Free Republic

Last week the Democrats were touting the special election in North Carolina’s 9th District as the first major contest of the 2020 cycle, and the polls indicated that Democrat Dan McCready might win what should be a pretty safe GOP seat. By Wednesday morning, after Republican Dan Bishop had won, their focus had shifted and much commentary was devoted to his “thin margin of victory.” Little notice was taken of certain voting patterns that should frighten the Democrats. Specifically, McCready did far worse than expected in every county but one, and many of those counties are dominated by minority voters....

State legislators have gone home. That's a good thing.The session began in May with much hope that with better economic times, lawmakers would seize the opportunity to give taxpayers a much-needed break and repeal the "temporary" taxes enacted during the 2001 recession. Many hoped that the General Assembly would also seize the opportunity to adopt a constitutional amendment protecting property owners from eminent domain abuse. Instead, the General Assembly made half-hearted attempts to appease taxpayers and property owners. Lawmakers trimmed back those tax increases, but wouldn't eliminate them altogether. As far as protecting property, the General Assembly repealed legislation that...