NC’s Chris Cooper Makes Sense of Political Patterns and Players

View This Email In Your Browser

Good morning, readers. 

North Carolina’s resident political pundit Chris Cooper hopes that his upcoming book, Anatomy of a Purple State, can help address “our increasing obsession with national politics at the expense of state politics.”

Ahead of the book’s release, I called Cooper to ask about the rural-urban divide, the rise of unaffiliated voters, and if he is related to Gov. Roy Cooper (he’s not). 

My favorite of Cooper’s answers came in response to the question “Why should we care about state politics?”

Cooper: “State politics can impact your life so much more than national politics. For almost every policy that we care about, except foreign policy, the states are where the action is. 

Do you care about abortion? For good or bad, the states are the ones making those decisions. If you care about higher education funding—maybe you think there should be less, maybe you think there should be more—it’s the states, not the national government, that matters. If you care about K-12 education, it’s the states. If you care about your insurance rates, it’s the states that make those decisions. 

And your influence is greater [in state politics]. If you try to get 30 minutes with your member of Congress, it’s going to be tough. You have 750,000 people competing for that person’s time. If you want to get a few minutes with your local member of the North Carolina House, your odds are a lot higher. We have 14 members of Congress but 120 members in the state house. You can get to the decision makers a lot easier. 

Every way in which we can measure influence, states are where it’s at. If you want to know about the place where the real issues are decided, it’s state politics.”

Read more of Cooper’s insights here. And have a good Tuesday. 

—Chase 

---

---

Durham

Durham Public Schools started the new academic year with a bus driver shortage.

Wake

The Raleigh City Council could vote to relocate Red Hat Amphitheater and close South Street to traffic at its meeting today. Does it have the votes for approval?

Four different health care systems want to build hospitals in fast-growing Wake County.

Orange

Here’s how UNC-Chapel Hill is reallocating $5.39 million it previously had designated for DEI initiatives.

North Carolina

The two candidates for NC Labor Commissioner have starkly different approaches to issues such as workplace safety and workplace inspector vacancies.

---

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

---