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.
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Thanks for stopping by! Thom Tillis, closing in on the Griffin/Riggs decision, OH BOY!- no gun permits, NC Treasurer Brad Briner interview, PFAS Cape Fear, NOAA, and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians governing protocols, are all included in the following stories. I hope you find them worth your time.
Angry voters demand an audience in Raleigh as Thom Tillis kicks off Senate reelection bid
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. <More>
Appeals Court considers whether votes in NC Supreme Court race should be thrown out
Riggs-Griffin contest remains undecided four-and-a-half months after the November election
Three Appeals Court judges will decide whether they should order thousands of votes cast in November’s race for a seat on the state Supreme Court to be thrown out.
Republican appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin wants more than 60,000 votes in his race for the Supreme Court seat tossed. He is trailing Democratic incumbent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes. Two recounts have affirmed her lead. Griffin believes he can win if he can convince courts to reject the votes he’s challenging.
The state Board of Elections dismissed his protests in December. Griffin contends the elections board is counting illegal votes. His case against the elections board has traveled a tangled route through state and federal courts. A trial court judge’s decision in favor of the elections board teed up Griffin’s appeal. The case may yet make its way back to federal court.
Two Republican judges, John Tyson and Fred Gore, and one Democrat, Tobias Hampson, heard Griffin’s appeal on Friday.
Griffin is challenging three sets of ballots. He claims that more than 60,000 voters were not properly registered because they did not include either a partial Social Security number or driver’s license number on their forms. Voters Griffin is challenging have come forward in the past months to say they did provide that information, but it was excluded from the electronic voter file due to typos or data mismatches. <More>
North Carolina Senate passes bill allowing permitless carry of concealed handguns
Whisked from its first committee hearing to final approval in just over 48 hours, Senate Bill 50 now heads to the House. Several amendments from Democrats were rejected.
The North Carolina Senate approved a bill Thursday authorizing gun owners to carry handguns without a permit, moving the legislation to the House.
Lawmakers shepherded Senate Bill 50, “Freedom to Carry NC,” through two committee hearings this week. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday.
Under the bill, residents of North Carolina who are U.S. citizens at least 18 years of age, and not otherwise prohibited by law would be able to carry concealed handguns without obtaining a permit.
Its primary sponsors are Sens. Danny Britt (R-Hoke, Robeson, Scotland), Warren Daniel (R-Buncombe, Burke, McDowell), and Eddie Settle (R-Alexander, Surry, Wilkes, Yadkin).
The measure passed 26-18 in a party line vote after the Senate adopted five amendments and rejected 11 others. Four Republicans and two Democrats had excused absences. Senators debated the bill for about two hours. Click here to see the text of the bill and each of the amendments, and the results of the various rollcall votes.
North Carolina law currently requires gun owners to obtain permits from their local sheriff’s office in order to carry a concealed handgun. Concealed carry also requires a minimum of eight hours of training. <More>
Wealth and health: NC treasurer talks new pension strategy, weight-loss drug coverage and more
Brad Briner left a career in high finance to pursue one of the highest-pressure roles in North Carolina government: state treasurer.
The treasurer's department is responsible for managing one of the biggest pension plans in the nation, as well as overseeing health benefits for hundreds of thousands of current and retired state employees and their families.
Briner, a former executive at a New York firm that managed investments for Bloomberg LP founder Michael Bloomberg, took office in January. He took over for Republican Dale Folwell, who served for eight years and didn’t seek reelection to the role. Briner is tasked with steering the health plan toward profitability in an era of rising health care costs, and he’ll be focused on getting bigger returns for the $130 billion pension plan as markets face headwinds.
In an extended interview with WRAL News Anchor Dan Haggerty, Briner talked about the health plan’s recent change to a new administrator. Briner also talked about the potential for bringing popular weight-loss drugs back into the coverage plan. And he discussed Bitcoin’s role in boosting returns for pension plan members — and revealed plans for proposed legislation aimed at adding checks-and-balances for the state employees who manage the state pension plan.
Below is a transcript with highlights of the conversation, edited for brevity and clarity. <More>
Environmental groups encourage community to hold companies and leaders accountable for PFAs in tap water
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Environmental Groups want to make sure you’re aware of your health rights when it comes to clean drinking water.
Clean Cape Fear held a informational presentation on Saturday afternoon at St. Andrews-Covenant Presbyterian Church.
They invited speakers to discuss the current environmental status of local waterways.
For decades, chemicals and wastewater have been dumped into the Cape Fear polluting water supply.
It affects around 500,000 residents with cancer-causing chemicals known as PFAs.
PFAs is used while making plastic products, but it’s often released at unchecked amounts upstream in the Cape Fear River Basin.
“At the very end of Cape Fear River we are at the mercy to a lot industry pollution,” says Emily Donovan with Clean Cape Fear.
The chemicals don’t break down in the environment and it makes its way downstream into tap water. <More>
Opinion: Losing NOAA would be a tragedy for Asheville and our country
Many years ago, when I was starting out as a climate activist, some of us got a tour of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) in the Federal Building in Asheville. We learned what an amazing agency it is, and what a treasure we have in our own community. Now it is being gutted by Elon Musk’s DOGE team, and there is even talk of selling the Federal Building in which it is housed. This is a tragedy and I’ll tell you why. NOAA is home of the National Centers for Environmental Information and the world’s largest archive of weather, geophysical, oceanographic and climate data. This data is used for a variety of applications including agriculture, construction, energy, forestry, health, recreation and tourism, transportation and water resources management. NOAA’s data is critical to our modern lifestyles. <More>
EBCI Govt. Explained: The weighted vote system
CHEROKEE, N.C. – The Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) uses a weighted vote system.
The weighted vote system is outlined in Section 19 of the Charter and Governing Document of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. “In order to provide equal representation to all members of the Eastern Band, the members of the Tribal Council shall, in their deliberations, cast votes on a weighted basis, with the weight of each vote determined by each Council member. A tribal census, for the purposes of determining the weight of the votes to be cast by each Tribal Council member, shall be conducted prior to the 1981 tribal election and prior to the election each ten years thereafter to determine the number of enrolled tribal members residing in each township.”
It continues, “After the regular 1981 tribal election and each ten years thereafter, the Tribal Council, at its first regular meeting, shall determine the total number of votes to be cast in the Tribal Council and shall allot a voting authority to each Council member. The voting weight allotted to each Council member shall be determined by computing the mathematical ratio, fraction, or proportion that exists between the number of enrolled tribal members residing in each township and the total number of enrolled tribal members. All Council members, including the Chairman, shall be entitled to vote on all issues.”
Prior to the Charter being approved in 1986, Res. No. 288 was passed on March 18, 1975 establishing the voting system for Tribal Council and the first weighted vote system for the EBCI.
That legislation states, “The Tribal Council is under mandate of the United States District Court of the Western District of North Carolina to revise its election procedure to provide equal representation for each enrolled member of the Tribal Council as guaranteed by the Indian Civil Rights Act.” <More>
Thanks again, wishing you all a powerful week.