Todd Stiefel, Party of One

View This Email In Your Browser

Good morning, readers.

On a recent rainy Tuesday morning, I followed Raleigh’s most eccentric millionaire up Fayetteville Street as he, dressed in a judge’s robe and powdered wig, staged a one-man protest against Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to throw out 60,000 votes in the North Carolina Supreme Court election.

Many people are wondering what they can do to make a positive change these days. Stiefel, 50, just happens to have enough money, time, and energy to be able to try some bizarre things.

I’ve been reporting on Stiefel since the 2024 election, when he launched his own satirical political action committee (PAC), Americans for Prosparody, making a full-time job of ridiculing North Carolina’s most ridiculous candidates. 

The PAC set an AI-generated version of former Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson loose on the airwaves with a $1 million ad buy and partnered with a comedy team to ambush state superintendent candidate Michele Morrow with printouts of her old tweets calling for Barack Obama to be executed. Robinson, in a press conference, called Stiefel “bound and determined to destroy me.”

“The vision is to essentially create a sustainable dark-money group that can use comedy to educate on American corruption, extremism, and authoritarianism,” Stiefel told me. “This was the only way I could figure out to really make a difference and to be happy and to laugh while doing it.”

Stiefel is shouting into the political void. But is anyone listening? Read my profile of Stiefel here. And have a good Monday. 

 —Chase

---

---

Durham

ICYMI: With support from an interfaith group of Duke students, Clean Shelter has so far constructed over 1,000 toilets, showers, tents, and community spaces serving 10,000 people in Gaza. INDY’s Lena Geller spoke to the NGO’s founders while they visited Durham.

Wake

Candidates for Raleigh’s next police chief will be interviewed this evening, WRAL reports.

Orange

The Chapel Hill town council is looking at how to create an “everywhere-to-everywhere greenway network,” connecting bike and pedestrian routes across town, WCHL reports.

North Carolina

President Trump’s reported plans to cut 84 percent of the staff at a Department of Housing and Urban Development office would hinder distribution of hurricane relief to hard-hit Western NC communities, Inside Climate News reports.

---

If you’d like to advertise your business to the Daily’s 30,000-plus subscribers, please contact [email protected]

---