The lay of the 2026 election land in NC (09-30-2025--Hour1)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeakclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. It's Tuesday, it's noon, you know that, But that also means we talk to Andrew Dunn. He is a contributing columnist over at the Charlotte Observer as well as the Roleigh News and Observer, and I forget the third paper that they own, the McClatchy outfit. But also he is. The publisher of Longleaf Politics longleafpol dot com. Andrew, how are you today, sir? I'm well, always good to talk to you. Pete. Do you remember do you know the name of the third newspaper? Is it the. Durham That's what I thought, Durham Harold's son. Okay, so you were at the North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition Salt and Light conference this weekend. So first, for people who don't know what that is, tell folks what that is. Yeah, I mean, basically, it's a huge gathering of national conservative figures from around the country. Everyone comes down to Marion, North Carolina up there in the mountains for a full weekend of speeches and worship and networking and all sorts of good stuff. And put on by Jason Williams and Jim Quick and more than what two thousand attendees. You say were there this weekend, And you moderated a panel discussion with some state lawmakers, and I wanted to ask you two quick things on that. You said that you talked with them about potential follow up legislation to Arena's Law. So what came out of that conversation. Yeah, So that was a great panel that I had the honor of leading. With two House members and two Senate leaders. I was able to kind of diffuse some of the bomb throwing over the budget, thankfully. But yeah, you're right, I mean, that was one of the big things that I drilled down on. Is all right, So Arena's Law has been passed by the General Assembly, it's still kind of unconscionable to me that Governor Stein hasn't signed it, but we can talk about that in a little bit. But I wanted to ask them about, all right, so what comes next? You know, we talked about last week and I think the week before too, how Arena's law is a good start, but it's not everything that we need in North Carolina. And what I heard from the lawmakers is that what they're really focused on in terms of a next step is what do we do with folks who are showing signs of mental illness and signs that they might be a danger to themselves and others. You know, undercurrent state law were kind of limited in what we're able to do. You know, there's limits rightfully, so you know, for you know, civil liberties reasons. You know, you can't just lock somebody up for long periods of time without just cause. But there's there is a gap in there, and there's room to make things better so that people who do pose a risk are not out on the streets well. And one of the things that came up in the House debate on Arena's Law. Marsha Morey retired judge from Durham Durham, and she talked about how all of the guidelines for bail specifically are those are handed down at the local district court level. And I this morning, I went over to the Mecklenburg County Court System website and I pulled our guidelines twenty pages. But some of the stuff that you can walk with cash list bail on are seem pretty egregious, but they're classified as you know, misdemeanor class two level and so they get to just get, you know, a written notice to appear. And this has been a concerted philosophical direction that the local courts have gone in with their adoption of the local guidelines. And so I don't know because on the one hand, Maury was saying, you know, these are local guidelines, it's not the magistrate's fault, and you know, but you guys don't have any guidelines that you're passing as part of Arena's law. But then she turns around and says that she doesn't want the legislature encroaching on the judiciary's responsibilities. So like, I'm unclear, So what we just got to suck it up and live with these cashless bail guidelines. There's no other recourse? Did that at all come up? If there's any kind of I don't know, muscle that the General Assembly could could push. Well, it's worth noting that the General Assembly kind of holds all the cards in North Carolina government, I mean, all cities, all judicial districts, all towns, counties. Everything that they're able to do flows from laws passed by the General Assembly. So it is it is absolutely a concern of the state legislature to take that on. Arena's law does have some provisions around restricting cash list bail for violent offenses, especially, and I think that's perfectly within their purview. I mean, I'm sure there'll be some pushback. You know. The rhetoric that I typically hear around that is that, you know, we don't want to have debtors' prisons, or you know, we don't want people to be stuck in jail just because they're poor when rich people are able to get out. But I think. I'm somewhat sensitive to that. But at the same time, if people are accused of very serious crimes, we need a mechanism. You know, a written promise to appear is just not good enough. You know. We we heard from the congressional hearing yesterday on Monday that you know, a police officer who said that, you know, we arrest these folks and is you know, before we even get done filling out the paperwork, they're already back out on this street, right, And that's just not acceptable. Yeah. Well, and maybe the guidelines need to include some sort of mental health screen. If somebody is brought in and some of the facts of the arrest, you know, it would indicate that the person is suffering from some mental health disorder. Maybe that needs to be part of the guideline. But I mean, one of the. Things I saw stalking so stalk is you can walk if you get taken in for stalking, which seems bizarre to me because that is by definition a threat to somebody else, you know. But yeah, so, like, yeah, I get it. Also the debtors prison kind of argument. I agree with you on that. But if you are a if you're a threat to either yourself or to the public, I think that's a pretty bright line. So it seems like there should be some I don't know, it seems like there should be some movement or clarity on that, I would think. All right, so let me ask you now, because you were you not only moderated this panel where you heroically prevented fisticuffs from breaking out over the budget debate. But you also gave a presentation on what you write up at long leafpol dot com north Carolina's political state of play heading into twenty twenty six, and you note there were only sixty four days to the start of candidate filing, one hundred and fifty seven days to primary election day, four hundred two days until election day twenty twenty six. But who's counting, right except you, I guess. So you said that you hear people say that, oh, there's going to be another blue wave. So why do people think that? Why do they say that? Yeah? I mean, the reason why they say that is because historically, you know, whichever party the president is, his party tends to do poorly in the midterm elections. And we did see some of that in twenty eighteen, especially around the country during President Trump's first term. It was a little bit muted in North Carolina, though, to be fair, Gretz did pick up ten seats in the North Carolina House and at least three or four in the Senate. I can't remember right off the top of my head, but it wasn't an overwhelming shift in North Carolina. But the thing is, you know, I'm skeptical of anybody saying that we're due for a blue wave in North Carolina in twenty twenty six. You know, the dynamics this coming year are just so different from everything we've seen before. You know, the presence of a Senate race on the ballot really changes the dynamics. Your listeners probably remember in twenty eighteen it was the quote unquote blue moon election with no statewide races on the ballot. That's not the case in twenty six. So there's a lot left to be figured out on how things will shake out. But it's not going to be like an election we've seen before. Right, So you got Trump obviously not on the ballot, but kind of sort of on the ballot. I think your assessment that we're essentially going to be asking voters do we want to send somebody to Washington who supports Trump's agenda or somebody who will fight against Trump's agenda. So in that regard, you're looking at the camp or you're looking at Trump's approval numbers and whether people are satisfied with the job he's doing. So much of that is tied into the state of the economy, and if people feel good about what Trump is doing, then that may redound to the benefit of Michael Wattley if he ends up being the nominee from the Republicans. But if you know, if the economy doesn't doesn't do well, if inflation is still a problem, and you talk about real wages in this piece too, that's going to give people, you know, a reason to vote against the Trump agenda. I suspect, yeah, that's exactly right. I mean President Donald Trump's almost his entire argument in twenty twenty four was around fixing the economy and you know, getting inflation under control, et cetera. And so, you know, his success, his party's success in twenty twenty SI is largely going to depend on that. And from the numbers that I'm able to see right now, it's kind of a mixed picture, you know, just looking at Trump's approval rating. I took a look at what President Trump's approval rating in North Carolina is currently and compared it to twenty seventeen during the same time period. And North Carolinians are a lot more satisfied with President Trump this year than they were back in his first term. You know, the latest data point was forty nine percent approval in twenty twenty five versus around thirty three percent or thirty five percent in twenty seventeen. And that's not insignificant. I mean, yes it might. It's slightly underwater, I guess, but that's a pretty you know, for President Trump, that's a really darn good approval rating in North Carolina. And then on the economy, I mean, inflation is starting to tick back up. I mean, we got close to the two percent inflation number the economists and the Federal Reserve aim for, and over the past past few months it's been slowly ticking back up a little bit. But yeah, the real wages is that the one number that I'm looking at the most, and what that is is how much people are making compared with their buying power. So it's all inflation adjusted. And North Carolina is actually bucking the national trend right now. You know, nationally, real wages have increased over the past two years. In North Carolina, they're going down. And that's going to really need to turn around if President Trump and Michael Watley or the Republican nominee for Senator are going to be successful well. And also and last question here I'll just raise with you, is the structural advantage that you talked about Democrats having in North Carolina for so long is basically gone at this point, and so Trump's approval numbers. If you're looking at the voter registration numbers, you've got Republicans that keep adding more and more and more voters. Democrats keep losing more. Voters on affiliateds keep growing. That the largest you know affiliation now, but they tend to vote in a partisan way, and so like it tells me like this is it seems to me like you've got a lot of Republicans coming from other states that are moving here. And we could even see you mentioned Union County is like the top Republican stronghold could even be replaced by some of these counties down east. Yeah, Brunswick County is the new hotbed for new Republican registrations. I mean, they've added fifteen thousand registered Republicans by far the most in the state. But to your point, I think I would be much more willing to say a blue wave could happen in twenty twenty six if it wasn't for the current state of the Democratic Party nationally. I mean, the Democratic Party brand has never been more toxic it is. You know, the approval ratings for Democrats are the lowest they've ever been, you know, not that they're that much higher for Republicans. I mean, the Publican Party in general is somewhat unpopular, but nowhere near as dismal in polls as the Democratic Party. Yeah, Andrew Dunn, appreciate your time as always, sir, have. A great week. Thank you too. H Right, buddy, that's. Andrew Dunn, a publisher of long Leaf Politics longleafpol dot com. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them, they'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. So from Andrew Dunn's piece over at long Leaf Politics, unaffiliated voters are by far the largest voting block, but there are very few independent voters. I always correct people when they say that, oh, I'm registered independent. It's like, yeah, now that's not a thing. You're unaffiliated. You're not independent. There's no such classification in North Carolina as independent. And also when you look at the polling data, unaffiliateds vote for partisan candidates, so they lean right or they lean left, and they have a stronger partisan voting history than even people registered in parties. So it's like oftentimes it's because they're the party that they would otherwise identify with. Isn't isn't strong enough, isn't far enough that you know, like they look at the Republicans and say they're not conservative enough. Democrats or unaffiliated lefties look at the Democrat Party and say they're not lefty enough. Right, So, he mentioned Brunswick County. They got fifty eight thousand registered Republicans there. Union County has seventy one thousand, but Brunswick picked up fifteen thousand new registrants just since twenty twenty. I think this is a lot of retirees. I think there's a lot of people moving from blue states that are Republican voters that are now moving down towards the coast. That's what I think is happening. But he also pointed out Wake County and Mecklenburg County, both Republicans and Democrats are losing voters there or here. Okay by registration, but the declines in the Democrat registration numbers have been steeper, so they're now at their lowest point ever. So that's some good news, he says. In summary, looking at twenty twenty six, you got presidential approval, prices, paychecks, and base turnout. Those are the keys to the twenty sixth election, he says. He talks about it's a pretty lengthy piece. It's a presentation that he did at the Salt and Light Conference. He says Roy Cooper in the polling never cracks fifty percent, which is pretty remarkable because he's a two term governor. And he is stuck in this. Virtual tie with Michael Wattley that most people don't even know. The translation is that this thing is winnable with message, discipline, and a functional ground game that treats unaffiliateds as leaners not unicorns. He then talks about Justice Anita Earls, the most activist judge North Carolina has ever seen. She's on the state Supreme Court. There's going to be a ton of money pouring into this race because it's a setup to try to flip the court majority two years later. In twenty twenty eight. But they need that. Democrats need to hold Anita Earl's seat if they're going to have a chance to flip the Supreme Court in twenty twenty eight. So we'll be watching that as well. So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and before he died, my mom and my dad took care of him as he got worse. Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family. But things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awesome people with huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty five years. This cause means a lot to me. I participate in the annual Walk to end Alzheimer's and I'm leading a Charlotte team again this year, and it's called once again Pete's Pack. You can sign up and you can join the team and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth, that truest field. Sign up at alz dot org slash Walk and then you can search for my team name Pete's Pack. There's also a link at thepetepod dot com. There's also a link in the description of this podcast. Also, I'll be am seeing the Gastonia Walk on October eleventh, and so you can make a team and join that one too, or make a donation and help me hit my goal of five thousand dollars. If you do, I really appreciate it. There are a bunch of other walks all over the Carolinas. You can go to alz dot org slash Walk for all the dates and locations. We're closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's. Can you help us get there? Will you walk with me? For a different future, for families, for more time for treatments. This is why we walk. This from the Blue Ridge Times by Tim Wigginton. Last weekend, Senate candidate former Governor Roy Cooper, a good friend, Ray was spotted by Politico Playbook, which is a gossip publication for the DC Insider set. He was at a wedding of Katie Hendrickson and Drew Cockram. That's that's his name. Katie Hendrickson is a principal at the Vogel Group. The Vogel Group is an international government affairs and consulting firm headquartered in Washington, d C. Serving companies, associations, and asset managers around the world. The Vogel Group lobbies On behalf of a company called Goshen, like Motion, but with a G Goshen. Goshen is a Chinese electrification company, and she recently registered to lobby for in Vida, which was recently exposed for powering the Chai Coom's Deep Seek Ai that is designed to spy on Americans steal our technology and subvert us law. So this is who Roy Cooper was hanging with last weekend. Katie Hendrickson, you see, is the daughter of Thomas Hendrickson. Thomas Hendrickson is a former state Democratic Party chair and leader of Cooper's dark money that promised access to Cooper while he was governor. While her father was running Cooper's dark money operation, Catherine worked as the deputy director of Boards and Commission. What did she do there, Well, she could help find appointments for the donors that were writing the mass of checks to Cooper's re election efforts. Now you see why he got invited to the wedding. Wiggington goes on to point out this is just another example of Cooper's suspicious or as the kids would say, sus relations with the chi Cooms. In twenty seventeen, Cooper recruited a Chinese tire manufacturer to come to North Carolina with one hundred and fifty two million dollars in incentives with a promise of thousands of jobs. In twenty sixteen, before the North Carolina announcement Triangle Tire, the Chinese manufacturer was found guilty of violating American patents, which is shocking a Chinese Communist Party business because they're all chicom businesses over there stealing American patents. Really, I never In twenty twenty two, the company announced that it planned to cancel the project. Would you ever notice whenever they do the big announcements, Governor Cooper gets out there, you know, cuts a ribbon with the ridiculously oversized scissors, and when the deals, these incentive deals fall through, these tax breaks for billionaires and millionaires and corporate handouts, right, these incentive grants that Democrats are always against, all of the tax breaks for all of the corporations, except if I get to hand you the ridiculously large check, right, like the physically large check. It's like six feet long, three feet high, Like if I can give you the check, I think they stop doing that because the pr that is so terrible. So they do like those corporate handouts, especially if you can give it to some business entity that's connected to the Chinese Communist Party. But they announced three years after the big fanfare announcement that actually, yeah, we're not going to We're not going to do the project. The company was started by the Chinese government in nineteen seventy six and still likely maintains close links with the Chinese Communist Party and complies with Chinese's law that require cooperation with the party. Yeah, it's a little known fact over there too. It's like, if you are a business, like anything you're doing, if there's any kind of a nexus to the Communist Party, something that they can utilize, something they need, you're doing tech stuff, they can co opt your stuff, they like, you got to comply with it. So also while Cooper was governor, the amount of farmland owned by Chinese interests grew In twenty ten, No North Carolina farmland was owned by a Chinese interest By the end of twenty four Just four years later, they had amassed fifty thousand acres of North Carolina farmland. That's according to the us DA. So nothing to see there, I'm sure. The Charlotte Ledger reporting on the Mecklimber County Democrat Party endorsing candidates in the November nonpartisan school board race. This is the Mecklenburg County local party, and one of the endorsements is not for the Democrat incumbent in the North mech District one race for a seat on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education. The Democrats are endorsing Charlotta Hatch or Charlotta Charlita. Well, how would you pronounce itha r Litta Charlata. Charlotta Hatch. Anyway, the City of Charlotte's chief data and analytics officer is challenging the incumbent, Melissa Easley, a former teacher you may recall, easily made a bit of news in the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination by making a whole bunch of nasty comments and lies about Charlie Kirk. There's also Bill Fountain. He's a Republican running in that District one race. Now, these are non partisan race, so you're not going to see the d's and the rs next to the candidates' names on the ballot. But when you're waiting in line to vote right, you get people at the polls that walk around and hand out palm cards they're called where it's a list of all of the endorsed candidates by a particular organization or the Democrat Party in this case, and so they're going to be endorsing Charlotta Hatch over the incumbent Melissa Easley. In a notice on its website. Mecklenberg Democrats said that they chose to endorse a single Democrat in each race, quote in order to combat the constant assault on our public education system. Okay, it's a Democrat already holding the seat. Is she assaulting the education system? She's a teacher or a former teacher. The endorsements were based on votes by the Executive Committee mem in the party. Now they also bypassed endorsing Democrat Tony Mhel emehemhel mehel emil. How would you pronounce this e m e h e l mhel anyway? In favor of Anna London. There's no incumbent in that race. And I will tell you why. It's a seat for representing South Charlotte and the Steel Creek area, so southwest Justin Sheeley, a Republican, is also running. Emmahel told The Ledger that she believed quote, the process was skewed from the start. I was told at the beginning of this process that I would not be endorsed. You ready for this? Why? Because I'm an African American? The wait? The Democrats told you that they're not endorsing you because you're black and the district is predominantly white. She would not say who told her that, other than it was a quote well connected member of the Democrat Party. Mecklenburg Democrats endorsed all this is the anti racism party, obviously right. Mecklenberg Democrats endorsed all other Democrats school board incumbents. They also endorsed Democrats Cynthia Stone in her race against incumbent Lisa Kline, who is the board's loan Republican. Six of the nine school board seats are on the ballot in November, along with the municipal races and the referendum. Now, the Charlotte Ledger a couple of months ago, and I've had this in the stack of stuff for a while, they had a very interesting write up on some of the behind the scenes personalities and work and connections and such at Charlotte Mecklenberg Schools and how this is playing a role now in the election. The headline is superintendent's key advisor is backing school board candidates. Game on Week one starts now and every touchdown brings you closer to a payout with Draft Kings sports book and official sports betting partner of the NFL. This isn't just football, It's first touchdown, fireworks anytime. TD rushes live bets that ride every momentum shift that DraftKings every play is your next shot to win. Will the Panthers win? Will we even get a touchdown? New customers bet just five dollars and get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly, plus get over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. So your season starts now. Download the Draft Kings sports book app and use code Pete to get three hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when you place your first bet of five dollars or more plus over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. But you got to use promo code Pete. In partnership with Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why for six seven three nine. In Connecticut, help is available for a problem gambling called eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Play responsibly on behalf of boothill, casino and resort Kansas. Fees may apply in Illinois twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. C Sportsbook dot DraftKings dot Com, Slash Promos NFL Sunday Ticket offer for new subscribers only and auto renews until canceled. Digital games and commercial use excluded. Restrictions apply additional NFL Sunday Ticket terms or at YouTube dot com slash Go Slash NFL Sunday Ticket Slash terms Limited time offer. In a piece by Tony Mescia, He also was the author of the last piece I just read to you. This was from back in July. At a school board meeting in March, first term Charlotte Mecklaburg school board member Melissa Easley told her colleagues that she planned to vote against a proposal to increase a contract by one hundred twenty five thousand dollars for executive coaching services in CMS middle schools. She said the money could be better used, that other programs already did the same thing, and that as a former teacher, she had never heard of the company that CMS was hiring. That company's name is sy d kim Yl Educational Consulting, which is an awful, awful name. That is such a stupid name. It's like this massive acronym syd kim y l sidkim mill sid kim ile. Why why you education consulting and that's the name you come up with? Okay? Anyway, she says, I have never encountered this firm. We're seeing its results in our classroom, and I have been there since twenty eleven. Where is the evidence that this directly impacts our student outcomes? Let's prioritize the spending that directly affects our students and supports our staff that are already tirelessly working in schools easily and two other board members oppose the contract increase, okay, but they were outvoted by a five person board majority that sided with the superintendent, Crystal Hill. Now, two of those three board members who did not vote to approve the contract have candidates running against them, and those opponents are backed by one of Crystal Hill's top advisors, Racky McGregor, who happens to be the husband of Sydkimyl Educational consulting's owner. This stinks. This stinks so bad. Crystal Hill's top advisor, Racky McGregor is married to the owner of this firm that just got a bump in their contract amount, and now Racky McGregor is out there working for campaigns to oust two of the three that voted against the contract increase. Oh and by the way, McGregor had his own thirteen thousand dollars a month CMS consulting contract for working with the superintendent Crystal Hill. He is also a consultant for the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council, a group of influential CEOs and other leaders of more than forty of the Charlotte region's biggest companies, including Atrium Health, Bank of America, Red Ventures, Lows, Duke Energy. The public involvement in school board races by a CMS contractor and advisor so close to the superintendent would be unusual by itself. Top professional staff of local governments typically stay out of local politics, but throw in the matter of the contract for his wife and his ties to Charlotte's most prominent business leaders, and McGregor's involvement appears to some board members and CMS watchers as heavy handed political payback against those who were doing their jobs by questioning CMS expenditures. Now, look, there is. A perfectly reasonable logical explanation for why it looks like this. Okay, there's just hear me out, because it is. That's why it looks like that is because it is. It absolutely is. Of course it is. McGregor appeared in a Facebook video posted by Charlita Hatch when she filed at the Board of Elections to take on Easily. Let's see. In addition to the CMS contracts, as y D kim y L Educational Consultants also received six hundred thousand dollars from Necklenberg County in fiscal year twenty twenty five for social and emotional learning instruction in grades K through eight. According to WFAE, this is a racket. This is essentially money laundering, taking money from taxpayers and funneling it to democrat aligned nonprofits and consultants. Right, six of the nine school board seats are on the ballot in November. You'll recall that Crystal Hill was appointed superintendent in May of twenty twenty three. It was a six to three vote. The three that voted against Hill Easiley, Lisa Klein, who also has a Democrat challenger and Summer None. That's her name, Summer None, not some or none, it's Summer None. McGregor also has ties to the school board race in the Steel Creek area that Summer Nuns district. She was one of two sitting board members to vote against Hill's appointment to superintendent two years ago, and she sided with Easily against the McGregor's wife's contract increase. McGregor is the chairman of the board of workforce development nonprofit Charlotte Works, and the organization's CEO, Anna London, filed to run against Summer Nune on the first day of filing in July. See there's a reason why it looks like they are picking off political opponents of the superintendent is because they are. That is obviously what's going on. You got these three, even the Democrat party sees it. That's what they made their endorsements. Not of Easily and some are none. What happened with her, she decided not to even try to run again. Four days after Anna London entered the race, None announced she would not run for a second term, and she explained why in part by decrying politics. She said, I want to be very clear. I will not put my career, my family, or my reputation at risk because of politics, especially when politics get in the way of doing what's right for kids, teachers, and our community. She said, dysfunction remains on the school board and noted, referring to London, her opponent, that a candidate from my own party filed to run before I had the chance to share my decision, which I find kind of funny here also because it's like, these are non partisan races, that's what they always say, but they're not, like why would you like, why would it matter if it's a member of your own party running against you, the incumbent? Why should that matter? They're nonpartisan races because they are not nonpartisan races. They're just masked. They're hidden. Party identification is hidden from the voters on the ballot. That's it. You can pull all these people's voter cards. You can find out who you know, who the party endorses, find out doing research, finding out what parties these candidates belong to. This idea that the school board is quote nonpartisan, is ridiculous. It always has been ridiculous. But it's a way that you know, Democrats have masked who they you know, their political philosophy on the stuff they just say for the children, for the teachers, and then they just kind of network behind the scenes for their campaigns. Now I mentioned the Republican in the South Charlotte district Kleine. She is also facing a challenge from a Democrat, Cynthia Stone. Kleine says she has no evidence that Racky McGregor is targeting her, but said quote, it is very odd, Yes, it is. It is very odd that the three people who voted against Racky McGregor's wife's contract are now being challenged. I think there's something up with that. Yes, you should think there's something up with that, because there is something up with that obviously. So here's a guy with all these connections in the business world, milking the CMS system for contracts for his wife and himself while advising the superintendent. This is like a hatchetman kind of a gig. That's what this seems like. Airs of Jim Husley waft past my nose. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetekallanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.