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North Carolina Open Thread [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-25
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 Missouri: Wednesday Evenings Kansas: Monday Evenings
Please jump the fold for more.
It took six months, but the race for the North Carolina Supreme Court is finally over. The rules of the game held – just as they did following the 2020 election – and the winner is now in office.
That’s a win for democracy.
And we owe that win in large part to an exceptionally strong ruling from Trump-appointed judge Richard E. Myers II, chief judge of the Eastern District of North Carolina.
While other branches might be absent (Congress), or ambivalent on whether or not it has to follow the Constitution (Executive), the federal judiciary continues to hold the line.
North Carolina is one of seven states that has partisan elections for its judges. In the November 2024 election for one of North Carolina’s Supreme Court seats, Democrat Allison Riggs defeated Republican Jefferson Griffin by 734 votes. Out of 5,540,090 votes. Griffin challenged the results in court, as is his right.
Included in Griffin’s challenges were attempts to retroactively challenge the state’s election laws, and then use the new understanding of the law to throw out 60,000 presumptively-valid votes. All based in election denial conspiracies. <More>
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied North Carolina’s appeal of its April decision to stop matching 100% of the state’s spending on Hurricane Helene recovery.
The ruling came Thursday in a letter from the person serving as the agency’s acting leader, David Richardson, that provided little in the way of explanation. Richardson was elevated to the position of “Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator” after the person President Donald Trump selected as Acting Administrator, Cameron Hamilton, was fired earlier this month, one day after delivering congressional testimony in he expressed disagreement with the administration’s plans to dismantle the agency.
This is from Ricardson’s denial letter:
“You specifically requested an extension of the 100 percent federal cost share for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance for an additional 180 days. After a careful and thorough review of all the information available, including that contained in your initial request for a cost share adjustment and appeal, we have concluded that an extension of the 100 percent federal cost share for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance for an additional 180 days under major disaster declaration FEMA-4827-DR is not warranted.”
As NC Newsline previously reported, the ruling leaves the state on the hook for up to $200 million or more in additional expenses for debris cleanup and other emergency work.
In a statement responding to the ruling, Gov. Josh Stein expressed disappointment but promised to press on with Helene cleanup and recovery efforts:
“The first step to help western North Carolina recover is to clean up all the debris. So far, we have removed more than 12 million cubic yards of debris from roads and water ways, but given the immense scale of the wreckage, we have only scratched the surface. FEMA’s denial of our appeal will cost North Carolina taxpayers potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up out west. The money we have to pay toward debris removal will mean less money towards supporting our small businesses, rebuilding downtown infrastructure, repairing our water and sewer systems, and other critical needs. Despite this news, we are going to stay the course. We will keep pushing the federal and state governments to do right by western North Carolina. We will keep working with urgency, focus, and transparency to get any appropriated money on the ground as quickly as we can to speed the recovery. We will not forget the people of western North Carolina.” <More>
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