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Andrew Dunn

Charlotte
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Covers:  finance, business, politics, charlotte, banking
Dad of 4. Publisher of @longleafpol. Conservative columnist for @theobserver and @newsobserver. Matthew 8:8
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Articles by Andrew Dunn

6 low-key N.C. budget provisions worth your attention

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
North Carolina’s political nerds (myself included) have spent the mid-morning poring through the state budget proposal just released, and it looks to be a good one. There are some hefty raises for teachers and law enforcement officers, and above-average raises for other state employees. Personal income taxes are going to continue to go down, with a reset slate of revenue triggers. We’re also going to put a sizable amount of money into reserves, too.
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The right way for N.C. to chase Major League Baseball

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
North Carolina’s General Assembly was so excited about hoisting the Stanley Cup that it nearly swung for the fences, too. In the final days of budget negotiations, lawmakers reportedly considered a framework for a $1.7 billion Raleigh baseball stadium that could support a Major League Baseball expansion bid. The Senate wanted to move forward, while the House had concerns. Baseball didn’t make it in the final budget released this week, and that’s for the best.
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How Michael Whatley should deal with silly questions about his birthplace | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| Yahoo Verified
I did not expect North Carolina's U.S. Senate race to have a birther movement, but here we are. NBC News dropped a bombshell report last week revealing that Republican nominee Michael Whatley was actually born in Michigan and lived there for much of his childhood before moving to Blowing Rock in high school. But Whatley's campaign website says he was "raised in Blowing Rock," and on the campaign trail, he often says he "grew up" there. That's it. That's the scandal.
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N.C. is cutting food stamp errors, but they’re still too high

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
I know I mostly write about politics here, so you’ll have to forgive me when I veer into policy mechanics. But this one is important. And ideally, North Carolina handles it now, before it turns into a political problem later. The issue is SNAP, commonly known as food stamps. The federal government has historically paid the full cost of the benefits, while states and counties handle much of the administration.
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The surprising central issue in North Carolina’s 2026 elections | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| Yahoo Verified
Gov. Josh Stein sure didn't seem like the biggest fan of the property tax bill sitting on his desk last week. The bill, the brainchild of Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, temporarily freezes property revaluations in the handful of counties going through that process this year. Local officials in places like Buncombe and Guilford counties fought it hard, warning that it would throw their budgets into chaos. Stein, by his own account, saw it as only a partial answer to rising costs.
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Don’t blame Vickie Sawyer for this

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
Sen. Vickie Sawyer has become the villain of the I-77 South toll lanes power struggle between Charlotte, Matthews and the General Assembly. Those arrows are flying in the wrong direction. All that anger aimed at Sawyer badly misunderstands what is actually happening. Here’s why. In case you haven’t been following this issue, here’s a quick recap. The Charlotte City Council voted last month to rescind support for the I-77 South toll lane project.
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My public comment on the N.C. House elections bill

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
The N.C. House is asking for public comment on the latest version of House Bill 958, the elections bill that has gotten a ton of attention over the past week. So here’s mine. To start off, this bill is nowhere near as “sweeping” as a lot of the rhetoric would suggest. The word sounds neutral, but it carries a pretty clear implication: Republicans are pushing through a massive, dangerous package of election changes. I don’t think that’s right.
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Trump made Michael Whatley. Now he’s dooming him | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
President Donald Trump and former Republican National Committee chair and Republican U.S. Senate primary candidate Michael Whatley speak on stage during a rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center in Rocky Mount on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. Trump endorsed Whatley in July. Party chairmen don’t typically make great candidates. Their job is to sell the party, not themselves. They are attack dogs, not show horses. They are cleaners and fixers, not headliners.
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Trump made Michael Whatley. Now he’s dooming him | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| Yahoo Verified
Andrew Dunn Tue, June 16, 2026 at 9:00 AM UTC 4 min read Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. President Donald Trump and former Republican National Committee chair and Republican U.S. Senate primary candidate Michael Whatley speak on stage during a rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center in Rocky Mount on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. Trump endorsed Whatley in July. (Travis Long/tlong@newsobserver.com) Trump made Michael Whatley.
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North Carolina’s huge school technology mistake

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
The field of education is notoriously susceptible to fads. North Carolina has lived through plenty of them, often with real consequences for our children. The most obvious recent example is in how schools teach reading. For years, education experts preached a “whole language” approach, which encouraged children to guess words from context and pictures instead of being systematically taught how letters and sounds work together. Unsurprisingly, too many students failed to become strong readers.
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Here’s one place North Carolina should tax like New York | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| Yahoo Verified
North Carolina should not generally take tax advice from New York. As a rule, that has served us pretty well. But every rule has an exception, and mine is sports gambling. Right now, lawmakers are debating whether to raise the state's tax on sports betting operators. North Carolina launched legal online sports betting in 2024 with an 18% tax rate. Recent budget talks have focused on moving that number a decent bit higher — perhaps even doubling it, as an early Senate proposal would do.
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The alternate reality of Roy Cooper’s email campaign

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
Somehow, I ended up on Roy Cooper’s Senate campaign email list, so I did what any normal person would do. I saved up a month’s worth of emails and read them all. They give a look at what the best email program money can buy actually delivers. In short, it’s a professional, Washington-built fundraising machine creating an alternate reality. Let’s dive in. Over 35 days, I received 72 emails from Cooper’s campaign and affiliated fundraising accounts — just over two per day.
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Iryna’s Law and the familiar N.C. prison-capacity problem

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
Iryna’s Law has now reached a familiar stage in North Carolina criminal justice policy. The cycle usually goes like this: First, the state passes a law meant to keep more dangerous people behind bars. Then everyone starts warning about overcrowding and thin staffing. Then the pressure builds to soften the law, loosen the rules or find some workaround to move people out. We’re back at that last part right now.
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Could Democrats really flip the N.C. House?

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
Republican donors are apparently getting nervous about Democrats flipping the N.C. House. That’s not completely irrational, but it’s also worth remembering that the prospect of upheaval is often a fundraising strategy. Republican fundraisers want donors scared, because fear raises money. Democratic fundraisers want activists excited, because hope raises money. So you’re going to hear a lot about a possible Democratic House majority over the next few months. In fact, it’s already started.
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Dave Boliek's actual 2028 problem

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
I honestly don’t think this whole thing about State Auditor Dave Boliek and the Jackson County early voting plan is that big a deal. Not in the grand scheme of things, anyway. It’s too messy, too hard to explain, and even in a worst-case scenario, not all that scandalous to begin with. But did it actually do “big damage” to Boliek’s chances of getting elected governor in 2028? That’s the provocative claim in a newspaper op-ed today that caught my eye. You can read it here with a gift link.
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Inside North Carolina's mental health maze

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
I talked this week with State Rep. Timothy Reeder, an emergency room doctor from Greenville who chairs the House Committee on Involuntary Commitment and Public Safety. The subject was House Bill 1104, the bill moving through Raleigh to reform part of North Carolina’s involuntary commitment system. Reeder was blunt. North Carolina’s mental health system is struggling, and it is worse for people already in jail or moving through the courts. The bill does not try to fix all of that.
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Republicans wrote off Pat McCrory. Not so fast, a new poll says. | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
Former North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory smiles following special ceremonies to honor former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole at the Legislative Building on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Raleigh, N.C. Pat McCrory has spent nearly 10 years in political exile, some of it self-imposed. The former governor and Charlotte mayor often sounds like a man who believes today’s politics no longer has a place for him. Democrats have long viewed him as too conservative.
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Jim Hunt’s forgotten education agenda

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
I picked up the late Gov. Jim Hunt’s short little education book for a simple reason: I wanted to understand why he became known as North Carolina’s “education governor.” Honestly, I expected this short book from 2001 to read like a time capsule or a relic. Instead, I found it to be shockingly current.
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The troubling philosophy behind Gov. Stein’s economic plan

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
Gov. Josh Stein just released a new economic development plan called “First in Opportunity,” which is a fantastic name for a largely underwhelming report. This may be the first you’re hearing about it; its rollout got little attention, and it’s easy to see why.
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With I-77 vote, Charlotte is the city its critics have been warning about | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
People concerned about the I-77 toll lanes project hold up signs during the City Council meeting at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday, February 23, 2026. A favored pastime of the more pessimistic kind of North Carolina conservative is watching Charlotte for signs of civic decline. Every viral video, Uptown crime story, or woke talking point becomes evidence that Charlotte is quickly becoming another Portland or Seattle, albeit with better weather.
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Ranking the proposed N.C. constitutional amendments

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
Well, that escalated quickly. We all knew going into this year’s short session that the General Assembly would try to put one constitutional amendment on the ballot this year, on property taxes. But now that the legislature is back at work, the amendments have just kept coming. Right now, we’re at five proposed constitutional amendments at various stages of the approval process.
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Charlotte should help Raleigh land Major League Baseball | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| Yahoo Sports Verified
1 / 2 Back when Charlotte swelled with civic pride, landing a pro baseball team felt like the next big step. At least, Jerry Reese thought so. The commercial real estate attorney believed Charlotte was a “major league” city, and when the minor league Charlotte Knights were eyeing a new uptown stadium, Reese fought it tooth and nail. He filed lawsuit after lawsuit to stop the project, fearing a smaller park would crowd out grander ambitions. He lost, and honestly, it turned out for the best.
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The millionaire surtax idea comes to N.C.

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
In today’s populist political environment, millionaires are particularly easy to pick on and tough to defend. That is why you are seeing a wave of blue states impose special tax burdens on people with high incomes, often at $1 million or more. Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey have all gone that route already, and the state of Washington just enacted a 9.9% tax on income above $1 million. Michigan and Illinois lawmakers are considering doing something similar.
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What an investor sees in Spruce Pine

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
It may surprise you to learn that my favorite podcast has nothing to do with North Carolina politics. It’s actually about small business acquisitions. Each week, the hosts of Acquisitions Anonymous review the listing for a business up for sale and decide whether they would consider buying it. These folks are serious investors and operators, which means they notice all the little red flags that most of us would miss.
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The NC budget ‘deal’ is a great start — with one worrying detail | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate leader Phil Berger smile while taking questions from reporters during a press conference to announce a state budget deal at the Legislative Building on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Raleigh, N.C. For a brief moment Tuesday, the North Carolina political world had all the intrigue of a papal conclave.
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What Roy Cooper’s "early-release" list actually reveals

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
On the evening of June 2, 2021, two armed men forced their way through the front door of a Fayetteville home and started shooting. When the gunfire subsided, the homeowner was dead, his teenage daughter had been shot in the leg, and both assailants had fled. One suspect soon died at a Hoke County hospital from a gunshot wound to the chest, police said. The other was later identified by police using Ring doorbell footage as Calvin Wayne Locklear.
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Five names the City Council should consider for Charlotte’s next mayor | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
Charlotte has always been an aspirational place. It was never destined to become one of the South’s great cities. With no state capital, no port and no major river, Charlotte had to build its way into relevance. For generations, it did. That confidence has been harder to find lately. As Mayor Vi Lyles slowly retreated from the job, the city lost some of its forward motion, too. Now, with her impending departure, City Council has a rare opportunity to help Charlotte regain its footing.
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NC could use Atrium-WakeMed deal to strike a better hospital tax bargain | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
Atrium Health and WakeMed Health announced a plan to merge on Friday, May 1, 2026. The plan has drawn criticism from state officials and a vote by the Wake County Board of Commissioners may be postponed. North Carolina’s public hospitals were created under a fairly simple bargain. As Charlotte and Raleigh grew into modern metro areas, local leaders wanted hospitals big enough to serve the public but independent enough to stay out of day-to-day politics.
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NC could use Atrium-WakeMed deal to strike a better hospital tax bargain | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| Yahoo Verified
Atrium Health and WakeMed Health announced a plan to merge on Friday, May 1, 2026. The plan has drawn criticism from state officials and a vote by the Wake County Board of Commissioners may be postponed. Andrew Dunn NC could use Atrium-WakeMed deal to strike a better hospital tax bargain | Opinion 1 of 2 Atrium Health and WakeMed Health announced a plan to merge on Friday, May 1, 2026.
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Sam Page's learning curve is showing

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
First of all, let’s give Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page some credit for showing up at Friday’s teacher rally. The Republican nominee for Senate, fresh off of ousting the state’s most powerful politician, seems to be leaning into issues he hasn’t had to deal with yet. But my, does that naiveté show. Page did a 90-second interview with the Hometown Holler and quickly got his first taste of the Raleigh learning curve.
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I-77 toll lanes turn your commute into a casino — and it’s working | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
Traffic on I-77 North of Charlotte looking north from the Highway 21 bridge where it crosses the interstate. The first time I drove in the I-77 toll lanes, I immediately understood why people pay to use them. It was a Friday afternoon, and I was driving north from Charlotte toward Mount Airy with my kids for a camping trip. Traffic was backed up, as you might imagine, so I jumped into the paid lanes when things got messy and jumped back out when cars started moving again.
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NC teacher walkout is sacrificing students for left-wing politics | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
More than 200 picketers urged the Wake County school board to ask commissioners for more than a $25 million increase in school funding during a protest organized by Wake NCAE outside the meeting in Cary, N.C., on April 7, 2026. There are plenty of legitimate arguments to have about public school funding in North Carolina. How much should teachers be paid? What new resources would help school districts? Are students getting what they need in the classroom?
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No fares, no safety, no transit future for Charlotte | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
Think about a public park. It remains pleasant only when people follow the unwritten rules that keep it that way. Put your trash in the trash can. Keep an eye on your dog. Don’t blast music. The same is true of an office kitchen. It works only when people wash their mugs and don’t leave a mess for someone else. Once too many people decide the rules are for other people, the whole arrangement starts to break down. Economists have a name for this — the free rider problem.
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The I-77 tolls project is about to become Josh Stein's problem Original

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein speaks with a crowd of employees and dignitaries on Thursday, March 19, 2026, at the grand opening of PSA Airlines headquarters in Charlotte. tkimball@charlotteobserver.com A new I-77 toll lane fight is gathering steam, and this one may be even nastier than the last. The state's $3.2 billion plan would add "managed lanes" from Uptown Charlotte to the South Carolina line, including towering stacked sections near some of the city's oldest Black neighborhoods.
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What I'm hearing about Phil Berger's goodbye and the NC budget stalemate Original

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
N.C. Senate leader Phil Berger talks with Rep. Destin Hall during a press conference at the N.C. Republican Party headquarters in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. ehyman@newsobserver.com Our state government can survive for a pretty long time without a new budget, but that doesn't mean it is a good way to run things. For months now, North Carolina has continued largely on a 2023 budget after the General Assembly failed to reach an agreement in last year's long session.
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Scouting still matters. Here's how Congress can save it

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
A scout from Pack 111 marches in the annual DeSoto Children's Parade and Party in the Park in Palmetto, Fla., on April 18, 2025. ttompkins@bradenton.com A long time ago, as a Boy Scout, my troop and I embarked on a two-week trip through the mountains of New Mexico. By the end of the first day at the legendary Philmont Scout Ranch, I was exhausted from hauling gear and ready to settle in for the night. Then the storm hit.
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The hardest part is letting go, Phil Berger. But it's time. Original

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
N.C. Sen. Phil Berger waits to greet voters outside the polling place at the city hall on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026 in Eden, N.C. rwillett@newsobserver.com Let me tell you a story about a North Carolina politician who clung to power just a little too long. Liston Ramsey was born in Madison County in 1919. He served in the Pacific during World War II, returned home to the mountains, and won election to the state House in 1960.
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North Carolina is on the cusp of an education 'miracle'

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
North Carolina public schools will reopen, many under full remote instruction, this week. The hottest story in education right now is coming from the unlikeliest place. The state of Mississippi, long viewed as a barrel-bottom performer in its public schools, has become the national example of how to raise reading scores. In a few short years, the state has made sweeping gains in how well its children read by fourth grade - vaulting from the bottom of the list into the top 10.
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UNC is the university of the people. The people should have a say | Opinion

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By Andrew Dunn, Andrew Dunn
| The Modesto Bee Verified
Andrew Dunn: Across the country, the ground under higher education is shifting, and it’s not mainly a problem of politics. If you’ve ever watched a Tar Heel basketball game on TV, you’ve undoubtedly heard Charles Kuralt’s sonorous voice. “What is it that binds us to this place as to no other?” he asks, as the camera swoops through scenes of the Old Well and the Bell Tower.
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UNC is the university of the people. The people should have a say

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
Andrew Dunn: Across the country, the ground under higher education is shifting, and it's not mainly a problem of politics. Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill If you've ever watched a Tar Heel basketball game on TV, you've undoubtedly heard Charles Kuralt's sonorous voice. "What is it that binds us to this place as to no other?" he asks, as the camera swoops through scenes of the Old Well and the Bell Tower.
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Will Sen. Berger's political machine save him or backfire?

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
Phil Berger’s standing as the most powerful politician in North Carolina has never rested on a title alone. The Senate president pro tempore has formal authority, of course. He sets agendas, counts votes, shapes budgets, and decides which bills live or die. But Berger’s deeper strength is the network he’s built across state government, one that doesn’t end at the legislative complex.
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North Carolina lawmakers just found out nobody is safe Original

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
N.C. Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican and the most powerful state lawmaker, center, checks early election results with supporters during a primary election night watch party in Reidsville, in Rockingham County on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Berger is running against Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page. The district also includes part of Guilford County.
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More thoughts on the Berger-Page nailbiter

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
I had a feeling the Berger-Page race would be close, but my goodness. Two votes?!? It was a wild night in N.C. politics, and not just because of this race. I wrote a column for the newspaper on how incumbents fell in droves. It should be live later this morning. In the Berger-Page race, the truth is nobody knows how things are going to shake out. There are likely still at least a handful of votes left to count, from overseas and provisionals.
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Personnel is policy - and Boliek is testing the system’s limits

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
There are a few so-called “Reagan rules” still floating around the political ether, but one of the most apt is this: Personnel is policy. The phrase is generally credited to Scot Faulkner, who managed staffing for President Ronald Reagan’s team after the 1980 election. His point was that a president may hold a title, but the levers of change really run through the people who actually move paper, manage teams, and decide what gets prioritized. An agenda means nothing without implementation.
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Cursive is in the law. So why isn’t it in the classroom?

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
My daughter was sitting next to me the other day while I filled out one of her forms for school. It was about her academic strengths, so it took a good bit of verbiage to fully capture. “What are those scribbles?” she asked me, pointing to my hurried script. It was a pretty sick burn about my handwriting, sure. But it also made me realize she had never been exposed to writing in cursive. My favorite hobbyhorse is advocating for a new constitution for the state of North Carolina.
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It's time to dust off Charlotte's teen curfew

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By Andrew Dunn
| The Charlotte Observer Verified
A spot can become a teen hangout fast. A few kids show up, then more, then the cars start circling and the noise rises. Before long, a place built for dinner, shopping, or a casual night out is dealing with a rowdy crowd. I'm not talking about Birkdale Village, which implemented a teen curfew last week to deal with just such a problem. I'm talking about Charlotte in the mid-1990s. Back then, the names were different and social media didn't exist, but the civic problem was the same.
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Special Report: In tiny N.C. towns, taxes do little more than prop up the government itself

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
Speed, N.C., is a place you’ve probably never been to. Heck, you’ve probably never even heard of it. But you’ve almost certainly lived some version of what the state auditor just found there. The tiny Edgecombe County town made headlines last week when the Office of the State Auditor released a report detailing severe financial problems.
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North Carolina’s perplexing pessimistic mood

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
There’s a detailed new poll making the rounds of N.C. politics world this week from liberal activist group Change Research. The toplines have been widely reported on, so I won’t repeat them here. A.P. Dillon has a good breakdown on why you should take all that with a grain of salt. I highly recommend you give it a read. I’ll point out one more thing about the poll that makes me shake my head, too.
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An earned media home run for Luke Farley

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
I’ve been continually impressed by the three new Republican executives on the Council of State: Auditor Dave Boliek, Treasurer Brad Briner and Labor Commissioner Luke Farley. If I were writing my “future governor” piece again, I’d put all three of them on the list near the top. I’m not in a position to cover all the ins and outs of what they’re doing in their departments, but when something extraordinary happens I feel like I must speak up. That’s exactly what Luke Farley has just done.
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Inside Destin Hall’s record-breaking fundraising haul

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By Andrew Dunn
| longleafpol.com
Since Republicans have taken over the General Assembly, House speakers have had their best off-year fundraising years immediately after taking the gavel. House Speaker Destin Hall is no exception — but his fundraising has dwarfed that of his predecessors.
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