Andrew Dunn
- Conservative Columnist, The Charlotte Observer
- Publisher, Lomgleaf Polictics
- Content Head, Pickleheads
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Dad of 4. Publisher of @longleafpol. Conservative columnist for @theobserver and @newsobserver. Matthew 8:8
Articles by Andrew Dunn
In defense of Judge Bell
The outrage industry on social media is easy to hate on, and it can be extremely annoying. But it actually has done a lot of good. Accounts such as Libs of TikTok have forced public officials to answer for decisions they might otherwise have made quietly. North Carolina has gotten its share of scrutiny from this sector of the internet, and deservedly so. But the outrage industry has a major, glaring weakness. It needs a villain, and it often requires one before all the facts can get in the way.
I’m already thinking about 2030
I was in downtown Raleigh this past week for a book signing event. Thank you to everyone who came out to support The Change Agent, and especially to the Downtown Raleigh GOP Club for hosting me. Quite a few people in the room had worked on Gov. Pat McCrory’s 2012 campaign or served in his administration. It’s slightly unnerving to promote a political history book to people who lived through the chapters, but it also makes for much more interesting conversations.
What counts as stealing an election in North Carolina? | Opinion
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein presides over the Council of State meeting on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 in Raleigh, N.C. With four children, I have refereed enough backyard ballgames to know how things tend to play out. One child falls behind, and before long he insists that the only possible explanation is, “You cheated.” No parent finds this impulse mysterious. But part of growing up is learning to distinguish an unfair contest from an unwelcome result.
What would make Jeff Jackson unbeatable in 2032
One of the country’s leading conservative political commentators spent the better part of an hour this week calling for Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather to be put in jail. Matt Walsh was talking about the horrifying case of Di-Quan Hunt, the 32-year-old Charlotte man accused of filming himself attacking women on the street. In one video, Hunt appears to punch a woman to the ground in Dilworth and stand over her shouting. She suffered serious injuries.
Jen Balkcom is a strong US House candidate. So why is NC-11 so close? | Opinion
Republican Jennifer Balkcom is the Republican nominee for US House in NC-11. Republicans could hardly have chosen a better candidate for western North Carolina than Jen Balkcom. She grew up on a family farm in Henderson County, where her roots go back generations. She chose to raise her own family there and, for two terms in Raleigh, has been a steady conservative voice for the mountain region. On Monday evening, the Republicans charged with replacing U.S. Rep.
The N.C. mountain conclave
As best I can tell, what happens tonight has never happened before in North Carolina. I cannot find another example of a major-party Congressional nominee winning a primary, withdrawing before the general election and being replaced by a district executive committee. There may be some obscure precedent buried in the archives. If you know of one, please send it my way. For a few hours, the 61 Republicans choosing U.S. Rep.
The question Republicans really need to start asking Roy Cooper | Opinion Original
Former Gov. Roy Cooper speaks during a “Make Stuff Cost Less” campaign rally on Thursday, April 9, 2026, at Bay 7 in Durham’s American Tobacco Campus. Cooper faces former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley in the race for U.S. Senate. Both are vying to replace Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, who is retiring at the end of his term. Republicans have spent months running against Gov. Roy Cooper. The problem is that Cooper is not running for governor.
Chuck Edwards’ dark night of the soul | Opinion
Andrew Dunn on Rep. Chuck Edwards, who ended his reelection campaign: “If a night of prayer transformed Edwards’ understanding of his conduct, his announcement gave no indication of it. “ At 3:32 Wednesday morning, with most of Western North Carolina at rest, U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards slipped quietly out of his campaign for a third term. “After much prayer and reflection, I’ve decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign,” he wrote on X.
13 possible replacements for Chuck Edwards
Good luck getting a political person in Western North Carolina to answer the phone over the next five days. The race to replace Congressman Chuck Edwards on the ballot is about to become a feeding frenzy. Anyone with a stake in Republican politics in the mountains will spend the next five days trading names, counting votes and deciding whether to make a run at Congress. The N.C. Republican Party’s 11th Congressional District Executive Committee already had a meeting scheduled for Aug. 10.
Chuck Edwards is toast
Chuck Edwards is toast. That is no longer a hot take or a prediction about how voters might respond to ugly allegations. It is the unavoidable political conclusion from the House Ethics Committee report released Monday. The bipartisan committee found that Edwards violated the House Code of Official Conduct through persistent and inappropriate conduct toward two young women who worked for him. It recommended that the full House formally censure him.
A profile in political courage
It should not take political courage to say that elementary school is not the place to introduce children to complicated questions about gender identity. But it still does, even in 2026, and state Rep. Erin Paré just demonstrated it. After hearing concerns from parents about a male music teacher presenting as a woman at a southern Wake County elementary school, Paré promised to protect the children in her district.
Why I trust U-Haul more than U.S. News
North Carolina is the best state in the country. I know this, and you presumably know it, too. Otherwise, subscribing to a newsletter called Longleaf Politics was an odd decision. But apparently the U.S. News & World Report disagrees. Its new “Best States” ranking puts North Carolina at No. 13, behind Utah, both Dakotas, Nebraska and — most offensively — Minnesota.
How to matter in the minority party
There are a lot of ways to serve in the minority party at the General Assembly, but they generally fall into two different camps. You can spend your time cursing and shouting and reminding everyone that the majority is unfair. Or you can accept the arithmetic and figure out how to get something done anyway. Two Democratic women from Wake County have just offered a useful illustration of this contrast. Rep.
I-77 tolls side deal: Don’t let road building become a political shakedown | Opinion
A proposed map of elevated toll lanes for the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s I-77 South Express Lanes project. You can never take politics entirely out of road building, but North Carolina has certainly tried. Now, in an effort to salvage the floundering I-77 South toll lane project, the state risks sliding straight back into the old way of doing business.
Are odd-year elections on the way out?
State Auditor Dave Boliek may be the most scrutinized political figure in North Carolina right now, certainly more so than Gov. Josh Stein. Nearly everything that comes out of his office gets analyzed as a political calculation. Who asked for it? Who benefits? What does this mean for 2028? I’m fine with that level of attention. Boliek is a Council of State member and signed up for it, though Stein and former Gov. Roy Cooper could stand to get more of the same.
Nobody's embarrassed by 'pork' anymore
In late 1994, North Carolina Republicans were preparing to take control of the state House for the first time in a century. Robin Hayes, who would soon become majority whip, wanted to make clear that the party would not simply redirect the spoils. “There’s power, and then there’s pork,” Hayes told The Concord Tribune, his hometown newspaper.
‘Teen takeover’ is too cute a name for what NC faces | Opinion
CMPD Chief Estella Patterson speaking with local media on the topics of Teen Takeovers and crime prevention in Charlotte. If you didn’t know any better, you might think a “teen takeover” was some kind of amusement park promotion, a night when teenagers get to sip punch and have the run of the place. The response sweeping North Carolina sounds almost as quaint. Charlotte, Raleigh and other cities are turning to youth curfews, giving the debate the feel of a 1950s song.
The fragile math underneath N.C. local government
I just finished reading the book Strong Towns, a popular-yet-polarizing book in the urban planning field. It essentially describes most American cities as a Ponzi scheme and a ticking financial time bomb. The basic argument is that local governments have built more infrastructure and assumed more obligations than their tax bases can ultimately support. Everything looks fine, until growth slows. Then it all falls apart.
The Morrison YMCA sale is a hard choice, not a betrayal | Opinion
Protesters sport custom t-shirts and signs expressing their opposition to the planned sale of the Morrison Family YMCA campus in Ballantyne to Moments of Hope Church on Sunday, July 12, 2026. Even in a less skeptical age, the case against selling the Morrison Family YMCA would be pretty darn compelling. A busy, well-loved branch in a booming area of town. Land provided by Mecklenburg County for recreation poised to produce a major windfall.
The Morrison YMCA sale is a hard choice, not a betrayal | Opinion
Even in a less skeptical age, the case against selling the Morrison Family YMCA would be pretty darn compelling. A busy, well-loved branch in a booming area of town. Land provided by Mecklenburg County for recreation poised to produce a major windfall. Families who thought the YMCA was a permanent part of their community learning otherwise with little warning. My first reaction was not far from that.
N.C. just gave prediction markets a free pass
North Carolina was hardly a pioneer when it legalized online sports betting. By the time the first bets were placed here in 2024, more than half the country had already moved in that direction. Prediction markets are a different story. With a short section in the new state budget, North Carolina appears to have become the first state to expressly welcome prediction market gambling while giving up virtually all state authority to oversee it.
Inside the money race to replace Phil Berger
Last November, state Sen. Amy Galey drove out to Rockingham County with a warning for Sheriff Sam Page: Do not challenge Phil Berger. A serious primary, she argued, would force the Senate president pro tem to spend money that otherwise could help vulnerable Republican senators — and could cost the party its supermajority. Page ran anyway and beat Berger by 23 votes, ending the career of the man who has led the North Carolina Senate since Republicans took control in 2011.
How Ohio took N.C.’s business crown
North Carolina is no longer CNBC’s best state for business. Please respect our privacy at this difficult time. Ohio took the top spot this year, and congratulations are in order. It has clearly made some smart economic reforms over the last few years (shoutout to the Buckeye Institute for that). The state is also finally adding people again, which is nice to see. Come to think of it, you do not hear as many jokes anymore about Ohio transplants moving to North Carolina.
Charlotte’s new mayor was chosen for steadiness. On I-77, he needs nerve | Opinion Original
Mayor Rob Harrington speaks during an interview at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg government Center in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday, July 9, 2026. It was clear from the beginning that Charlotte needed a steady hand for an interim mayor. But in choosing Rob Harrington, the City Council may have been reaching for something more.
6 low-key N.C. budget provisions worth your attention
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.
The right way for N.C. to chase Major League Baseball
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.
How Michael Whatley should deal with silly questions about his birthplace | Opinion
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.
N.C. is cutting food stamp errors, but they’re still too high
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.
The surprising central issue in North Carolina’s 2026 elections | Opinion
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.
Don’t blame Vickie Sawyer for this
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.
My public comment on the N.C. House elections bill
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.
Trump made Michael Whatley. Now he’s dooming him | Opinion
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.
Trump made Michael Whatley. Now he’s dooming him | Opinion
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.
North Carolina’s huge school technology mistake
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.
Here’s one place North Carolina should tax like New York | Opinion
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.
The alternate reality of Roy Cooper’s email campaign
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.
Iryna’s Law and the familiar N.C. prison-capacity problem
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.
Could Democrats really flip the N.C. House?
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.
Dave Boliek's actual 2028 problem
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.
Inside North Carolina's mental health maze
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.
Republicans wrote off Pat McCrory. Not so fast, a new poll says. | Opinion
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.
Jim Hunt’s forgotten education agenda
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.
The troubling philosophy behind Gov. Stein’s economic plan
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.
With I-77 vote, Charlotte is the city its critics have been warning about | Opinion
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.
Ranking the proposed N.C. constitutional amendments
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.
Charlotte should help Raleigh land Major League Baseball | Opinion
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.
The millionaire surtax idea comes to N.C.
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.
What an investor sees in Spruce Pine
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.
The NC budget ‘deal’ is a great start — with one worrying detail | Opinion
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.
What Roy Cooper’s "early-release" list actually reveals
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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