Views

Amid Blue Tsunami, Conservative Ideas Prevail

Details

Tuesday, 10 November 2026

Written by John Hood

At the same time North Carolina Democrats secured eye-popping victories in federal, state, and local races on Nov. 3, North Carolina voters demonstrated their commitments to fiscal conservatism and election integrity. Feel free to label this a contradiction if you wish, but it won’t change anything. Like Walt Whitman, the electorate is large and contains multitudes.
Speaking of multitudes, while former Gov. Roy Cooper blew past former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley by a margin of 59% to 39% — becoming the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat here in nearly two decades — North Carolinians voted by an even-larger margin (62% to 38%) to lower the state’s constitutional cap on income tax rates to 3.5%. The same electorate also amended the constitution to require a cap on property-tax collections (60% for, 40% against) and to require North Carolinians to supply a photo ID in order to cast in-person or absentee ballots (60% for, 40% against).
Democrats lost control of the General Assembly in 2010. Over the subsequent 16 years, their leaders and activists have fretted and seethed about the Republican majority’s fiscal policies and election reforms. Most Democratic lawmakers opposed GOP-led cuts in income taxes and the spending restraint required to maintain them. Most also opposed voter ID. Now, even as their party justifiably celebrates its legislative victories — a 24-seat gain to a House majority, four Senate seats flipped — Democrats cannot justifiably claim vindication on two hotly disputed issues, taxes and voter ID.
The primary driver of the 2026 election cycle was, of course, President Donald Trump. His average approval rating right before Election Day, 38.8%, was the lowest any president has ever had in this situation.
For good or ill, presidents have in the modern era become the primary driver of every midterm cycle. In 1994 and 2010, Republicans and swing voters punished Democrats for the unpopular policies of Democratic presidents. The red waves that resulted transformed not just power in Washington but politics in more than a dozen state capitals, including Raleigh. In 2008 and 2026, Democrats and swing voters did the same to the GOP. Was there a blue tsunami? Well, the Democratic Party dropped its support for Shelly Headen, its nominee in House District 61, because of her grotesque and deranged comments. She still beat Republican incumbent John Blust.
That doesn’t mean state and local campaigns are irrelevant. Voters care about more than what’s going on in Washington, thank goodness. In 2010, for example, North Carolina Republicans overperformed the national trend by pointing to the state’s grave economic challenges as well as a series of Democratic corruption scandals.
In the just-completed 2026 cycle, North Carolina Democrats went beyond the general anti-Trump mood to spotlight hot-button issues such as healthcare costs and to highlight charges of corruption against Republicans. At the top of the ticket, the Cooper campaign and its allies helped drive an affordability message while the Whatley campaign and its allies devoted significant resources to an anti-crime message. These proved to be fateful choices. In both pre-election and exit surveys, the cost of living was by far the top-ranked issue. Crime was far down the list. In the final Carolina Journal Poll, for instance, affordability was at 32% and crime at 6%.
The North Carolina GOP had a terrible midterm. Flushed with victory, North Carolina Democrats might misread their mandate and lurch off in a leftward direction that the state’s voters will not like. Alternatively, Democrats might recognize the precarious nature of their 2026 gains and navigate the legislative sessions and local budget cycles of 2027 and 2028 carefully, with an eye on consolidating their position.
I don’t know which course they will follow. Democratic leaders may not yet know themselves. As for North Carolina Republicans, they couldn’t shed a national brand tarnished by economic populism, corruption, and demagoguery. And conservatism? It survives to fight another day, as leaders of the Freedom Conservatism movement will discuss at FreeCon Raleigh on November 18.

Editor's Note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

This, that and the other: Election Edition

Details

Tuesday, 03 November 2026

Written by Margaret Dickson

Ronald Reagan famously skewered his political opposition, incumbent President Jimmy Carter, by taunting him with “there you go again,” referencing an unfortunate habit, a whiny complaint, or some obvious mistake.
The same could be said about us, the American people, as we decry the recent school shooting in Bend, Oregon, which left 3 young special needs children, a 25-year-old teacher, and the shooter, himself a former special needs student, dead on the scene. The gun used in the shootings was a shotgun purchased by the deceased shooter’s mother.
Decrying is one thing. Doing something about it is another, and we as a society have apparently decided not to take that step.
The Internet reports that the first school shooting occurred in 1840 in Charlottesville, Virginia, when a law student shot a professor at the University of Virginia. No one knows how many school shootings followed, but it is safe to say that the numbers have grown enormously, including at least 52 so far this year, including both K-12 and college campuses, leaving at least 32 dead and 50 more injured.
The stunning—and terrifying—reality here is that we have apparently decided this is just part of life. Starting with Sandy Hook in 2012 (20 kindergartners and six staff members killed) and continuing to this day, we decry the carnage and the loss of life, and then we just keep going.
No real push has arisen to restrict the use of certain types of weapons or to hold parents in any way accountable for gun violence perpetrated by their children who found a way to get guns, some of them legally owned by the parents themselves.
People in other nations look at us and wonder how we lost our way when it comes to gun violence. Perhaps, they wonder, is it because the victims are almost always “other people” or “other people’s children” in places far away from our own communities.
Has that physical and emotional distance allowed us to love our guns more than our children and those who teach and care for them?

I am in a new relationship with ChatGPT.
I became fond of Chat when he/she/it wrote a lovely bedtime story for my grandbabies incorporating names of family members, pets, special places, and favorite foods. Clearly, given the information I gave him/her/it, Chat got our family vibes.
That said, in this year’s politics, Chat and his/her/its AI cousins have been problematic.
AI generated political ads have instantly altered political advertising across our country. Hideous AI ads have proliferated across our nation.
The same technology that made my grandbabies love their bedtime story can make you love/hate candidates up and down the election ballot.
Do not rely on vicious TV ads or misleading mailers.
Do your own research.

By the time you read this, we will have voted for candidates running for offices from the United States Senate down to our own community, and I suspect many if not most of Up & Coming Weekly’s readers have also made their way to the polls. I have voted early since it became available in North Carolina on a limited basis in 1977. I vote early because I like to do it on my own schedule and because I am not patient about waiting in line with a large turnout on election day. Voting is both a privilege and a responsibility and fundamental to the American way of life.
And no whining outcomes if you abdicated and sat on your sofa.

DeBruler: When Someone Else’s World Stops

Details

Tuesday, 03 November 2026

Written by Dan DeBruler

I still have the note I began taking during the call.
Nov. 21.
3:59.
Tom.
Chris has been shot.
Before those words, I thought I knew why Tom was calling.
He ran a motorcycle shop with his twin brother, Tim. I knew him as a friend of my son Chris. He had called before about Public Service Announcements for a fundraiser his beard club was doing. With Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching, I assumed this would be another one of those conversations.
We had people at the radio station that afternoon recording Advent devotionals. Local ministry leaders were lending their voices to messages we would air throughout December. It was familiar work, with familiar people, centered on sharing hope.
Then the phone rang.
When I returned toward the main studio, Laura looked at me through the observation window. I motioned that I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t concentrate, either. I wasn’t sure what to do next, or what I ought to stop doing.
My son had been shot. He would not survive.
I’ve been revisiting that afternoon while working on a book. Writing about it reminds me how quickly an ordinary conversation can become the dividing line between the life someone knew and the life they must now learn to live.
It has also made me think about the people standing on the other side of the window.
Most of us will eventually be there. Someone we know will receive the diagnosis, lose a spouse, bury a child, or discover that a relationship they trusted has fallen apart. We’ll see their face and realize something has happened that we cannot fix.
What do we do?
We often worry about finding the right words. That concern can become so consuming that we say nothing, make no call, and quietly give someone space they never asked for.
Romans 12:15 gives us a remarkably practical instruction: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”
Notice how much that asks of us. Mourning with someone means allowing their sorrow to interrupt our day. It means listening without steering the conversation toward our own experience. It means accepting that we may leave without having made them feel better.
There are useful things we can do. Bring a meal. Offer a ride. Handle a task. Ask, “Would you like company?” Then follow through.
And remember them after everyone else returns to normal. Grief rarely follows the schedule of the people watching it.
I’ve spent much of my life communicating. Words matter to me. But some of the most necessary things we communicate arrive through a chair pulled close, an unhurried visit, or a phone call that doesn’t require the hurting person to reassure us.
Think of someone whose life has changed recently. Reach out with one specific offer of help this week. Give them permission to answer honestly, including saying no.
You don’t have to understand everything they’re carrying to help carry something.
Their world has stopped. Your willingness to stop beside them can make a difference.

Troy's Perspective: FSU has transformed generations

Details

Tuesday, 03 November 2026

Written by Troy Williams

Sometimes, the greatest investments in human history aren't made by wealthy individuals, powerful corporations, or government institutions. Ordinary people with extraordinary vision, determination, and faith make them. Such is the story of Fayetteville State University. Here is the story: In 1867, just two years after slavery ended, seven Black men invested $136 to purchase two lots on Gillespie Street in Fayetteville. Adjusted for inflation, that's approximately $3,100 today. Now, let that marinate for a moment. These weren't wealthy philanthropists sitting in a corporate boardroom discussing investment opportunities. They were Black men living in the aftermath of slavery, determined that future generations would have opportunities denied to their ancestors. Their investment wasn't about financial returns. It was about freedom, education, dignity, and opportunity. Meeting at Evans Chapel Church, these seven visionaries helped establish what became the Howard School, named for a white Union General Oliver Otis Howard, an advocate for formerly enslaved African Americans. Howard University in Washington, D.C. is also named for General Howard.
The number seven has something spiritually fascinating about it. Biblically, it represents completeness, fulfillment, and divine perfection. Seven Black men. One mission. An investment that would change countless lives. Coincidence? Each reader can decide. The institution evolved into the State Colored Normal School in 1877, became Fayetteville State University in 1969, and joined the UNC System in 1972. Today, FSU is North Carolina's second-oldest public institution of higher education. Recently, the university celebrated another milestone: the ribbon-cutting of its magnificent $69.3 million College of Education building. The four-story, approximately 72,000-square-foot facility incorporates architectural tributes to those seven founders throughout its design. Imagine that! An investment of $136 in 1867 helped establish an institution now celebrating a $69.3 million educational facility. But impressive buildings don't necessarily produce extraordinary institutions. That requires visionary leadership.
And that brings us to Chancellor Darrell T. Allison. Since assuming leadership in March 2021, Allison has demonstrated that institutional advancement requires more than speeches, ceremonies, and promises. It requires measurable results. Under his leadership, FSU has secured more than $200 million in legislative capital investments and over $550 million in combined research, grants, and private funding. FSU has witnessed its highest student retention rate percentages, highest enrollment numbers exceeding 7,700 students. FSU has three franchises beneath its umbrella: Chick-fil-A restaurant, McAlister’s Deli, and Starbucks Coffee. Additionally, FSU manages Bronco Midtown Shopping Plaza. His leadership has earned recognition on Business North Carolina's Education Power List for five consecutive years, 2022–2026. That's not merely impressive. It's transformational. Certainly, no university's success belongs to one individual. Faculty, staff, students, alums, legislators, and community supporters all deserve recognition.
Nevertheless, exceptional leadership deserves exceptional acknowledgment. Those seven founders planted seeds they would never live to see fully blossom. Today, Chancellor Allison stands on their shoulders, reaching higher while creating opportunities for others.
Seven Black men invested $136 in a dream. Nearly 160 years later, that dream continues paying dividends. Some investments generate wealth. Others transform generations. Fayetteville State University has done both.