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North Carolina Open Thread [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-06

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

Ruling says most challenged voters will have 15 days to avoid having their votes thrown out. Democratic candidate, Justice Allison Riggs, says she will appeal the ruling.

Thousands of North Carolina voters could soon have their 2024 ballots thrown out, the state Court of Appeals ruled Friday in a case that could flip to Republicans another seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court months after the November election.

If the ruling stands, the State Board of Elections would be required to ask more than 60,000 voters to provide proof of their identity. Anyone who doesn’t respond will have their ballot thrown out — an outcome that could tilt the narrow race for the high-court seat in favor of the Republican candidate, Jefferson Griffin, who challenged the ballots.

The 2-1 ruling, which came down along party lines, also identified several hundred voters who it said should have their ballots thrown out no matter what, based on a new interpretation of the state constitution. <More>

Around 4,500 North Carolinians gathered across from the state legislature to condemn massive tariffs and cuts to government services.

More than 4,500 gathered in Raleigh’s Bicentennial Plaza on Saturday to protest the Trump administration, calling for an end to cuts to health care and welfare programs as well as the removal of massive tariffs that have caused the stock market to tumble.

The demonstration, organized by a wide swath of activist groups including the 50501 Movement, Bishop William Barber II’s Poor People’s Campaign, and the Union of Southern Service Workers, was part of a national day of protest that saw thousands gather in state capitals and major cities around the country. Protesters demanded the Trump administration take its “hands off” core social services such as Medicaid and Social Security as well as scientific research and international aid programs.

Speakers included veterans and union workers and brought together both longtime local advocates, like Rev. Rob Stephens of the Poor People’s Campaign, as well as those who only recently became engaged in politics, like high school junior Michael Turner, who came to the demonstration from Rocky Mount. <More>

Thousands gathered at Pack Square Park as part of the April 5 “Hands Off” Nationwide Day of Action. According to reports, an estimated 1,400 similar protests are taking place across the country. The Asheville event was sponsored by local groups Good Trouble WNC, Indivisible Asheville/WNC and the NC Poor People’s Campaign.

The two-hour rally featured nearly a dozen speakers, addressing issues on health care, climate, veterans’ rights, Social Security, Medicaid, education and the impact of federal cuts on local organizations and institutions. Along with speakers, the gathering featured performances by Womansong of Asheville and the Asheville Gay Men’s Chorus.

73 great photos from today, courtesy of Mountain Express and photographerThomas Calder. He received his MFA in Fiction from the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program. His writing has appeared in Gulf Coast, the Miracle Monocle, Juked and elsewhere. His debut novel, The Wind Under the Door, is now available.

Here is a great Reels view. www.facebook.com/…

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In addition to a “Hands Off” rally that attracted at least 4,000 people against President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk in Raleigh, several other “Hands Off” protests drew hundreds in several other towns and cities across North Carolina on Saturday.

A crowd of at least 1,200 attended a Charlotte rally near the Mecklenburg County Social Services Department on Billingsley Road starting around 11 a.m. Saturday, CBS-affiliate WBTV reported. The Charlotte group blocked Wendover Road for hours and marched to the nearby Mint Museum and back, according to the TV station.

A large crowd also protested in Asheville at Pack Square, where speakers appeared on a stage to address the crowd, according to Blue Ridge Public Radio. Protesters also sang songs and spoke against cuts to funding, the radio station reported.

More than 300 people also protested in Sylva, a North Carolina mountain town in Jackson County, the radio station reported. Protesters shouted and had signs against Trump’s spending cuts and policies regarding immigration and voting rights, Blue Ridge Public Radio reported. <More>

More than 60 research scientists signed an open letter Thursday urging North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein to halt Duke Energy’s fossil fuel expansion and what they called the “suppression of renewable energy solutions” with his executive authority, according to a press release.

Four public health and climate scientists, along with the Center for Biological Diversityand solar nonprofit advocacy group NC WARN, organized the letter. It’s signed by a total of 61 scientists from universities and agencies across the country, some of which are at Duke University or the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

The letter asks Stein to prevent Duke Energy, what the letter authors termed “the third-largest corporate climate polluter in the United States,” from delaying transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

The town of Carrboro, N.C. sued Duke Energy at the end of last year, alleging the company’s top executives have misled the public about climate science and its harms for decades.

“Duke Energy executives are brushing aside scientists’ warnings and Gov. Stein needs to step in for the sake of people and our planet,” Drew Shindell, Ph.D., a climate scientist at Duke University and lead author on two U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, said in a statement. “The science is clear that as long as we keep burning fossil fuels, climate disasters like Helene and extreme heat waves will keep getting worse. These disasters will cost lives, drive species extinct and obliterate many of the places we call home. This is urgent and Gov. Stein has a responsibility to use all the tools at his disposal to force mega-polluters like Duke Energy to do what’s best for North Carolinians.”

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Thanks for stopping by, wishing all a strong week.

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