have argued it takes another measured step in the state’s response to Helene, pointing to hundreds of millions of dollars approved in prior aid packages.

They urged patience with billions of federal dollars likely coming down the pipeline in the coming months.

“We are going to have to walk the straightest of lines to make sure that we maximize every dollar that we can put into this,” said Deputy Senate President Pro Tem Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell).

“Everything that we’re trying to force out early by saying that we’re not doing anything in western North Carolina is challenging our actual ability to recover from this storm.”

Republicans say many of the bill’s changes to state law and government are needed fixes, such as language that would shorten deadlines for absentee voting and ballot counting.

“The purpose of these changes is to ensure a timelier resolution of election outcomes,” Hise said, referencing vote counts that “drag on for two weeks” — like an ongoing state Supreme Court race in which a Democrat leads.

Democrats continued to blast the legislation on the Senate floor Wednesday, accusing Republicans of distorting hurricane relief for political gain.

“It would have been easy to break out the Hurricane Helene portions of this bill from the rest of the bill that takes purely partisan aim at the pillars of our democracy,” said Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe). “But that is not the decision that was made.”

Sen. Mary Willis Bode (D-Granville) said the bill was the Republicans’ attempt at “injuring the other team’s players in the final minutes of a game they know they’re going to lose.” And Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake) called it “a sign of weakness.”

“We just came to make these pen swipes and act like we’re here doing something, when all we did was move money from one pot to another,” Grafstein said.

Opponents to bill ejected during Senate debate

While Republicans ticked through the bill on the Senate floor, opponents in the gallery quietly booed and displayed thumbs pointing down.

And after they cheered for a Democrat’s speech, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson — who presides over the Senate — ordered a 10-minute break “while these immature people are taken out.” As they were escorted out of the gallery, they shouted “shame” and “fascists.”

Two of the demonstrators, Navy veteran Kelly Parrish and her friend Nancy Nice, came out to denounce what Parrish called a “power grab” by Republicans.

“Republicans can’t win without cheating,” Nice said. “It’s a shell game, too. They just want the news that they’re gonna have some money for western North Carolina — but it’s no new money for western North Carolina.”

Parrish — who held up a sign reading “Stop Hurting Helene Victims” before being escorted out of the gallery — added she was “sorry to see” the protest was not as large as in 2016, when a similar bill stripped Cooper, the then-incoming governor, of many of his powers.

“Democracy dies in the dark. I mean you just cannot let them win,” she said.

What the bill allocates for Helene relief

The bill allocates a total of $252 million for Hurricane Helene relief — but provides few new uses for the money.

“Except as otherwise provided in this act, the funds shall remain unspent until appropriated by an act of the General Assembly,” the bill reads. “It is the intent of the General Assembly to review funding and to consider actions needed to address remaining unmet needs.”

Few line-items in the bill deal specifically with hurricane recovery:

Asheville-area lawmakers, business owners say regional crises loom large

Democrats from Buncombe County, which saw some of Helene’s worst damage, warned Wednesday that without more robust state aid, Asheville and western North Carolina will see its economy suffer and population drain.

Soon, Mayfield warned, crises will compound. A lack of money flowing to businesses means many will close, leaving thousands without work and unable to pay rent. Many of those people would likely leave the region.

“We’re losing the people who make our city run,” Mayfield told reporters at a press conference. “And when they’re gone, they’re gone.”

Several Asheville-area business owners urged lawmakers to revisit a grant program for small businesses.

Previous aid packages have allocated money for a state loan program, but regional leaders have said that’s not enough to meet needs.

“We know that the flood happened,” said J. Hackett, the founder of Black Wall Street in Asheville. “We know that the damage was done. What we don’t know is what the rest of the state is going to do to assist those that are most vulnerable right now.”

‘Nothing for western NC’: Why one House Republican voted ‘no’

Three House Republicans opposed the bill Tuesday: Majority Whip Karl Gillespie (R-Macon), Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain), and Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood). All represent districts in western North Carolina.

“The bill appears to do nothing for western NC,” Pless wrote in a statement Wednesday. “There were so many issues being addressed in the bill it was impossible to gain an understanding of what the bill will do across NC. I am not going to vote yes unless I can understand and agree with what the bill does.”

Pless also said he was upset with the lack of process around the 131-page bill, noting that he did not have the opportunity to review it until Tuesday morning.

He added that he is unsure how he would vote on an override of a potential veto from Cooper and will “read and study the bill” further in the interim.

“I will make that decision when the time comes to cast my vote on the override,” he wrote.

Gillespie and Clampitt did not respond to requests for comment.

Cooper has not yet stated whether he will veto the bill, though he has repeatedly condemned legislators for “shortchanging disaster recovery” while prioritizing “power grabs.”

As Republicans only hold a precise 3/5 supermajority in the state House, opposition from any of the three lawmakers would be enough to prevent lawmakers from overcoming a veto if all Democrats are present and voting to sustain the veto.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.

In a rally in Selma Friday, vice presidential nominee JD Vance closed with a pledge that would be ordinary in any other election: Donald Trump would be “the president for all of us,” not just his supporters.

But the message was overshadowed by the former president’s own words from the prior evening, when he told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he’d like to see his political opponent Liz Cheney “with nine barrels shooting at her” — a violent remark that dominated the headlines Friday.

Vance, the junior senator from Ohio, tried to paint Democrats as divisive and his own ticket as unifying — condemning President Joe Biden for calling Trump supporters “garbage” while countering that he and Trump had never attacked Vice President Kamala Harris’s voters. Trump, though, has repeatedly referred to Democratic voters as “lunatics” and an “enemy from within.”

The former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., joined the rally in Selma unannounced. He condemned Harris for accepting the support of the Cheney family — provoking raucous boos when he named Dick and Liz Cheney — before mounting a defense of his father’s remarks.

“My father says: It’s strange, if Liz Cheney wants to be in all of the wars, she should pick up arms, but it seems like the people that get us into these wars never seem to be the people fighting them,” Trump Jr. told the crowd of several hundred. “The media says: Donald Trump thinks Liz Cheney should be shot!”

Trump’s remarks, which did center on the Cheney family’s support of wars in the Middle East, went further than his son suggested. “Let’s see how she feels about it when the guns are trained on her face,” Trump said Thursday.

Former Rep. Cheney (R-Wyo.) said the remarks by Trump are exactly how dictators destroy free nations.

“They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant,” she wrote on the social media platform X.

‘Garbage’ remark looms large as Vance calls for unity

From supporters clad in orange reflector vests and trash bags to a large white truck from Patriot Sanitation Management, reminders of Biden’s garbage comment were strewn all throughout the event in Selma Friday.

“I am a proud piece of garbage,” said state auditor candidate Dave Boliek, warming up the crowd ahead of Vance’s arrival. “I’m a businessman and a leader who has made decisions in the face of liberal opposition.”

Vance used the comment — which Trump seized on during a rally in Rocky Mount earlier this week — to stake his claim that he and Trump would build a prosperous economy that leaves no one behind.

“If you’re struggling with the price of groceries, you’re not garbage. If you’re pissed off about Kamala Harris’s open border, you’re not a bad person,” Vance said. “I do think that in four days, we oughta take out the trash in Washington, D.C.”

Despite Trump’s caustic rhetoric toward his opponents, Vance insisted that the former president would work to better the lives of all Americans if elected.

“Whether you vote for Donald J. Trump and make the right decision or whether you vote for Kamala Harris and make the wrong decision, we are going to usher a golden age of American prosperity whoever you voted for,” Vance said. “Not just the people who agree with him politically.”

Trump, though, has a history of wielding the powers of the presidency to inflict hardship on his political detractors — on multiple occasions withholding disaster aid to states overseen by his opponents — and has repeatedly vowed to exact retribution on his enemies if reelected.

On Friday, though, Vance called to end the strife and division of contemporary American politics.

“I’m sick of Americans losing friends and losing family members over politics,” Vance said. “I’m sick of Americans following Joe Biden and Kamala Harris into thinking that the people who disagree with them politically are bad people — they’re not bad people.”

Vance pledges to solve border crisis and affordability woes

If his calls for unity were a diversion from the campaign’s ordinary tone, Vance centered the rest of his pitch on familiar terrain — immigration and the economy.

“Pack your bags, illegal immigrants, because in three months, you’re going back home,” Vance said. “Kamala Harris refuses to do her job as border czar — that’s a disgrace, and we can do so much better.”

He blamed undocumented immigrants for a lack of affordable housing in the U.S. and said that under a second Trump administration, he would “make sure that American homes go to American citizens.” Vance added that if elected, they would slash housing regulations to ensure many more new homes were built.

Economists have disputed Vance’s claim about immigrants and housing costs.

Trump Jr. said that under Biden, America had gone from “a time of prosperity to a time of poverty” — a state of affairs that would only change if Trump won in 2024.

The vice presidential nominee is set to appear with Trump Jr. in Nevada and Arizona on Saturday. The pair will return to North Carolina for an appearance in Raleigh Sunday.

Vice President Kamala Harris returns to Charlotte on Saturday. It will be her second visit to the battleground state this week.

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Reeling from days of backlash over his Madison Square Garden rally, former President Donald Trump went on the offensive in a speech at Rocky Mount, railing against remarks by President Joe Biden in which it appeared to some that he called Trump supporters “garbage.”

“Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters,” Trump said, drawing a chorus of boos from the crowd of about 4,000. “He called them garbage.”

The campaign seized on the comment almost immediately after Biden made it in a Tuesday evening video call with the Hispanic voter advocacy group Voto Latino.

Denouncing a racist joke by Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s New York rally this past weekend — in which the insult comic called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” — Biden appeared to say, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”

White House disputes claim

The White House’s official transcript disputes this interpretation, indicating the comment was misunderstood by some because of the president’s stutter — and that he was instead referring to Hinchcliffe himself, saying “his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos.”

Regardless of Biden’s intent, Trump sought to turn the comment to his advantage Wednesday, using it to further his campaign’s long-running narrative that his supporters have been victimized by a political establishment that despises them — a populist appeal that helped win him the 2016 presidential election.

“You are not subhuman,” Trump told the rally crowd. “And you know it’s what they believe because look how they’ve treated you. They’ve treated you like garbage, frankly.”

He made direct reference to remarks by that year’s Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, when she infamously referred to half of Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” — a comment Clinton later wrote played a role in her electoral defeat. “That makes deplorable look like baby stuff,” Trump said of Biden’s comment.

“You know what’s worse than anything? Garbage. We’re garbage,” Trump said. “And I call you the heart and soul of America — you’re the people that built America.”

For her part, Harris distanced herself from Biden’s remarks before flying to North Carolina for her own event Wednesday. “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” she told reporters in Washington.

‘I’m not Hitler’

Throughout the Rocky Mount rally, Trump sought to cast himself and his supporters as the victims of hate, accusing Harris of running a “campaign of hate, anger, and retribution” immediately after calling her a “low-IQ individual.”

Trump’s own campaign has faced condemnation for hate speech throughout the campaign. At that same New York rally, he condemned Democrats as the “enemy from within,” and since the start of the race, he has attacked undocumented immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country” — to the point where critics have compared his rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler.

“I’m not Hitler,” Trump said Wednesday afternoon. “They’ve bullied you; they’ve demeaned us, they’ve demonized us and censored us and deplatformed us and weaponized the power of our own government against us.”

He denied wanting to jail political opponents and journalists, telling supporters he himself had been targeted by the justice system — a reference to federal charges against him for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and, separately, for refusing to return classified documents after the conclusion of his presidency. In both cases, Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Trump then attacked members of the media in attendance at his rally, calling them “scum” and “so dishonest” as he gestured to them at the back of the arena — bringing down an onslaught of jeers from the crowd.

Familiar remarks on immigration, the economy and voting

The rest of the rally focused on familiar themes, with Trump pledging to bring back manufacturing jobs through tariffs and condemning Biden and Harris on inflation and the border.

Trump repeated debunked claims about Hurricane Helene — after unloading a torrent of false claims at a rally in Greenville earlier this month — most notably that the agency had spent $1 billion in disaster aid on migrants, a piece of misinformation that Republicans have repeatedly used to attack the federal government.

He also sought to sow distrust in the upcoming election, claiming Elon Musk told him only paper ballots could guarantee a secure election and calling for “one-day voting” without early or mail-in options — suggesting that otherwise, ballots could be stolen by the boxful. At the same time, he praised North Carolinians for setting an all-time record in early voting, with more than 3 million ballots cast.

“We must defeat Kamala Harris and stop her radical left agenda with a landslide that is too big to rig. You need to get out and vote — that’s all I ask,” Trump said, before commending a sizable contingent of the crowd who indicated they’d already voted. “Thank you very much. That’s very impressive.”

Wednesday’s event, which came just a few minutes after Harris rallied supporters 60 miles away in Raleigh, is part of what appears as if it will be an almost constant stream of visits by the candidates and their surrogates in the campaign’s final days. Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz was scheduled to be in Charlotte, Greensboro and Asheville on Wednesday, while Trump’s running mate JD Vance will be in High Point on Thursday. Harris will headline a rally in Charlotte on Saturday while Trump holds another event in Greensboro.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.