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North Carolina Open Thread: Riggs/Griffin, DEI, Budget cuts, Statewide wins, Fed worker rally, Fire [1]
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Date: 2025-02-23
Welcome. This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue . The platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we take back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please stop by each week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads . If you are interested in starting your own state blog, weekly to occasionally, I will list your work below.
Colorado: Mondays, 7:00 PM Mountain Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern Missouri: Wednesday Evenings Kansas: Monday Evenings
Please jump the fold for a few stories I found useful And interesting this week.
The state Supreme Court has rejected a request to speed up the case Judge Jefferson Griffin brought against the state Board of Elections in his attempt to win a seat on the high court.
The State Board and Justice Allison Riggs wanted the case to go right from the trial court, where they won, to the Supreme Court, skipping the Appeals Court. Griffin opposed the move.
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Board and Riggs’ request in a 4-2 vote.
Griffin, a Republican Appeals Court judge, is seeking to throw out more than 60,000 votes he claims were illegally cast in his attempt to replace Riggs, the incumbent Democrat.
Riggs leads by 734 votes and has maintained the lead through two recounts.
Riggs has recused herself from the case. She is one of two Democrats on the seven-member court.
That leaves six justices voting, five Republicans and one Democrat.
Republicans hold a 12-3 seat margin on the Court of Appeals. Judges hear cases in teams of three.
North Carolina House Majority Leader Brenden Jones, a Republican representing Columbus and Robeson counties, filed legislation Friday to purge all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from state and local government.
House Bill 171, titled “Equality in State Agencies/Prohibition on DEI,” would remove measures supporting DEI from state agencies and government.
The bill declares that state agencies will not “promote, support, fund, implement, or maintain workplace DEI programs, policies, or initiatives,” such as using DEI in hirings and employment, maintaining staff positions or offices dedicated to DEI, or offering or requiring DEI training, according to its text.
This follows national action via an executive order titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing” authorized by President Donald Trump last month upon his return to the White House.
More than $1 billion has been approved to help western North Carolina. But the Trump administration reportedly plans to lay off most of the staffers who disperse such funding.
CANTON, N.C.—This resilient mountain town of 4,400 people west of Asheville has endured more hardship in the last four years than seems fair: Tropical Storm Fred in 2021. The closure of a 115-year-old paper mill, the town’s biggest employer, in 2023.
And last September, Hurricane Helene, which lashed Canton and large swaths of western North Carolina, caused $60 billion in damage and killed 100 people in the region.
More than $1 billion in federal disaster recovery money is headed to western North Carolina, but now there could be too few people to quickly disperse it. The Trump administration is cutting 84 percent of staff at the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Community Planning and Development, The New York Timesreported earlier this week, leaving just 150 people to manage a nationwide disaster recovery program.
“I understand the importance and the necessity of making better financial decisions in Washington,” said Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, a Democrat. “But anything that takes money, people, resources and respect away from the people of western North Carolina, I’m against. These people have waited too long. They’ve gone through too much.”
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Usually, the Federal Complex on Patton Avenue is a quiet place; however, this wasn't the case on Feb. 21.
Many federal workers affected by the string of firings by the trump administration were on the street, making their voices heard, as the news of being let go came as a surprise to many.
"I logged in, got an email saying I was terminated for performance," Tom Vaught, who was let go by Veteran's Affairs, said. "I was furious. I spent 13 years in federal service. I have two kids, a wife, and no job right now. It’s just a slap in the face; it’s a betrayal.” "We all got invited to a meeting, and they said everyone's gone," said Dan Bowers. "There's no public service jobs out there."
Emotions were high after many lost what they had worked most of their lives for.
"I went to law school to get into public service," Bowers, who used to be an Attorney for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said. "That's all I've ever done since I graduated. Our entire mission was to protect consumers. We were taking after predatory lenders, protecting people from high-interest charges."
North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton, in an interview with WRAL, discusses Kamala Harris' loss, plans for her second term as chair, and responds to critics who say Democrats are out of touch.
Anderson Clayton became North Carolina Democratic Party chair on a promise: to boost its members’ representation — and performance — in statewide elections.
Democrats had just lost every statewide race in the 2022 midterm elections. And instead of sticking with Clayton’s predecessor — a former state legislator endorsed by the state’s most prominent Democrats — party members took a chance on Clayton, a 25-year-old campaign organizer who vowed to improve the party’s ground game.
On Saturday, Clayton was reelected chair of the state Democratic Party. This time, she ran on her record and on her promise to continue building the party into an organization that can reach North Carolinians at their door year-round.
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington has experienced several major fires since its incorporation in 1739. But a multi-day blaze in February of 1886 was especially bad.
By the time the final flames were extinguished, more than $1 million worth of property was destroyed (around $33 million in today’s money) and the lives of residents were forever changed.
The fire began on February 21, 1886 aboard the steamboat Bladen which was passing through from Fayetteville. The initial flames were discovered around 150 yards offshore, with the fire quickly growing in the lower deck near the boiler. The boat was loaded with cotton and naval supplies and was quickly engulfed as it was steered to shore. All the passengers escaped without injury but lost their luggage in the blaze.
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