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Run-Off Upset Shows GOP Priorities in Western NC

Credit Madison Cawthorn for Congress

A 24-year-old political newcomer handilydefeated a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump in yesterday’s Republican runoff election in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. 

Host Frank Stasio talks with Reporters Cory Vaillancourt and Rusty Jacobs about the 2020 elections.

Madison Cawthorn defeated Lynda Bennett by 30 percentage points to vy for the seat vacated by Mark Meadows, who is now Trump’s fourth chief of staff. Host Frank Stasio talks with Smoky Mountain News’ Cory Vaillancourt about the results.

Plus, North Carolina is one of only five states this year with races for the presidency, U.S. Senate and governorship. Despite the ongoing global recession, donors outside North Carolina continue to pour money into the upcoming general elections. Republican political consultant Paul Shumaker estimates that $98 million has already been committed to political advertising for the June to November period.

Host Frank Stasio talks with WUNC Political Reporter Rusty Jacobs about the ways the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 are shaping the elections. 

Copyright 2020 North Carolina Public Radio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Grant Holub-Moorman is a producer for The State of Things, WUNC's daily, live talk show that features the issues, personalities and places of North Carolina.