2020 Election

GOP Election Bills Are Coming In North Carolina. How Far Will They Go?

By • Mar 15, 2021

North Carolina was home to some of the most bitter fights over voting last decade.

But while states like Georgia and Arizona are now considering bills to limit absentee by mail voting, North Carolina has been completely quiet in 2021 – so far.

WATCH LIVE: Congress Tallies Electoral College Votes

By • Jan 6, 2021
Liam James Doyle/NPR

Members of Congress are formally counting the Electoral College votes. A group of Republicans are planning to object to the results, citing false claims of widespread voter fraud. President Trump continues to baselessly claim that he won the election rather than Joe Biden, who is set to be sworn into office on Jan. 20.

Billy Graham's Legacy Threatened By Family Split

By Tom Fiedler & AVL Watchdog • Nov 12, 2020

For the Rev. Franklin Graham, the scathing editorial in Christianity Today last year calling his friend Donald Trump “a leader of grossly immoral character” and urging that Trump be “removed from office” was heretical.

WATCH: Biden Victory Speech

By • Nov 7, 2020
Caroline Amenabar/NPR

Joe Biden is addressing the American people as president-elect after a win in Pennsylvania put him over the 270 electoral-vote threshold needed on Saturday.

BPR News Presents: The Porch Episode 002

By • Nov 5, 2020

In this episode, we talk with -

- Dr. Chris Cooper of Western Carolina University, about why partisanship was the biggest winner in this week's elections in North Carolina

- Raul Saldana, the founding director of the new PEAK Academy charter school in Asheville

2020 North Carolina Election Results

By • Nov 2, 2020

2020 NPR Election Live Blog

By • Nov 2, 2020

Nov. 3 is the final voting day of the 2020 election. The presidency as well as several key Senate, House and gubernatorial races are on the line. Follow NPR’s live coverage and results as they come in.

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Lumbee Recognition Act Is Pandering To Win NC Votes Says Eastern Band Chief

By • Oct 23, 2020
Matt Bush

The Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians says both major party presidential candidates are pandering to another tribe in North Carolina in the final days of the election.

2020 WNC Early Voting Guide: Locations, Dates, & Times

By • Oct 13, 2020
Pexels

Early voting in North Carolina runs from Thursday October 15th to Saturday October 31st ahead of the November 3rd general election.  

LIVE COVERAGE: 1st 2020 Presidential Debate

By • Sep 28, 2020
Meg Kelly / NPR

Follow NPR's live coverage of the first 2020 presidential election debate, including fact-checking and analysis. President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are in Cleveland for the event, moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News.  The debate is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. Tuesday

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#NC11: Aggressive Tweets Overshadow Race

By Cory Vaillancourt • Sep 17, 2020
Cory Vaillancourt

Candidates seeking to replace former Congressman Mark Meadows in Western North Carolina have spent plenty of time attacking each other.  It’s gone to a new level now however after controversial tweets resurfaced earlier this month.

BPR News Presents: #NC11 Congressional Candidate Forum

By • Sep 17, 2020
Matt Bush / Blue Ridge Public Radio

On September 4th and 5th Blue Ridge Public Radio in partnership with Smoky Mountain News and Mountain Xpress held two forums with the major party candidates for the currently vacant seat in North Carolina's 11th Congressional district.  Republican Madison Cawthorn and Democrat Moe Davis faced each other at Western Carolina University's Biltmore Park campus, and then again at the school's main campus in Cullowhee.  Cory Vaillancourt of Smoky Mountain News and BPR moderated. 

#NC11: From Military Prosecutor To Congressional Candidate

By Tom Fiedler & AVL Watchdog • Sep 7, 2020
(Photo courtesy of candidate)

For Air Force Colonel Morris Davis, a career military lawyer, the assignment he won in 2005 could solidify his opportunity to become a general.  The North Carolina native – and now the Democratic candidate for North Carolina’s 11th congressional district -- was named chief prosecutor of the alleged al Qaeda terrorists imprisoned at the US Navy base in Guantanamo, Cuba where they were subject to military justice. 

North Carolina Is The First To Mail Out Mail-In Ballots

By • Sep 3, 2020

North Carolina will be one of the state’s that decides this fall’s presidential election, plus which party controls the U.S. Senate.  It also has one of the most watched gubernatorial elections in the U.S. this fall, plus every seat in the North Carolina General Assembly is on the ballot, all of the council state, seats on county commissions, city councils, town aldermen…you get the point. 

Best In The West: North Carolina 11th District Candidate Forum

By • Sep 2, 2020

Republican Madison Cawthorn and Democrat Moe Davis, candidates for North Carolina's 11th Congressional district seat left vacant by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have both agreed to appear at a two-day joint forum hosted by three of the district’s largest media outlets, Blue Ridge Public Radio, Smoky Mountain News, and Mountain Xpress.

#NC11: Cawthorn Mingles With Far-Right Fringe

By Sally Kestin & Tom Fiedler & Peter H. Lewis & AVL Watchdog • Aug 26, 2020

Conservative congressional candidate Madison Cawthorn, scheduled to speak Wednesday at the GOP national convention, traveled to Texas last month to visit a private border wall and echoed discredited child sex trafficking claims promoted by the extremist conspiracy theory movement.

President Trump Visits WNC Farm To Tout COVID Agriculture Program Shortly After Renomination

By & • Aug 23, 2020
Cory Vaillancourt

(9:00 p.m. Monday) - Shortly after being renominated for a second term, President Donald Trump visited Western North Carolina Monday afternoon to tout an agricultural program created to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

#NC11: Candidate’s Claim Creates False Impression

By Tom Fiedler & AVL Watchdog • Aug 11, 2020

The narrative created by Republican congressional-candidate Madison Cawthorn paints a picture of a bright, young man headed to the U.S. Naval Academy until he was severely injured in an auto crash.

#NC11: Cawthorn Takes A Hard-Right Turn

By Tom Fiedler & AVL Watchdog • Aug 10, 2020

When then 24-year-old Madison Cawthorn easily defeated a Trump-backed rival to capture the GOP nomination in Western North Carolina’s 11th congressional district, he declared that his mission would be to rescue his party from a “generational time bomb.”

2020 Election: Fundraising, Polls, Rinse & Repeat

By • Jul 23, 2020

With the presidential nominating conventions all but washed out for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, political junkies have to settle for two things that are the bread and butter of the downtime in campaigns - fundraising totals and polls.

#NC11 Runoff Analysis: How Much Of An Upset Was It Really?

By • Jun 24, 2020
Helen Chickering

Madison Cawthorn's overwhelming win Tuesday in the runoff election for the Republican looks like an upset, as the 24-year-old finished second to Lynda Bennett in the March 3rd primary.  His win Tuesday by a 2-to-1 margin wasn't as unexpected as it looks, though the vote totals were.

#NC11 Runoff: Cawthorn Trounces Bennett To Take GOP Nomination

By & Cory Vaillancourt • Jun 24, 2020
Cory Vaillancourt

Madison Cawthorn, who would be the youngest member of Congress should he be elected this fall, trounced fellow Republican Lynda Bennett in Tuesday's runoff election to win the GOP nomination for North Carolina's 11th Congressional district.  He'll face Democrat Moe Davis in the November general election.

NC11 GOP Runoff Election Results

By • Jun 23, 2020

A Runoff In A Pandemic: How NC11 Could Foreshadow How State & Nation Vote This Fall

By • May 26, 2020

In less than a month, voters in Western North Carolina decide the Republican nomination in the 11th Congressional District.  Outside of whether Lynda Bennett or Madison Cawthorn wins on June 23rd, how voters cast their ballots during a pandemic will be a major takeaway from the race - and a potential foreshadow of how prevalent mail-in voting will be for the November general election.

Mark Meadows' Political Protege Calls For Reopening State's Economy Despite Health Risks

By Tom Fiedler & AVL Watchdog • May 1, 2020

Republican congressional-candidate Lynda Bennett, who hopes to win the District 11 seat recently vacated by her political patron Mark Meadows, is calling for an immediate end to North Carolina’s stay-home order, calling pandemic restrictions an infringement “on our rights and freedom.”

WNC Politics Roundup: Polls, Delays, And What It Means Having No Member Of Congress

By • Apr 26, 2020
Matt Bush / Blue Ridge Public Radio

Most of Western North Carolina is going through the COVID-19 pandemic without a member of Congress following the resignation of Mark Meadows on March 30th to become President Donald Trump's chief of staff.  That means the 11th Congressional District seat for North Carolina is vacant - and will remain that way for most if not all of the rest of 2020.

LIVE ANALYSIS: Biden And Sanders Debate

By • Mar 15, 2020
Angela Hsieh / NPR

Only two candidates will be onstage for Sunday's Democratic primary debate: former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The CNN-Univision debate was relocated from Arizona to Washington, D.C., and will not have an in-person audience due to coronavirus concerns.

LIVE COVERAGE: Super Tuesday 2020

By • Mar 2, 2020
Caroline Amenabar / NPR

Fourteen states (including North Carolina) and one U.S. territory hold presidential primaries Tuesday.  

LIVE COVERAGE: 2020 South Carolina Primary

By • Feb 27, 2020
Caroline Amenabar / NPR

The Democratic presidential primary candidates are competing in South Carolina on Saturday, hoping to win over voters in the fourth contest of 2020. 

LIVE ANALYSIS: South Carolina Democratic Presidential Debate

By • Feb 25, 2020
Angela Hsieh / NPR

Democratic presidential hopefuls are on stage in South Carolina ahead of that state’s primary. The candidates’ battle follows Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wins in the New Hampshire primary and the Nevada caucuses. 

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