Across party lines, North Carolinians stand united against partisan gerrymandering and believe that district maps should be drawn neutrally, according to a newly conducted poll.
Since last Wednesday, over 140,000 North Carolinians have not received paychecks. During previous shutdowns, Americans being forced to work without pay has led to a rise in worker absences, and some have left government service altogether.
Despite Moore’s lack of attendance, constituents from his district across the political spectrum, along with several local organizations, gathered at Kings Mountain High School to share their stories of how their lives are being impacted by the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
At the first meeting of the North Carolina Board of Elections following Woodhouse’s hiring, board members clashed over concerns about his involvement with the state’s elections. Woodhouse has frequently voiced support for voter suppression measures, from railing against Sunday voting to requesting that election officials reduce polling hours and locations.
Earlier this year, the Republican-led legislature in North Carolina eliminated the state’s carbon emissions reduction target for 2030 and allowed Duke Energy to charge consumers for the cost of gas and nuclear power plants before they are even operational.
Business owners and residents have said that Whatley has rarely been seen in impacted areas, and over 100 residents have requested that Whatley be removed from the FEMA council for not delivering on his promises to help the area. North Carolina has received only roughly 9% of the funding needed to recover from the devastation left by Hurricane Helene.
While Berger is potentially chasing Trump’s approval, North Carolina is still without a state budget, three months into the fiscal year, and after missing a critical Medicaid funding deadline. Despite controlling both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly, Republicans still have not passed a comprehensive budget, threatening more than a billion dollars in federal funding, health care access, teacher pay raises, and Hurricane Helene recovery aid for small businesses.
Primary care practices, particularly those in rural and underserved parts of the state, will be impacted the hardest, according to the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians.
If the credits expire, the average North Carolinian enrollee is expected to pay $672 more annually for the same health insurance plan they currently have, with even greater increases expected for rural residents. Many residents won’t be able to afford this increase, putting 157,000 North Carolinians at risk of losing coverage, Stein cautions.
North Carolina currently sits as one of the only two states in the nation operating without a current state budget. The last state budget lawmakers created was set to run out in July, and since that deadline, lawmakers have only been successful in passing a reduced or “mini” budget that funds certain priorities. Though Stein signed the legislation in early August, he called it a “Band-Aid budget,” saying it falls short of what’s needed and fails to meet the needs of the people of North Carolina.