Longleaf Podcast
Channel Details
Longleaf Podcast
North Carolina’s top political news podcast. Every day, we bring you news and commentary from the reasonable right of center. The Longleaf Podcast is a production of Longleaf Politics, the smartest way to follow North Carolina political news and information.
Recent Episodes
46 episodes"Red for Ed" rally underwhelms
The N.C. Association of Educators predicted 50,000 teachers or more marching on Raleigh. The crowds were less than a tenth of that size. We also touch...
The weirdest argument against the "Born Alive" act
As the Senate considers an override of Gov. Cooper's veto on the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, an unusual argument has emerged against...
Poking holes in N.C. Democrat legislative priorities
We break down the problems with the 11 bills the state Democratic Party has listed as representative of their policy proposals.
Important House budget proposals you won't read in the news
The N.C. House is rolling out its budget priorities for the 2019 biennium, and there's a lot to digest. We go through a couple important elements that...
Will House Bill 2 be a campaign issue in 2020?
The answer is yes, but not in the way you might expect.
Early voting begins. Who goes negative in the 9th?
We record live from the early voting polls as the 9th Congressional District special election gets underway. Candidates are going negative on one pers...
Political fact-checking is broken in North Carolina
The concept of "fact-checking" was pretty revolutionary when it was popularized by PolitiFact in 2007. But over time, its meaning has diminished — par...
Club for Growth makes big endorsement
Plus will Republicans have time to come together and win back the executive mansion?
Jeff Jackson challenging Tillis ... at least on Twitter
State Sen. Jeff Jackson wades into the Mueller debate and the National Association of Realtors PAC drops $1.3 million in a primary.
What the “Born Alive” act is really about
After Gov. Cooper vetoed the Born Alive act, the rhetoric quickly got out of control. We parse what this bill is actually about.
"Born Alive" opponents can't get story straight
As the "Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act" heads to Gov. Cooper's desk, we look into the two contradictory counterarguments being put forward by the l...
Dan Bishop leads the $$ race
We take our first look at first quarter fundraising filings in the 9th Congressional District then touch on a strong statement from Iredell-Statesvill...
Why Dallas Woodhouse just announced he’ll step down
NCGOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse said today he’ll leave the job in June when his contract expires. It’s not really a surprise, and we discuss...
What the NCGOP needs in its next chairperson
We catch up with Lawrence Shaheen, a Charlotte attorney and recently elected chairman of the Mecklenburg County Young Republicans. The Meck YRs recent...
Wake, Meck schools cave to striking teachers
North Carolina's two largest school districts — Wake and Mecklenburg — have now both said they'll cancel classes on May 1 to allow teachers to attend...
Does N.C. REALLY want a third party? | Secret Medicaid expansion | Voter ID “fix”
We go over a few of the day's top headlines, including a Meredith poll that says both Republicans and Democrats think we need a viable third party in...
Will Charlotte-Mecklenburg consolidation ever happen?
For decades now, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have been talking about consolidating their governments. They've taken small steps forward, coordina...
We need more $ in politics, not less
Usually, the media reports on political contributions as something underhanded and nefarious. And yes, it’s important to watchdog money in politics —...
Why N.C. can’t seem to have an honest conversation about education
North Carolina can’t seem to have an honest conversation about education. We’ll get into why. First, the media unfairly paints the NCGOP as out to des...
Will the Robin Hayes scandal spread?
A day after NCGOP chairman Robin Hayes was indicted along with a major political donor, the big questions is: Who else might get wrapped up in the sca...
Robin Hayes INDICTED. Is there a silver lining for the NCGOP?
The Longleaf Podcast is back in a new format! North Carolina’s best political commentary on the day’s top news. Today, we take on Robin Hayes’ indictm...
Episode 025: Fording Cross Creek with Matt Richardson
We chat with the author of Cumberland County's new political blog Cross Creek Divide on the state of Fayetteville politics, Cumberland as a bellwether...
Episode 024: What Democrats get wrong about gerrymandering
Is it gerrymandering or geography? In this episode, we take on the most common counterarguments to the piece in this week's Longleaf Politics newslett...
Episode 023: 5 ways to stay involved in politics after the election
The 2018 elections had extraordinarily high turnout for a midterm year. Thousands more people, from all political persuasions, were involved. Here are...
Episode 022: Bad candidates
We're back with a mini-episode about candidates for political office who aren't just flawed, but actually on record saying reprehensible things. A rec...
Episode 021: Biggest winners and losers of the 2018 elections
Now that the dust has settled a little bit from Election Night, we spend this episode breaking down the biggest winners and biggest losers from the mi...
Episode 020: A 4-minute recap of North Carolina's midterm elections
We run through the 5 top stories to come out of the 2018 midterm elections in North Carolina. The biggest: Republicans have lost their supermajority i...
Episode 019: DECODED — Why the national media writes hit pieces on N.C. politics
This is the first episode on a new series I'm calling DECODED. We'll break down stories in the national or regional media about North Carolina politic...
Episode 018: Improving political discourse with Indiv
The team at Indiv has sponsored this podcast for the last few months, and this week we wanted to bring you the story of how the app came about and how...
Episode 017: How to keep campaigns civil + bold predictions for 2018
With 10 days remaining until Election Day, we catch up with North Carolina political experts Tonya Jameson (Democrat) and Lawrence Shaheen (Republican...
Episode 016: Breaking down N.C.'s extraordinary early voting totals
We speak with Michael Bitzer, political science professor at Catawba College, about this year's early voting. Bitzer is doing a phenomenal job breakin...
Episode 015: Do local electeds need longer terms?
Charlotte's City Council is again proposing increasing the length of their terms from two years to four years, saying that they are not able to be eff...
Episode 014: Running for judge in a new era
We speak with Paulina Havelka, a Republican in Mecklenburg County, on her race for District Court judge, how new districts created by the General Asse...
Episode 013: How young people will shape the GOP
We spend this episode with Catherine Whiteford, national committeewoman of the North Carolina Federation of Young Republicans and a candidate for Nort...
Episode 012: How to get off the fence and run for office
We speak with Susan Harden, a Democratic candidate for a district seat on the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners. She's one of a groundswell of...
Episode 011: N.C.'s boldest education experiment
We talk with two of the leaders of the Innovative School District effort to turn around chronically underperforming schools just a few days after thei...
Episode 010: On the road with Sen. Jeff Jackson
We catch Sen. Jeff Jackson in between campaign stops as he works to help Democrats break the Republican majority in the General Assembly. We talk abou...
Episode 009: The "bombshell" congressional district ruling
We unpack the federal court decision that's thrown the 2018 elections into disarray with Professor Michael Bitzer of Catawba College and Republican po...
Episode 008: Toll lanes a "dead end," says Sen. Jeff Tarte
We go in-depth on the I-77 toll lane contract debate with Sen. Jeff Tarte, a Cornelius Republican and outspoken opponent of the "managed lanes" concep...
Episode 007: How Indivisible NC is working in Southport
We speak with Martha Johnson, who created the Indivisible NC affiliate in Southport — called Southport Indivisible - Stepping Forward. We go under the...