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This message is brought to you by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling's Paving the Way Forward initiative. It's 505 and welcome in to a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT, I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you. Students from Heritage High School in Wake Forest, which is a public school, spent 12 days in China last summer through a new Chinese government-backed exchange program, according to a new report from Watchdog Group Defending Education. The report released this week says that the program is part of Beijing's campaign to shape how American students view China.
It's documented that roughly 83 universities and 26 K through 12 schools across thirty different states participated in China's Young Envoy Scholarship Program. Heritage High School in Wake Forest is the only North Carolina K-12 school on the list. We'll get to the universities coming up here in just a couple of minutes. The program grew out of a 2023 initiative from Chinese President Xi Jinping for 50,000 American students to travel to China over the next five years. It is run by a group called the China Education Association for International Exchange, CEAIE, an organization that says on its Chinese language website that takes Marxist-Leninism and Xi Jinping thought as its guiding ideology.
It also vows to always adhere to the leadership of the party, referring to the Chinese Communist Party, according to the report's translation. U.S. lawmakers have already identified the CEAIE group as part of China's United Front system, an influence network that a U.S. Congressional Commission says works to co-opt and neutralize opposition to the Chinese Communist Party's policies. Representative Jonathan Mulliner, the Republican from Michigan, who is the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, warned school leaders back in 2025 that student trips funded by such organizations, quote, serve as propaganda and influence operations rather than a genuine cultural exchange.
According to Terry Stoops, the director of government affairs at Defending Education, he told the Carolina Journal: Wake County residents should be alarmed that a Chinese government initiative designed explicitly to cultivate sympathy for the Chinese Communist Party infiltrated a public school funded by their hard-earned tax dollars. Taxpayers rightfully expect children to pledge allegiance to the flag, not pledge allegiance to Xi Jinping. The Heritage High School trip is featured in the exchanges program's own newsletter, which describes a 12-day visit that opened on August the 3rd of 2025, about a year ago, in northeast Beijing. At the opening ceremony, the newsletter reports that the university's Communist Party committee secretary presented the visiting students with a camp flag. The university president told them, quote, you are taking steps that will introduce the real China to the world, and your friendship will strengthen the foundation of China-US cooperation.
The Heritage students traveled as part of a larger American delegation. Their team leader was a Chinese language instructor at Heritage High School, who told the program that the trip would let her students witness Chinese culture, time-honored traditions, and remarkable progress with their own eyes, end quote. The newsletter also quotes a 17-year-old high school heritage student who spoke in Chinese at the opening event and said that she wanted to promote a two-way cultural exchange. According to the newsletter, students toured the Palace Museum, the Great Wall, and the Imperial Mountain Resort. They also participated in a virtual reality oil extraction simulator, robotics demonstrations, as well as 3D printing workshops.
Terry Stoops from Defending Education, the group that put this report out, pointed to Wake County School Board Policy 6800.5, which states that clubs and organizations established and sponsored by outside agencies or groups shall not be considered school clubs and shall not function on school grounds or during the school day unless authorized by the principal. Stoops told the Carolina Journal, parents should ask whether the principal of Heritage High School authorized the Young Envoy Scholarship Program, which is sponsored by the Chinese Education Association for International Exchange, to meet on campus. If a policy violation occurred, the school board has a responsibility to hold the principal and any associated faculty and staff accountable. Carolina Journal has since reached out to the Wake County Public School System to ask whether the trip received district approval, how it was funded, and whether the funding source was disclosed to parents. To this point in time, we have not heard back from the Wake County Public School System.
Stoops says Defending Education is in the process of sending public records requests to the schools, all of them that were involved to identify, that were identified in the program's newsletter and will publish follow-up reports on its findings as a result of those public records requests. As I mentioned at the open, 26 K through 12 schools and 83 universities have participated in this program. The report also lists Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill among some of the participating universities. According to the program's newsletter, fencing teams from both schools were among 11 American university squads to compete in the invitational that took place in Beijing in August of 2025. A UNC junior is quoted in the newsletter saying the experience, quote, convinced me that all people are closely linked.
This is truer reality and more vivid than any news report. work. Stoops said that the North Carolina State Board of Education and the UNC Board of Governors should immediately prohibit all North Carolina public schools and universities from participating in this young envoy scholarship program and any other program with direct ties to the Chinese government. Noting that the university should disclose research and business ties to foreign nations and entities of concern, particularly those in China or Russia. Stoops went on to say, malign foreign actors have.
A desire to access elite American research universities and thus educational institutions in the research triangle are undoubtedly near the top of their list. Wake County has been featured in previous reporting by Defending Education. The organization's 2023 investigation identified Confucius Classrooms, a Chinese government-backed language and culture program in nearly a dozen North Carolina districts and schools, and singled out North Carolina for closer scrutiny because of the state's 11 military bases. Citing the district's own budget documents, the report found that Wake County received $50,000 in the 2014-2015 school year from an arm of China's Ministry of Education to operate this Confucius classroom program in five schools, plus another $50,000 in the 2016-2017 school year. Year routed through the North Carolina-based nonprofit Go Global NC and North Carolina State University Confucius Institute.
As late as the 21-22 school year budget, the report found that the district was still running this classroom program on carryover funds. Confucius programming has since ended at most participating schools under pressure from the federal government according to Defending Education, which argues that the Young Envoy program has essentially taken its place. There are, unfortunately, at this point, many more questions than answers as students from a Wake County public school did visit China back in August of 2025 in this program, which has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. We have got more details, including a link of the full report from Defending Education that is available this morning over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. Look for the story with the headline, Wake Students Traveled to China via CCP-linked exchange.
Many people believe buying a home requires a large down payment and years of saving, but that's not always the case. Across the country, there are programs designed to help first-time homebuyers take the next step toward home ownership.
Some of these programs offer down payment assistance or grant funding that may help cover part of the upfront cost of purchasing a home. Grants are especially helpful because they generally do not have to be repaid. There are also organizations that provide homebuyer education, financial counseling, and guidance to help individuals understand the home buying process before they begin. The goal is simple: to help more families become informed and prepared for home ownership. If owning a home is something you've been thinking about, start by visiting ToolsForHomeownership.com.
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We have got a brand new report out this morning from the North Carolina Chamber looking at some of the details and the state's competitiveness against others as it relates to business across the Tar Heel State. To walk us through some of the details in that report, it's my pleasure to welcome Andrew Pombrant's CarolinaJournal.com to the news hour this morning. Andrew, I guess for those that follow national headlines, CNBC has consistently had North Carolina in the first or second slot in terms of top states in the nation for business over the last five or six years, falling unfortunately to the Buckeye State this year in Ohio. But nevertheless, business climate's still pretty good here in North Carolina. What's the latest that you're following?
Yeah. Hey, Nick. Good morning. Happy Thursday. Like you mentioned, just a couple of weeks ago, North Carolina was named CNBC's number two state in business, having been number one last year.
Ohio jumping up the rankings this year, and Virginia falling down to third right behind us. And so, you know, continuingly to be economically competitive here in the mid-Atlantic, bulk between us and Virginia in terms of business competitiveness. And this new North Carolina Chamber Foundation report points to some of those reasons why North Carolina continues to be one of those top states for business and a reason why businesses continue to want to come to North Carolina. You know, it's important for those that have watched our coverage of the General Assembly both last year and here during the short session, a lot of the discussion, a lot of the arguments from Democrats as it relates to continued tax policy here in North Carolina, Andrew, is that businesses are getting these massive breaks as it relates to taxes.
However, looking at this report from the North Carolina chamber, it seems like that business tax rate is what's putting us in the position to drive this continued business to the state. It is. And you know what? As the corporate income tax has continued to decline from about 6% back in 2014 to where it is now, just above 2.5%, and going down to 2% for this year, those reductions actually come along with increases in the total amount of corporate income tax collected.
So the total amount collected, despite that decrease, has been up over 15% over the past decade.
So that's more tax revenue flowing to the state, right? As those tax rates continue to come down as well, individual income tax collections have increased by over 60%, and sales and use tax has grown by 109%, right?
So we continue to see, you know, as we lower those corporate tax rates here across the state of North Carolina, we see an increase in both corporate taxes and then also individual income taxes, right, that the state has been able to use to reinvest in things like education and our policing across the state of North Carolina. Yeah, the more competitive the climate, at least that's what many conservatives and those on the political right will argue, the more business that you can lure to the state even at a lower rate will increase that. Of course, many of those businesses hiring employees, those employees paying a personal income tax rate here in North Carolina, a little bit of a rising tide kind of raises all ships analogy. Yeah, and you know the report found that the total effective business tax rate, so the TEBRT or TR, sorry, there, was 3.2% in fiscal year 2024.
So these are all 2024 numbers, right? And that is below the national average of 4.5%. And I think most importantly, the lowest among all 50%.
So that measure compares state and local taxes paid by businesses with the state's economic size.
So it's looking at the overall tax burden on businesses. And it's importantly for states like North Carolina, where we have a smaller population, maybe compared to a Texas or Florida or California that have larger populations and so have naturally larger tax bases. And so to be number one in that category, I think in particular is something that the chamber will point to and say this, as a state, North Carolina continues to aggressively be a leading state for business and a state that will continue to be moving forward. And obviously we've seen that change pretty dramatically over the last 15 years or so. Let's go back to the North Carolina Chamber.
The president there, the president of the North Carolina Chamber Foundation, said that this is a direct result of some of these policy changes we've seen from lawmakers in Raleigh since 2010. Yeah, right. It's all about the continued smart tax incentives and structures that have been Put in place by the North Carolina General Assembly now under the leadership of outgoing Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger over the past 15 years, right? This has been something that he has been least or focused on. In comparing ourselves with other states across the East Coast to remain competitive, they note that North Carolina has continued to provide a clear picture for businesses about where North Carolina aims to be and where they currently are.
And we have, as a state, have continued to adjust legislation to make that happen. You know, we talk about the corporate income tax rate and some of these other tax rates. And we saw the House take up Senate Bill 1080 this year that would lower the rate on both personal and corporate income taxes from 7% to 3.5%.
Now, that is a constitutional amendment that. Voters will see on the ballots come November, right? And so that passed out both chambers with overwhelming majorities: 30 to 18 out of the Senate and 73 to 46 out of the House. And, you know, we are already below that. I'm sure a lot of us are thinking we're already below that 3.5% rate here in North Carolina.
But that cap would actually go into effect for the future and make sure that we can't bounce back above it. If, you know, if partisan leadership changes or if the state wants to go in a different way, this keeps North Carolina as a state that businesses will want to come to and continue to invest in going forward. Andrew, you have spent a lot of time down at the legislature, especially here in 2026 during the legislative short session, which has been relatively long, all things in comparison. Is it fair to say that Republican lawmakers that push forward this constitutional amendment, and truly in fact, the more than 7.6 million voters registered here across the state will have the opportunity to vote on, but that they would argue that this is a necessary constitutional amendment due to some of these reports, like we're seeing out of the North Carolina Chamber, that these policies essentially need to be cemented in stone? I think that's the argument they continue to make, right, Nick?
It's that these policies have worked. We continue to see them work. And to provide stability, which the Chamber acknowledges is one of the most important things you can do for business climates across the state, to provide the stability and the comfort for businesses to know they can come invest here in North Carolina and have a future set up to do so. Make those big, big investments that we all want to see come to North Carolina. This type of cap allows them that security and that knowledge, knowing that where North Carolina is is where they continue to be going forward.
As we've already mentioned, North Carolina is already number one in the nation for this.
So many folks might think, all right, everything's going great. No room for improvement. But there is some detail in this report about some things that North Carolina could improve on, which would seemingly only guarantee our continued spot in these rankings or these percentages. One of the things that we've talked about a lot over the last couple of years, the franchise tax. That is something that is pretty unique here in North Carolina and affects all businesses, big and small.
Yeah, something that the John Locke Foundation, along with the chambers, continued to point out as a potential roadblock for why North Carolina could see challenges going forward is this franchise tax, right? And unlike a corporate income tax, which is based on just standard profits, the North Carolina franchise tax is actually imposed based on a corporate tax base tied to net worth.
So meaning, you know, a company can actually owe franchise tax in a year where they didn't generate a profit at all. Maybe they were just investing into the state. And this is a pretty small tax in all things comparison. It's only 10% of 1%. But in comparison to a national average, right, that is five times more than the national average.
And so it's a pretty stark difference for a state that claims to be so pro-business that we still have this sort of outdated franchise tax on the books. And as we've kind of moved into a more modern tax-based structure, this is something that a lot of states have gotten rid of. And North Carolina remains one of only a handful of states that still has this sort of tax in place. And so something that both the Chamber and the John Locke Foundation, speaking with Brian Vow for, would like to get rid of as, you know, a way that North Carolina can preserve and improve North Carolina's competitiveness for job investment and creation. And, Andrew, this might be an opportunity to take a step back.
And when we talk about business here in North Carolina, many folks probably close their eyes and think of their local brick and mortar stores, maybe some of the larger businesses. But especially as the economy has kind of transitioned over the last 15 or 20 years, you've got a lot of self-employed individuals, a lot of 1099 contractors that run sums of money through LLCs here in North Carolina. These are regular, everyday individuals that are operating under this LLC business structure that are paying this franchise tax, as you noted, even if they don't have a profit. Yeah, you know, we talk about continually both in the large business sector in North Carolina looking at things like pharmaceuticals or, you know, those new and emerging technologies that North Carolina has invested so heavily to bring to the state. You know, those may not turn profits for years on end.
We talk about the opportunity and data centers going forward. You know, those are high-cost businesses up front. And then we talk about those LLCs and everyone in between, whether that be small independent contractors or those looking to start their own businesses. This is a tax that only generates 1.8% of the state's total tax revenue.
So, you know, less than 2%. I mean, we would feel it for sure, but it's something that. Yeah, either to lower or to get rid of would only make a small dent in the state's total tax revenue compared to other things. And so an opportunity for North Carolina to continue to push forward on. Becoming this pro-business state, bringing jobs, bringing investment to the state.
And, you know, the chamber points out this is actually an opportunity and a risk, right? This could turn away a lot of those large businesses that are looking to move into the state going forward as states like Virginia and Georgia and South Carolina get rid of this tax altogether. And so for North Carolina to continue to maintain that, you know, place even down the CNBC ranking, either one or two, right, for now, six years in a row, they're going to have to do things like get rid of the franchise tax. It's obviously something that we will keep an eye on as we head into the legislative long session coming up in 2027. We've got a full copy of this report from the North Carolina Chamber Foundation.
That's linked up over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com. We appreciate the update. Andrew Pomerantz joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. For many people, renting is a convenient option. It offers flexibility and may require less responsibility for maintenance.
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A good Thursday morning to you. Earlier this week in Raleigh, we saw a very political press conference out of the governor's mansion as the Democrat governor and Josh Stein vetoed legislation that we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks here in North Carolina that would have made changes to voting and early voting as we moved forward into portions of 2027. That press conference did also include other Democrat leaders across the state, Sidney Batch and Representative Robert Reeves from the North Carolina General Assembly, to discuss some of the details. on that and some of the points made during that press conference. It's my pleasure to welcome Dr.
Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation to our airwaves this morning. Andy, one of the common themes from all of the speakers in the about 45-minute event that happened earlier in Raleigh this week was that the changes in this legislation that would move the early voting period during primaries from 17 days to 10 days would have a major effect on voter turnout here in North Carolina. You track these statistics probably more closely than any. Anybody else across the Tar Heel State, voter turnout is already incredibly low in the primary. Is it not?
Yeah, it has been, and actually it long has been. It really hovers somewhere between the mid-teens and 20% voter turnout, a lot lower than what you have in general elections. Last time around in 2022, we had about 3.8 million in the general, but we only had 1.4 million in the primary. And the primary and general election has the, at least currently, has the exact same number of early voting days, at least the early voting day period. Yeah, and so we see that 17 days.
It's for primaries. That typically starts around mid-February is when that kicks off. We'll see early voting kick off for the midterm election coming up here on October the 15th. Andy, for those that don't follow this process very closely, there's a big strain on the local, all 100 local county board of elections across North Carolina. Most of them are operating multiple sites depending on the size of the county.
It could be seven, eight, nine sites of early voting that take place throughout that 17-day period. When you go back and look at some of the statistics, it is pitiful on some of these days and some of these hours. You only have dozens of people voting across very large metropolitan areas. It can, especially in those primaries. And what you have is you have what you tend to have is that first day or two, you have this kind of front load of everybody's excited, everybody's already made up their mind, and they're not going to be convinced.
They go ahead and vote, or at least they think they won't be convinced. And then they vote during that first day or two. And then you end up with this lull. It's kind of a saddle shape. And then during the last couple of days, especially that last Friday and Saturday, you get this big bump at the end.
So that middle portion is kind of a doldrum period for early voting where you're going to have relatively small turnout on those days. And you still have to fully ban the early voting sites for each of those days that it's open.
So we're talking about details on House Bill 958. It was legislation that Andy and I have discussed over the last couple of weeks here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. We saw that legislation vetoed earlier this week. The General Assembly, at least some in House leadership, have made the argument they will rectify that and do a veto override sometime in mid-November. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Andy, the big argument is moving the early voting period from 17 days, excuse me, to 10 days in primaries starting in years in the future is going to have a major effect on voter turnout. Do you suspect that that will be the case or will folks mold themselves around this newly introduced and announced schedule? I don't expect that that's going to have a major impact on turnout. One, we don't really fully utilize the early voting facilities we have during primaries due to the low turnout. And once again, you do have that saddle shape of voting where there's very big interest at the very beginning, well, relatively big interest in the case of primaries in the beginning, the first couple of days, and then a big jump in interest in the last couple of days.
What you do is if you're going to truncate that period from 17 to 10, you're still going to have those jumps. They're just going to be a little close together. And I suspect that what you'll also have is a comparatively high turnout on those intervening days. People make adjustments to the system and they make plans accordingly. It's just like with anything else in life, if the schedule is a little different, you're going to adjust your schedule to fit that.
Yeah, I mean, you can look at the back-to-school season, which we're in right now. Folks across North Carolina, Andy, make their vacations around their school calendar. It is kind of human nature things that we deal with. All right.
So, as we continue discussing some of the details on this piece of legislation that, again, was vetoed by the governor this week, a big press conference taking place in Raleigh with Democrat leaders here across the state of North Carolina.
Some of the other issues that were brought forward as it relates to this piece of legislation deal with some concerns as it relates to not only the timeline here, but some of the other potential impacts. For those that are maybe new to the state of North Carolina, have we always had 17 days of early voting? Or is this something that, in the grand scheme of North Carolina history and voting across our state, is relatively new? Relatively new. I mean, if you're really young and you've only voted a couple of times, the current regime is all that you know.
But this is something that evolved across the 1990s and the 20 oughts. And really, it's an offshoot of early voting. As a matter of fact, early voting used to be called absentee early voting or one-stop absentee voting. And it was a subset of absentee voting.
So all the early voting laws were in the section of the law that dealt with absentee voting. And the idea originally was you would, if you couldn't be around on election day, you could either request an absentee ballot or you had the option, as they started in the 1990s, to go into your local Board of Elections office, request your absentee ballot, mark it, and deliver it at the same time.
So early voting evolved from that and eventually started opening up secondary sites. And we went from there and we got into this more systematic system. But it was only a few years. Years ago, that early voting was kind of broken off from absentee voting and became its own thing under the law. And Andy, this might be a good time to remind our audience, because this is not the case in every other state, that anybody across North Carolina that is a registered voter does have the ability to request an absentee ballot.
There are states that require certain metrics or details to be met to request that. As I understand it, that's not the case here in North Carolina.
So if the 17-day early voting period doesn't work for your schedule, if Election Day itself doesn't work for your schedule, anybody can request one of those ballots. Yeah, that's true. Two things about North Carolina. One, we are a no-excuse absentee voting state. You don't have to give a reason.
You don't have some states, only people that have an inferment or are over 65 or they can show that they're going to be out of town can request a ballot. We don't have that in North Carolina. Also, North Carolina has the longest early voting period of any state in the country. The ballots are first going out during the first week of September, a good two months. Before Election Day, technically speaking, Delaware matches this, but they haven't had their primary yet, so they can't send out their general election ballot.
So, North Carolina is unique in the length of the period of absentee voting, and we're one of the states that don't require any excuse. It's freely available to everybody during that whole two months. Yeah, and in terms of early voting as well, I believe Virginia has maybe a little bit longer of a schedule than we do, but we are very much right up there in the top couple of states as it relates to early voting. One of the other details in House Bill 958 is something that you have talked about in great detail and written about over at the John Locke Foundation and have seen some success in other states across the nation. This is the discussion about the state auditor conducting the systematic audits, not of election results and election outcomes, but the entirety of the voting process and the voter registration process.
That is something that Democratic leaders really took charge with earlier this week. Andy, they said that this was going to be a very political process, that the Republican state auditor was going to be overseeing this. That gave them some major concerns. What do you think about that provision in this legislation? This is a provision I've been calling for for a couple of years now.
I've seen how these are conducted in other states, in Utah, for example, where the chief election officer is actually a lieutenant governor, an elected partisan position.
So that doesn't negate the ability to be able to conduct these kinds of elections. And these, I mean, sorry, these kinds of audits, and these kinds of audits are different than just a recounting of just making sure, okay, we'll count again, we'll make sure that they're right. And we basically came within X percent of the same result. Because when you have millions of ballots, you almost never get the exact same result.
So are they reasonably close? And if they are, okay, it was a successful election. This is a systematic examination of the entire process, going, you know, starting with voter registration and going all the way through to making sure that there is a proper chain of custody of ballots and other election materials. And this is a way, once again, as As stipulated in the bill, this won't affect any election results. They say this will be conducted after the elections are certified, and that nothing from these audits will be used to overturn an election result stipulated by law.
But this will help create cycles of improvement to help county boards of elections find out where they've been making mistakes and how they can fix those mistakes. One of the things I always like to mention when we're talking about elections here in North Carolina is we have a very decentralized system. Yes, we do have the North Carolina State Board of Elections, guidance and directives and things of that nature flow down from the state board. But in all 100 counties, Andy, there is an elections director. In most of the cases, an assistant election director.
There's a separate election board and election staff. It should be no surprise that with 100 different entities, yes, all reading off essentially the same sheet of music, which is general statute and things of that nature, there's going to be some differences and the possibility of issues within the process arising would seem like some level of just human nature. Yeah, and it does happen. And it doesn't even have to require malfeasance on the part of election officials. You know, there could be simple mistakes.
I remember a couple of elections ago, we had one county, I'll mention their name, Robinson County, where they forgot to count the ballots from a machine during early voting. And when they used that same machine on election day, the ballot, I mean, the count was still in there, but they couldn't find it in the final count.
So it took them a while to find that. Washington County, they counted absentee ballots twice. In the same year, these kind of mistakes happen.
Now, fortunately, both of those were caught. I mean, they were big enough that they were easily caught because the numbers didn't add up. But we have other systematic problems.
Sometimes that, you know, like we've seen in a couple of counties in North Carolina recently where they've ended up firing their election directors because of some systematic problems. If we can catch these things earlier in the process through things like a performance audit, we can maybe save some jobs in addition to helping make our elections run better. Important to note with this legislation, as it was vetoed this week by Democrat Governor Josh Stein, the early voting timelines and some of these other things that we've been talking about were not going to have any impact on this upcoming election. Early voting does kick off here on October the 15th. We do expect some action on this as the General Assembly comes back in in middle November.
We'll keep a close eye on the details. We appreciate the insight and information this morning. Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Have you ever thought about the difference between paying rent and owning a home?
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Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk 107.9 FM, WBT keeping our attention out on Western North Carolina. Jamie Ager, the Democrat nominee who would like to represent North Carolina's 11th congressional district, has released his first TV ad in what will be a very interesting race taking place in the western half of our state. This ad comes the same week that President Donald Trump endorsed State Representative Jennifer Balcombe, the Republican from Henderson County, who was recently voted on by Republicans in Western North Carolina to replace Representative Chuck Edwards, who recently announced that he would not be seeking reelection following a report from the House Ethics Committee that found that he likely violated the House Code of Conduct as it related to staffers in his office. In the second quarter of campaign finance reports, Democrat Ager. outraised Edwards by almost 9 to 1.
According to the Q2 campaign finance reports, Ager's raised $1.4 million and has about $2.2 million cash on hand. It's important to note that Jamie Ager was also ahead in his first quarter campaign finance reports as well. The North Carolina 11 congressional district has been one that Republicans have controlled in recent years with all the turmoil over the last couple of weeks as it relates to Chuck Edwards and Jennifer Bulkham stepping into the race with about 80 days to go and a very strong amount of fundraising from Democrat Jamie Ager. It is going to be a fascinating race to watch out in the western half of the state. We'll be keeping you up to date over on our website, CarolinaJournal.com.
That's going to do it for a Thursday edition. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We're back with you tomorrow morning, 5 to 6, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM, WBT. Ah! This is Amy Brown from Feeling Things with Amy and Kat.
Back to school season always feels like a fresh start, not just for kids, but for all of us. It's a great reminder to create new routines and find meaningful ways to connect with our family, friends, and community. Hasbro games make it easy to gather around the table, put the screens away, share some laughs, and create joyful memories together. Whether it's Monopoly, Connect 4, Guess Who, or another family favorite, there's something for everyone. You can find these and other Hasbro favorites at your local Walmart, Walmart.com, or simply tap the link in today's show notes to bring more play into your week.
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