Something that a lot of people don't know is that the number of all immigrants in the United States, regardless of legal category, is just pretty small. Credit: @statisticurban.bsky.social

🚑 Thursday's healthcare panel was a huge success! We dove into Medicaid expansion cuts, the VA, foster care, and vaccine rollouts. Thank you to our panelists, facilitator Hannah Preston, + everyone who joined us for an honest, hopeful conversation in Durham.

Yes, let's absolutely talk more about the North Carolina state budget.

Here's what happened this week in North Carolina politics. Our legislature is disgraceful, but we're keeping our mountains in our hearts. ❤️⛰️ (Shout out to Good Company Pizza in Swannanoa, btw 🍕)

Repeated polling shows that support for same-sex marriage has become the centrist, consensus position for most Americans. Only a minority of Republican base voters today want to ban it.

One way to make lots of money in politics is to find two special interest groups with directly opposed priorities - and then play them off each other for campaign cash. 🏧 This is exactly what politicians and lobbyists are doing today in our state legislature between the nurses and the doctors.

In the 2024 election, Donald Trump became the second Republican to win the national popular vote in more than three decades of American political history. His final margin was +1.5 points. That is roughly 70% of Hillary Clinton's popular vote win in 2016, and one-third of Biden's in 2020.

For our friends celebrating today, Shana Tovah! 🍎 🍯 ✡️

The leaders of North Carolina's state legislature are months late now in coming up with a budget for our state government - and they're not even actively working on it anymore. This is a big, flashing sign of incompetent and corrupt governance - and it has one fundamental root cause.

One reason our politics seem to have gone totally off-kilter is because everyone thinks more extreme views are getting more common. But they're actually not.

This is insane - Tom Homan, Trump's "border czar," was caught on video accepting $50,000 in cash by undercover FBI agents, in an open-and-shut bribery case. But once they took power, Trump's FBI and DOJ dropped the case. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

The September edition of the Carolina Forward Poll found @roycoopernc.bsky.social with a strong lead over his challenger for the 2026 North Carolina U.S. Senate race. carolinaforward.org/blog/the-sep...

Here's what happened this week in North Carolina politics. Still no state budget or Medicaid funding, but at least the leaves are changing. 🍂 Come join us for a panel on healthcare this Thursday the 25th! RSVP here: secure.everyaction.com/8_YhhMcjskmg...

The federal government is absolutely abandoning North Carolina's recovery from Hurricane Helene. Compared to every other major climate disaster from the last 20 years, the feds are skimping on helping communities impacted by Helene get back on their feet.

This.

ICYMI: in the September edition of the Carolina Forward Poll, North Carolinians weighed in on how they feel Governor Josh Stein, Donald Trump, and the NC State Legislature are doing in their respective jobs.

Healthcare affects every North Carolinian. 💙 On Sept. 25 at 6 PM in Durham, Carolina Forward is bringing together top leaders for a panel on healthcare: ➡️ Kody Kinsley ➡️ Rep. Vernetta Alston ➡️ Scott Peoples RSVP here: secure.everyaction.com/8_YhhMcjskmg...

Our cost of living is spiraling out of control, with no clear end in sight. There are many dimensions of our cost of living: housing, electricity, childcare, and especially, food. In the long term, they are a product of our political choices.

Political violence is never, ever the answer. In today's climate, it's critical for all Americans to forcefully reject violence as a solution to our political differences, no matter how strongly felt.

NEW MERCH! By popular demand, we're adding three new t-shirts 👕 to the Carolina Forward online store. All Made in USA with 100% union labor ❤️ Get yours 👉 store.carolinaforward.org

A familiar name to North Carolina politics is making trouble for himself again. Remember Anthony Tata, who Republicans in Wake County put in charge of the school system last time they were in charge? Apparently he's into astrology now? www.thecut.com/article/astr...

Here's what happened this week in North Carolina politics. It's going to be a long fall. 🍂

Not only are there fewer new homes on the market these days overall, but the proportion that are priced affordably is collapsing. 10 years ago, around 50% of all new homes were priced at $300,000 and below (a record low proportion). But today, that number hovers around only 20%.

Setting aside the substance of Charlie Kirk's opinions, his basic right to express himself freely in a liberal society is one we should all hold dear. When we lose rights like that to fear of political violence, we are all poorer for it.

The most dangerous counties in North Carolina are overwhelmingly rural and low-income. Whether ranking by homicides, aggravated assault, rape, or the rate of violent crime overall, rural counties are far and away the places where you are most likely to be the victim of a violent crime.

Nationwide, a plurality (41%) of Congressional districts are drawn by Republican state lawmakers. This is mainly because in large blue states, Democrats have instead banned partisan gerrymandering and turned over power to independent redistricting commissions, instead of gerrymandering themselves.

There's a healthcare crisis all across rural North Carolina, and it's getting steadily worse. The good news is that everyone basically agrees this is a problem. But the bad news is that rebuilding healthcare in rural NC requires political choices that some voters just don't want to make. 🚑

In North Carolina's state legislature, the vast majority of seats - 85% - are drawn to be completely non-competitive. This not only deprives a huge swathe of North Carolinians of a meaningful political choice, but increases extremism and polarization in our politics.

These days, our state has 100 counties. But it didn't start out that way! Here's a glimpse into the evolution of North Carolina's counties over the years.

Wow - spending on lobbying in Washington is exploding at UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University. Not only are two of North Carolina's premier universities racing to lobby Congress to protect critical scientific and medical research funding, but also... www.newsobserver.com/news/local/e...

Nostalgia politics, visualized: basically every generation says that life was better in the past - and specifically, they mean when they were teenagers. There's a lesson here. In the 2050s, 45 year olds will mostly say that 2025 was the absolute best time to be a kid.

NC By Train, the state-supported intercity rail service, saw a 4% increase in ridership during the first half of 2025, carrying over 355,000 passengers compared to approximately 342,000 in 2024.

Breaking down the chaos in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. There's plenty of blame to go around. But ultimately, the buck stops in Raleigh. (Or it's supposed to.) ✏️🍎

Did you know: 50% of all North Carolinians live in just 12 counties! And one-third live in just 5 counties. The bottom 50 (!) counties all put together only contain 12% of North Carolina's population.

This story, revealed by @TheAssemblyNC, is totally wild: In the last days of their supermajority in the NC state legislature, Republican leaders rammed through a bill (SB 382) that changed campaign finance law. It allowed *unlimited* direct corporate contributions to political campaigns.

Here's what happened this week in North Carolina politics. Go grab some ice cream this weekend - just don't let that guy mess with it. 🍦

Why did NC State Auditor Dave Boliek wait three weeks - eg. only after @wral.bsky.social broke the story publicly - to ask the Republican Surry County elections board chair to resign? This guy was caught (on video!) trying to drug his granddaughters on August 8th. 🤔🤔🤔🤔 www.wral.com/news/local/s...

Montgomery county is one of the poorest in North Carolina. When the new administration eliminated $600 million in federal teacher training grants immediately after Trump took office, Montgomery county was among those directly affected. www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

The new Republican majority on North Carolina's State Board of Elections voted today to permit all county election boards (all also GOP-controlled) to eliminate Sunday voting. "Souls to the polls" is probably finished now in North Carolina. www.wral.com/story/nc-ele...

Americans' cost for coffee is going up in a big way. ☕️ Trump has imposed a 50% blanket tariff on Brazil, the world's biggest coffee producer. There are also currently 20% and 32% tariffs on Vietnam and Indonesia, respectively, both of whom are also major coffee producers.

New @catawbacollege.bsky.social poll: - Trump: -9 net approval (down 11 pts since March) - @joshsteinnc.bsky.social: +28 net approval 🤯 - @roycoopernc.bsky.social: +17 net approval - Mike Whatley: -5 net approval, 35% never heard of him Full results: www.catawba.edu/news/all-new...

North Carolina's state government is now two full months into a new fiscal year and still lacks an operating budget. We're now seeing an impact on public safety: the state's criminal GPS ankle monitors system almost folded for lack of funding. www.wral.com/story/ankle-...

What was NAFTA, and how did it affect North Carolina?

Let's explain the popular "MAGA tariffs" meme. The Trump tariffs impose a major cost on American consumers for almost everything imported. That has already led to significant economic distress - depressed hiring, shrinking GDP, and more.

North Carolina Congressman Brad Knott (R), now serving his first term in office, has just made a killing on stock trading in office. Here's what happened.

Analysts estimate that the average (50th percentile) American household will face $2,000 in higher annual costs due to the Trump tariffs. At every income level, Americans are paying a lot more.

Here's what happened this week in North Carolina politics. Maybe our kids need to hire some lobbyists? 💼

In newly released campaign finance reports, we've learned that Duke Energy contributed $100,000 to the effort to overthrow last year's state supreme court election in North Carolina. And it was all completely legal, because lawmakers in our state legislature hustled to make it that way.