It's five oh six, and welcome into a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour on Charlotte's FM News Talk one and seven point nine FM WBT. I'm Nick Craig. Good morning to you.
Well, the as we continue our coverage of the 2026 midterm elections, we are tracking a series of races in our state capital in Wake County as the GOP faces possible a Wake County legislative shutout amid three close races. Wake County Republicans are defending their final two seats in the North Carolina General Assembly across North Carolina's capital county while seeking to. Flip a closely contested state Senate district. The three competitive legislative races could help determine whether the state's most populous county has any Republican representation in Raleigh next year. Of the 13 state House districts that include portions of Wake County, Republicans hold only two.
All six state Senate districts encompassing portions of the county are already represented by Democrats. State representatives Aaron Peray from Wake County and Mike Sheetsell, the Republican from Wake County, are seeking reelection in the North Carolina House. Their districts are 37 for Peray, 35 for Sheetsell, while Republican Chris Stock is challenging a Senator Hadeeb Fatman, the Democrat from Wake County in Senate District 18. All three districts are classified as a toss-up by the John Locke Foundation's 2026 Civitas Partisan Index. We call that the CPI, which measures the underlying partisan voting tendencies of North Carolina's legislative districts.
Andy Jackson, who is the director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, said that changing demographics and voting patterns have created additional challenges for Republicans in all three districts. Jackson told the Carolina Journal, in part, "The problem for Republicans is that the three districts have all shifted towards Democrats as the electorate in Wake County has become younger and more left-leaning." Combined with a national political environment that looks favorable for Democrats, these shifts put Republicans in those districts in a fight for their political lives. House districts 35 and 37, where Peray and Sheets out sit, are both rated R plus zero, indicating that they're indicating. That the Republican lean in that district is left less than half a percentage point. Important to note, both districts were rated an R plus three back in 2024, so a pretty sizable change for those two districts.
Senate District 18, which includes Northern Wake County and all of Granville County, has shifted from R plus one in 2024 to D plus zero, giving the Democrats there less than half a percentage point. In the 2026 index, we'll start with House District 27 in Southern Wake County. Representative Aaron Prey is seeking a fourth term, representing House District 37, which includes portions of Holly Springs, Fuquay Varina, Garner, and surrounding communities. Prey first won the seat in 2020, defeating incumbent State Representative Sidney Batch, the Democrat from Wake County, by. A little bit more than 2,200 votes.
Batch then went on to win an election in the state senate, where she currently represents District 17 and is the minority leader in the North Carolina Senate. In 2022, Parade defeated Democrat Christine Kelly with 52.8 percent of the vote to Kelly's 45. Two years later, in 2024, she defeated Democrat challenger a Democrat challenger by 3,647 votes, receiving 41.4 percent of the votes in that contest. This year, Pare faces Democrat Winder and Education Policy Consultant and first-time legislative candidate. Pare, a small business owner from Holly Springs, has served in the House since 2021 and currently holds leadership positions on several legislative committees, including as the co-chair of the Appropriations Committee.
Her legislative priorities have included tax relief, infrastructure improvements, and support for military families. During the twenty twenty six short session, Perre helped lead the House property tax reform efforts as co chair of the House Select Committee on Property Tax Reduction and Reform. She was also a primary sponsor of legislation placing a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. If approved, that would require lawmakers to establish limits on local property taxes. Her opponent in Decker is a Fuquay Varina resident, earned a doctorate in public administration from NC State, and has worked on education and workforce policy, including at the Hunt Institute.
His campaign Campaign has emphasized public school funding, teacher compensation, housing affordability, and infrastructure improvements needed to accommodate Southern Wake County's continued growth.
So we're keeping a very close eye on House District 37. We move around Wake County to the northern half and the northern portion. That's where Representative Mike Sheetsell faces a Democrat challenger, Yvonne Hopkins, in a rematch of their closely contested 20. 2024 election. District 35 includes portions of Wake Forest, Northern Raleigh, and surrounding areas.
Sheetsalt, an attorney and Marine Marine Corps veteran, first won election to the House in 2024, narrowly defeating Hopkins in a three-candidate race. Sheetsalt received just over 28,000 votes, which worked out to be 50.3 percent, compared to Hopkins' 26,000 votes, a Libertarian. Received 1,500 in that contest. The 1,820 vote margin gave Republicans control of a seat previously held by then State Representative Terrence Everett, the Democrat from Wake County. Everett won re-election to House District 35 in 2022 with 52 percent of the vote under the district's previous boundaries.
The district was then redrawn ahead of the 2024 election, expanding farther west across northern Wake County and incorporating additional Republican-leaning areas. Everett ran for the state senate in 2024, while Sheetsalt secured the narrowly open house seat.
Now competing for his first re-election, Sheetsalt is running on his legislative record, including efforts to reduce transportation costs, support public education, and address rising energy bills. He told the Carolina Journal back in May, House District Thirty Five has seen real results over the past eighteen months, and I'm proud to stand on that record heading into November. His opponent, Ivonne Hopkins, is a board-certified family law specialist who owns and operates the Raleigh Law Center. Her legal career has included representing children in contested custody proceedings through Legal Aid of North Carolina. Her campaign focuses on increasing support for public schools, improving infrastructure, and addressing housing and the living costs associated with Wake County's population growth.
The race is receiving attention beyond Wake County. The Democrat Legislative Campaign Committee has identified Hopkins as one of its targeted candidates. As Democrats attempt to increase their representation in the Republican-controlled General Assembly. The third closely contested legislative race in Wake County is Senate District 18, which spans northern Wake County and all of Granville County. Republican Chris Stock is challenging current Democrat Senator Hasib Feitman, an attorney and former Wake County town commissioner, who was appointed to the chamber in May following the resignation of former Senator Terrence Everett, who stepped down to focus on voting rights advocacy.
The district produced one of the closest legislative elections results in North Carolina in 2024, as Everett defeated Republican Ashley Bryan Adams by just 128 votes. They both received over 59,000 votes apiece, and that 128 28 vote margin decided who would go to the North Carolina General Assembly. That narrow 2024 result made Senate District. District 18, one of the state's most closely divided legislative seats. Stock, an attorney and former lobbyist, has experience working in the General Assembly and previously served on the staff of Republican State Senator Brent Jackson.
He won the Republican nomination in March, defeating former Wake County School Board member Cheryl Caulfield with approximately 55 percent of the primary vote. Stock has emphasized limiting property tax increases, improving public education, and protecting farmland from development. He also made his experience navigating the legislative process a central part of his campaign. Fate, previously served as the Wake Forest previously served on the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners. After winning election in 2025, he works as an attorney in both the public and private sectors, including with the Social Security Administration.
His campaign, on the other hand, focused on affordability, education funding, and improving services in rapidly growing communities across Wake and Granville counties. Beyond determining the composition of Wake County's legislative delegation, the outcome of these three races will likely help determine whether Republicans maintain control of both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly and secure the votes necessary to override Democrat Governor Josh Stein's vetoes. Currently, Republicans hold 170 of a 120 seats in the House. They need 61 seats to maintain their majority. And seventy-two to reach the three-fifths threshold, which is necessary to override a gubernatorial veto when all members are active and voting.
Republicans are seeking to protect their majority while gaining at least one additional seat to restore their veto-proof margin. Democrats, meanwhile, are working to reduce the Republican majority and prevent the GOP from meeting those thresholds. On the other side of the building, in the North Carolina Senate, Republicans currently hold 30 of 50 seats, giving them that three-fifths majority necessary to override vetoes when all senators vote. Republicans need to maintain 26 seats to retain control of the chamber, meaning they can lose four seats and maintain their majority. But a net loss of even one seat would eliminate their current veto-proof margin.
Senate District 18 is among the competitive contests that could affect not only the size of the Republican majority but its ability to override vetoes. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation added that while Wake County races are unlikely to determine whether Republicans maintain their majority, losing all three seats could have long-term consequences for Republicans. He says winning those Wake County districts is not as Critical to Republicans holding onto their majority, as as it is winning in suburban districts in the Triad and counties like Cabarrus.
However, losing all three would be a major blow, since it would shut them out of the state's most populous county. They could harm their organizing efforts with negative downstream consequences for both local and statewide Republican candidates. Early voting continues through North Carolina at the three p. On October the thirty first, that is next Saturday, election day coming up Tuesday, November the third. You can read more on all three of these races.
We've got a breakdown of all of the previous results, some additional commentary there from Doctor Andy Jackson. Those details over on our website, carolinajournal dot com. Look for the story with the headline: "GOP faces possible Wake legislative shutout amid three close races." It's 5:23. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, 107.9 FM. WBT North Carolina is set to receive $873 million in additional federal funding to repair roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure that was damaged by Hurricane Helene back in 2024.
That is according to an announcement from the United States Department of Transportation earlier this week. The funding is part of a 1.6 billion dollar nationwide emergency relief package announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on October the 19th. North Carolina will receive more than half of that total funding, with additional allocations, obviously much smaller, going to 33 other states. According to federal transportation officials, Hurricane Helene caused damage at more than 9,000 sites across western North Carolina and resulted in more than 1,400 road closures following the September 2024 storm.
Duffy said in a statement, "The United States Department of Transportation is working diligently to deliver dollars needed to rebuild critical transportation and infrastructure links across American communities." Impacted by catastrophic natural disasters, he continued by saying, "Safe roads and bridges mean that rescue services arrive faster, medical professionals can reach those in need, and families can get the resources they need to recover." The announcement coincided with Vice President JD Vance's campaign stop in Hendersonville on Monday, where he highlighted the new federal assistance while campaigning for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Wattley and other GOP candidates. During the vice president's remarks, he pointed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's commitment of more than seven and a half billion dollars in recovery funding, acknowledging that the rebuilding of western North Carolina will remain a long-term undertaking. FEMA has said that the funding covers Helene and other recent disasters. The vice president said during the rally, "Of course, we know that recovery and that rebuilding is still going on." It's going to take years to rebuild the beautiful state that you guys saw suffer after Hurricane Helene.
Vance credited President Donald Trump, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Watley's advocacy for securing the latest funding, joking that the announcement comes in part because Michael Watley would not shut up about it. Vance said that the funding would support reconstruction of eight major transportation corridors damaged by Helene, including the very pivotal Interstate 40 through the Pigeon River Gorge near the Tennessee. The vice president then used the funding announcement to draw a political contrast ahead of the November the third election, criticizing the Democrats' handling of the storm's aftermath while praising Republican officials for securing additional assistance. He said in part, "When Democrats were in power, they were doing nothing for Western North Carolina, and now that we have Republicans in power and people like Michael Watley and Jennifer Balkum advocating for you, we are making sure that this state gets the money it deserves to rebuild the lives of our fellow citizens." Democrat Governor Josh Stein welcomed the additional transportation funding in a social media post, emphasizing the importance of restoring infrastructure to the region's a broader economy, and of course, with that, there a broader recovery. Saying in part, "Rebuilding Western North Carolina means restoring the roads and bridges that connect our communities and help families and businesses move forward after Hurricane Helene." I am grateful to the United.
Department of Transportation for announcing $873 million in emergency relief funding to help repair the damage and support our state's continued recovery. The latest federal allocation comes as Stein continues to advocate for additional federal disaster assistance. In June, the governor called on Congress to approve more than ten billion dollars in additional recovery funding for western North Carolina, including money to rebuild damaged infrastructure, housing, and businesses. The new funding will be administrate will be administered, excuse me, through the Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief Program, which provides federal assistance to states repairing transportation infrastructure that would be damaged by natural disasters. According to the administrator of that program, Sean McMaster, he said in a press release, "The Federal Highway Administration's work with states, along with local, tribal, and Federal agencies in the aftermath of disasters is essential to restoring broken transportation links.
We provide the necessary funding to restore mobility and help people regain a sense of normalcy in their daily lives following disruption. The transportation's part, the transportation department's announcement did not provide a breakdown of individual projects receiving federal funding or specify when the additional money would be rolled out to western North Carolina. But it is more money that we have continued to track flowing into the western half of North Carolina. You can read more details on this story and track all of the Helene funding over the last two years. We have kept you up to date with all of that.
Over on our website, carolinajournal dot com, this most recent story's headline is Western North Carolina to receive additional eight hundred and seventy three million dollars for Helene road repairs. It's five thirty seven. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk one hundred seven point nine FM WBT. I am Nick Craig. Good Thursday morning to you.
Back last month, here on the Carolina Journal News, we brought you up to date on a lawsuit that was filed against the North Carolina State Board of Elections over rules as it related to absentee by mail voting. While the deadline for absentee ballot requests have ended, that was on October the 20th. Those that have already gone through that process have until 7:30 p.m. on Election Night, that is coming up on Tuesday, November the 3rd, to make sure that their ballots are with their local county board. Of elections office to keep up to date with the latest in that lawsuit.
Mitch Koch, I from the John Locke Foundation, joins us on the Carolina Journal News Hour. Mitch, we talked about this back in early September, not long after the North Carolina State Board of Elections, which is controlled by Republicans, a three-two majority there, laid out some of the rules for this early voting period for the 2026 midterm elections. What's the latest that you're tracking out of the courts? The latest is that the guidance that the state board of elections adopted on September fourth is going to remain in place during the course of the election process. What happened was not terribly long, but certainly not right away, and that actually factored into the decision.
Not terribly long after the state board of elections made that decision to adopt guidance related to mail-in absentee ballots, several. Activist groups working with Democratic operative Mark Elias's law firm filed a lawsuit, and they challenged two particular pieces of the mail-in ballot guidance. One dealt with how you deal with ballots that are not properly placed in the envelopes that are used for mail-in absentee balling balloting. For those who've never done it. It's not just one ballot, one envelope.
There's actually an inner envelope that you have to put the ballot into that inner envelope, seal that inner envelope, and then put it in an outer envelope, which is also sealed. And the whole idea is to ensure that nothing happens to deface the ballot or or change it in any way. That the the the way that it was filled out is the way that it will actually arrive when it gets to elections officials. It's an election integrity. Measure, so that was one piece that the lawsuit challenged.
That they said, no, you shouldn't have to discard ballots just because someone didn't follow the the procedure that they're supposed to follow when when sealing the the ballots. And the response on the other side from those who are are defending the guidance said, well, that's what the law says. The law says you fill out the ballot and you submit it in a certain way. And if you don't submit it in that way, then your ballot doesn't.
So that was one piece that was challenged. Another is a signature verification requirement because when a ballot is returned, you sign it. Elections officials are supposed to make sure that that signature looks like the signature of the person who registered to vote. Since you're not actually seeing the person in person, either in early voting or on election day, there has to be some way to ensure that the ballot that was returned is returned by the person who is actually registered to vote.
So there's a signature verification requirement that was challenged not too long after filing the lawsuit. These Groups then tried to get a preliminary injunction. the The federal judge overseeing this case held a hearing on it and then issued a ruling that said no, no injunction. One, we're too close to the election season, and in fact, are already in the election season. People are already voting early, and so changing the rules at this point would generate chaos.
And federal courts are not supposed to do that. There's something called the Brussel principle that cautions Federal courts against changing election rules during an election, and then beyond that, the judge also said, "Doesn't look like this is creating any special burdens anyway." So it's not just that this lawsuit is poorly timed because it's taking place during the election process, but also these rules don't seem to be causing any special burden. There, everyone gets to follow them. If for some reason you don't. Meet the requirements, then you get a chance to fill out another mail-in ballot, or you can vote in person.
So, basically, barring some sort of appeal, and we've not heard that there's going to be an appeal at this point, but barring any any sort of appeal, that would have to take place very quickly and get a ruling fairly quickly. Then the rules, as set out by the state board of elections in early September, are going to be the rules that will play. During the rest of this election process. You know, Mitch, you make a good point there. We are now less than two weeks away from election day.
This ruling coming out on Monday, a day, I guess, a day before we fully hit that a two-week mark here across North Carolina. You talk about that per-cell principle. We've chatted about that in a variety of different legal challenges and lawsuits over the last couple of years. Is it fair and accurate to say for our audience that the judicial system, unless there's something extraordinary going on, really tries to? Step back when you get close to that election window, not to change things and create what could only be described as a high level of uncertainty or a last minute change, while folks are actually in the process of voting or about to begin.
Yes. That's the short answer. The slightly longer answer is yes. the The idea behind that Brussel principle is that the federal courts shouldn't step in and change the the election process and generate more chaos. That that the status quo is is what should be thought of during the course of an election campaign, and that does not rule out.
Some sort of legal process playing out after the election, in which, if the if there is a legitimate argument against one of these laws or one of these rules, that it could be thrown out for future elections. But given where things stand in this election. Any type of change to an election process is likely to generate a lot of chaos, which is something the federal courts do not want to do when it comes to elections. We saw that play out in some other cases. We talked about the ad rates case and the a case that went all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court and back and forth between the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, and one of the deciding factors. In that case, was also not changing the rules as the election was playing out, and that's what's happening here too. The idea that, regardless of what you think about the the the ballot envelope guidance or the signature verification guidance, that is something that was status quo as people were getting ready to vote, and changing it now would be harmful, even. And if you thought that there was some problem with that guidance, and if so, then that could be tackled after the election and would take effect for the next election cycle.
And let's make sure you already mentioned it a little bit, Mitch. But let's make sure we lay this out for our audience. The discussion here and the conversation about this guidance really deals with this inner envelope. Again, for you, as you noted, for those that have never voted absentee by mail, you put the ballot itself, which obviously is the important part of this whole process, where you're actually going through and deciding who you're going to vote for in that inner envelope. It has to be sealed.
It is then placed in an outer Envelope with some other things like a photocopy of your ID and all the other pieces of all the other requirements in the absentee by mail ballot process here in North Carolina. That inner envelope is not anything new, and I guess in years past there's been some question.
Well, what do we do if these ballots show up and they're not sealed? That's caused some issues in this current North Carolina State Board of Elections has made it abundantly clear. If that's the case, then your ballot needs. To be spoiled, and then you can either request another one or vote either during the early voting period, which runs through the thirty first, or decide to vote on election day coming up Tuesday, November the third. Yes, and one of the things that's been an interesting development in this case is that after this lawsuit was filed, Republican groups got involved and said, "Hey, we should be able to intervene because this isn't anything new." We, meaning the Republican groups, filed lawsuits.
When the state board of elections was led by Democrats, and they were not following the law, they were basically saying, "Oh, if you get a a a." A mail-in absentee ballot, and it's not in the inner envelope. You can still count it, and they were saying, "No, that's not what the law says. The law says you have to actually follow the process that's spelled out to put the ballot in the inner envelope, make sure the inner envelope is sealed, and then it's within the outer envelope with everything else that needs to be there. And if you follow the process that's spelled out, and the judge in this case says it's pretty clear, you know, it's it's not something that's Particularly burdensome. It tells you what you're supposed to do.
As long as you follow what you're supposed to do, the ballot will be counted. They said, you know, they went through a whole legal process to make sure this was going to happen. And then once Republicans took over the Elections Board, they looked at this litigation and said, okay, we need to make this change because of the lawsuits we faced. They made the change, and now the activist groups working with Mark Elias were trying to go back to the old way, which was something the previous. Lawsuits were designed to stop, and so that's one of one of the interesting arguments that came out here.
That the last election cycle pretty much put this to bed. That these processes had to be played out as the law said, and that Mark Elias and his clients were trying to to get rid of what had been decided in the previous lawsuits. Yeah, and obviously we do see it has happened in the past with these changes to the North Carolina State Board of Elections. It's called guidance for a reason, and it is the board that decides. It's a five-member board.
There's currently three Republicans and two Democrats that determine that guidance that gets transmitted to all 100 county Board of Elections as to the process as elections play out. Obviously, there's a lot of general statute and state law that dictates and mandates a lot of what that process looks like.
So We'll keep an eye on this. See if there is an appeal filed. As a Mitch, as you already mentioned, the likelihood of anything happening between now and November third would seem nearly impossible with this very close timeline. But we'll keep an eye on that. Likely pick this back up sometime after the election, maybe into December or the beginning of the new year.
We have continuing coverage of this story over on our website this morning, carolinajournal.com. As always, we appreciate the update. Mitch Koch, I from the John Locke Foundation, joins us on the Carolina Journal. News Hour. Good morning again.
It's five fifty-four. Welcome back to the Carolina Journal News Hour, Charlotte's FM News Talk, one hundred seven point nine FM, WBT. We are getting the most recent early voting numbers as we have over the last couple of mornings here in our final segment here on the Carolina Journal News Hour. We have now cracked more than one million early votes across the state, according to the most recent data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Elections: the percentages breakdown as follows.
Out of the early vote, this is just early voting. It does not include mail or military and overseas ballots. Democrats still holding a pretty sizable advantage in terms of those that are registered Democrats voting during the period, with forty three point one percent unaffiliated voters at thirty four point zero percent, and Republicans at twenty two point eight percent. We have seen from the GOP an advantage. About one full percentage point between Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday's early voting data, as they try and dig out of a massive hole that they got into during the first two days of early voting last week, Thursday and Friday, and some weekend voting, which was a lot more prominent in more urban areas across the state, which do tend to skew to the political left.
So we are keeping a close eye on that data. As we now cross the one-week mark of early voting, it does continue throughout the remainder of this week into this weekend and all of next week. As early voting will officially end coming up on Saturday, October the 31st, polls in most areas across the state are open from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. There will be no early voting on Sunday or Monday of not next week, but the week after.
And then, of course, we will watch election. Roll around on Tuesday at November the third. There's been a lot of very interesting data over the last couple of days. We will be joined tomorrow morning by Dr. Andy Jackson from the John Locke Foundation to break down what he has seen over the last couple of days.
And also coming up a little bit later on today, we will have a look at our most recent and our last Carolina Journal poll ahead of the 2026 midterm election. That will be out this afternoon. We will have a Full analysis and breakdown with the editor in chief David Larson of CarolinaJournal dot com. He'll join us tomorrow morning as well as we'll be talking about everything elections and early voting on a Friday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. As always, if you want to keep up to date with some of these early voting totals that we continue to talk about in the breakdown, you can visit CarolinaElections dot com.
That's CarolinaElections dot com. Click. On the vote tracker tab, and you're able to manipulate the data there to look at your various communities, cities, towns, any municipalities across the state of North Carolina. CarolinaElections. dot com.
That's going to do it for a Thursday edition of the Carolina Journal News Hour. WBT News is next, followed by Good Morning BT. We are back with you tomorrow morning, five to six, right here on Charlotte's FM News Talk, one hundred seven point nine FM, WBT.
