North Carolina
Meet the volunteers trying to 'Flip' North Carolina's courts
It all started with Donald Trump’s win in 2016. After the election, a group of shellshocked progressive Durham Democrats met at a bar to commiserate over their loss.
“We just were obviously horrified post-2016 election,” said Andrea Cash. “And that was the real moment of, ‘What are we going to do?’”
What they did was create FLIP NC, an all-volunteer grassroots organization co-founded by Amy Cox and Briana Brough. For the next year they knocked on 20,000 doors and sent 250,000 text messages to prospective voters in legislative districts that were competitive in the 2018 elections. Two years later, they worked even harder, making 400,000 calls and sending 1.4 million text messages to prospective voters.
FLIP’s focus in its first few elections was winning competitive seats up for grabs in the legislature. Volunteers wanted to end gerrymandering, and put legislators in office who were not going to draw districts skewed toward a specific political party.
“We want to be able to fight on a fair playing field for our progressive values, and it doesn’t feel like we can do that in North Carolina without fair maps,” Cox said.
But after the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld Republican lawmakers’ gerrymandered maps last year — the high court’s Republican majority reversed a ruling issued by a Democratic majority just months earlier — it became clear to FLIP NC volunteers that they’d need to focus on different races in the 2024 election: those for seats in the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
“We can’t get fair maps,” Cox said. “Now we have to flip the court, then the legislature, so that we can get fair maps in 2030.”
Democrats cannot retake control of the state Supreme Court this year. Only one seat is up for election, the one currently occupied by Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat. Even if Riggs wins, Democrats will still be outnumbered by the Republicans 5-2.
But if organizers like FLIP NC protect Riggs’ seat, protect Justice Anita Earls’ in 2026, and then flip two of the three seats up for election in 2028, Democrats will regain control of North Carolina’s high court — just in time for redistricting in 2030, when the maps will be redrawn once again.
“We need judges who are fair and who are not motivated by these extreme partisan aims, which I think is what we have now,” Brough said. “We focus on the courts because if we don’t have judges who are going to protect the rights of citizens, then we are not going to ever be able to stop the gerrymandering.”
FLIP NC’s efforts are aligned with the state Democratic Party’s. Earlier this year, Anderson Clayton, the party chair, vowed to put more attention and resources on the judicial races this November. After getting swept in recent statewide judicial races, Clayton said in January the party would hire a judicial coordinating campaign director, a specialist she said the Republicans have had for years.
FLIP’s ethos also echoes public comments made by Riggs, the Supreme Court justice and candidate herself. In a virtual forum in January, Riggs said she wasn’t just running to keep her seat. She was campaigning for the long game, talking to voters about Democratic judges’ values in an attempt to build “the pipeline to ensure that when we have the chance, we win back our courts in 2028.”
‘These races matter’
FLIP NC volunteers practice a “deep canvassing” style, prioritizing conversational flow over strict adherence to a script. They still hit the highlights, the stakes of the judicial races, but they ask voters what issues matter to them and talk about how judges’ decisions impact their everyday lives.
“It’s not transactional. It’s going to the door and asking, ‘What issues matter to you?’” said Cash, FLIP NC’s director of communications.
“Ideally, we want the voter to talk more than we’re talking,” Cox said. “It’s not just delivering information at them. It’s listening.”
They pass along an information sheet that gives general details about the political makeup of the state Supreme Court, and another that details how the Republican judges have ruled on key issues, inviting prospective voters to learn about how GOP Supreme Court justices blocked almost $700 million in public school funding and restored a voter ID law that a Democratic majority on the high court had deemed unconstitutional just months earlier. Their website makes note of Republican justices’ cozy relationship with corporations and the threat they can pose to reproductive rights.
“This court feels very corrupt, and people don’t know about it,” said Cox.
FLIP NC hosts a monthly canvas in Durham. Their next one is May 19. They are planning on hosting others in Asheville, Raleigh and Wendell in the coming months. And they are open to doing more throughout the state, should they find volunteers interested in helping spread the word throughout, or outside of, The Triangle.
“We hope to host more canvasses if we have other volunteers who can bring them to other areas,” said Cox.
For this year’s election, volunteers have knocked on 1,500 doors in Durham over two canvass sessions. Three issues they keep hearing about from voters: abortion, housing and education.
“We train volunteers to have the information about how the judges are ruling on all of these things,” Cox said.”[But] delivering that is not the most important thing. We want people to feel heard and we want them to come away with, ‘These races matter.’”
Turnout tends to be higher in presidential election years than in the midterms, but FLIP NC is trying to convince North Carolinians to fill out the entire ballot, not just tick the box for who they want to be president.
“We even saw that in the Democratic primary in March, people who voted in the presidential and then dropped off and didn’t vote in the governor’s [race,] didn’t vote in the Supreme Court [race,]” Cash said. “It’s just not a given that everyone who goes to the polls will fill out the full ballot.”
Despite the challenge, Cash, Cox and Brough are optimistic, if cautious. They are excited about the direction of the Democratic Party’s leadership and its candidates. But that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten their despair after Trump’s victory in 2016, the election that led to FLIP NC’s genesis.
“I will never again be flagrantly optimistic about elections,” Brough said. “I just think you need to fight for every inch, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
RALEIGH — NC State replaced Kevin Keatts with Will Wade in March 2025, introducing him 368 days ago in front of the Wolfpack community at Reynolds Coliseum. A little over a year later, Wade decided to leave his new program to return to LSU, the school that fired him for cause in 2022, beginning a long journey back to Power Four basketball.
Now, athletic director Boo Corrigan and the rest of the NC State administration must find a new leader for the men’s basketball program. To make matters more complicated, they won’t have a lot of time to do so, as the new head coach needs to be in place firmly before April 7, the day the transfer portal opens. However, early noise indicates the group in charge has eyes on two candidates.
Who are the candidates?
According to multiple reports, Corrigan and other power brokers at NC State zeroed in on Saint Louis head coach Josh Schertz and Tennessee associate head coach Justin Gainey as the primary two candidates for the opening. Both names were expected to be in the mix as soon as the Wade exit became more and more likely, although Corrigan shared no specific names during his Thursday press conference.
The NC State University Board of Trustees hosted an emergency meeting on Friday, with the primary subject being Wade’s buyout negotiation. Of course, speculation began quickly that there were discussions about the next coach of the Wolfpack, but that’s been confirmed not to be the case in the behind-closed-doors meeting for the board.
NC State Board of Trustees emergency meeting related to change in term of Will Wade’s buyout (from $5M to $4M, as AD Boo Corrigan said yesterday) not a new coach hire. Quickly went into closed session. No public business.
— Brian Murphy (@murphsturph) March 27, 2026
Even so, it seems as though NC State plans on making a strong push for Schertz first, despite his status as head coach at Saint Louis still and his recent agreement to a contract extension. That certainly makes things more complicated, but hiring Schertz would allow NC State to maintain any sort of positive momentum established by Wade and his regime in Raleigh. Still, Corrigan isn’t totally committed to a sitting head coach.
“I don’t think it has to be a sitting head coach at this point,” Corrigan said. “I think we want to find someone that knows how to coach and is a great coach, and has the ability to connect with people, both internal and external, with the players, be able to recruit. You have to be a good recruiter in this day and age.”
NC State will move as quickly as it possibly can, with Gainey and Schertz atop the list. That doesn’t rule out other options entirely, but all signs point to one of them being the most likely to be the next coach of the Wolfpack, ending the Will Wade era as quickly as it started.
A planned offshore wind project off North Carolina’s coast that could have powered roughly 300,000 homes has been scrapped after the federal government agreed to spend nearly $1 billion to halt its development, a decision that is drawing sharp reactions and raising questions about future energy costs in the state.
Under the agreement, the French energy company TotalEnergies will be reimbursed for leases it purchased in federal waters near Bald Head Island. In exchange, the company will redirect that investment into oil and natural gas projects, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) production.
The move comes as electricity demand in North Carolina and across the Southeast is rising, driven by population growth and the rapid expansion of energy-intensive data centers.
Energy analysts say removing a major potential source of power from the pipeline could have lasting implications.
“I think folks are trying to figure out how to reconcile this with the fact that we do need more electrons on the grid,” said Katharine Kollins, president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition. “Every state right now is looking at how we can develop more energy, not how we should be taking options off the table.”
The canceled project, known as Carolina Long Bay, was one of two offshore wind developments TotalEnergies had planned along the East Coast. The North Carolina portion alone would have generated about 1,300 megawatts of electricity and brought significant economic development to the region.
State leaders were quick to criticize the decision. In a post on X, Gov. Josh Stein said the Trump administration is “spending nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money to pay off a company to stop investments in the clean energy we need,” calling it “a terrible deal for the people of North Carolina and our country.”
The Interior Department, which negotiated the agreement, defended the move, saying offshore wind projects are too costly and unreliable to meet the nation’s energy needs. In a statement, officials said redirecting investment toward natural gas would provide “affordable, reliable and secure energy” while strengthening grid stability.
The debate reflects a broader divide over how to meet growing electricity demand while keeping costs down.
Offshore wind projects typically require high upfront investment but have no fuel costs once operational. Fossil fuel plants rely on fuel that can fluctuate in price.
“Using a billion dollars of taxpayer money to remove an option for North Carolina and then require that company to invest in LNG just doesn’t feel right,” Kollins said.
She and other advocates argue that offshore wind could help stabilize energy prices over time by diversifying the state’s power mix, particularly during periods of high demand or fuel volatility.
The federal government and industry leaders backing the deal say natural gas offers a more dependable source of power, especially as the grid faces increasing strain.
Part of that shift now points to LNG, which is traded on a global market. That means prices can rise or fall based on international demand, geopolitical tensions and export levels — dynamics that do not affect wind energy.
The cancellation also highlights uncertainty around offshore wind development in North Carolina. Duke Energy, the state’s largest utility, holds a neighboring lease in the same area but paused development last year as it reevaluated costs and policy conditions.
As state regulators and utilities map out how to meet future demand, the loss of Carolina Long Bay narrows the range of options.
For residents, the stakes may ultimately show up in monthly bills.
“When we limit our choices,” Kollins said, “we limit our ability to control costs.”
The North Carolina Tar Heels were a first-round exit in this year’s NCAA Tournament, but that does not mean that what transpires the rest of the way does not matter for the program.
It has been less than a week since the Tar Heels blew a 19-point lead in the second half against the VCU Rams, en route to an 82-78 loss in overtime. The result has raised doubts about Hubert Davis’ future as North Carolina’s head coach.
With all of that being said, here are a couple of things the Tar Heels should be wishing to happen later this week in the Sweet 16.
Duke Falls Short
The North Carolina-Duke rivalry is arguably the best one in all of sports. It was a tantalizing matchup the first time these two squared off this year, with Caleb Wilson and Cameron Boozer going head-to-head, as both players are expected to be selected in the top five of the 2026 NBA Draft.
However, the discrepancy between the two teams was apparent, even though the Tar Heels split the season series. The Blue Devils entered the NCAA Tournameent as the No. 1-overall seed in the entire field, while the Tar Heels limped into the field as a six-seed.
While North Carolina would obviously prefer playing in the upcoming round, which starts on Thursday night, nothing would make Tar Heels fans happier than to see Duke fall to St. John’s in the Sweet 16.
The Blue Devils have been playing with fire in the first two rounds, at various points, but they ultimately advanced to the second weekend of the tournament. St. John’s is a formidable opponent that could legitimately take down Duke.
One of the Teams With a Legitimate Head Coaching Option To Lose
It has been well-documented that North Carolina is likely to be in the coaching market, as Davis appears to be on his way out in Chapel Hill. If this occurs, the Tar Heels need to make a substantial hire that will elevate the program back to competing for national championships.
There will be a slew of options for North Carolina to consider, but two names to keep an eye on are Iowa State’s T.J. Otzelberger and Alabama’s Nate Oats. You may be asking yourself, ‘Why should North Carolina be rooting for potential head coach candidates to lose?’
Here’s why: the transfer portal opens on April 7, and ideally, North Carolina would want its presumed new head coach in place well before then. Those coaches will not be the only two to watch for, but they are arguably the most ideal.
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