Michael McElroy is Cardinal & Pine’s political correspondent. He is an adjunct instructor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, and a former editor at The New York Times.
Michael McElroy
Latest from Michael McElroy
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NC lawmakers return to Raleigh vowing to work together, but with an uncertain road ahead
The North Carolina General Assembly opened its new year with suggestions of bipartisan cooperation, even as they return to the site of several contentious debates. Republicans have lost their supermajority in the NC House, so will that sense of working together last or just fade into the din? Here’s what you need to know.
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Conservative voices join the outcry against Jefferson Griffin’s effort to overturn his election loss
A Republican angering Democrats in a fight over voting rights is one thing. But a Republican causing several conservative voices to align with Democrats against them highlights just how unprecedented Griffin’s effort is.
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NC Supreme Court stalls Jefferson Griffin’s effort to overturn his election loss, but hints at a long road ahead
The court ruled that Griffin improperly attempted to bypass a lower court when he petitioned the issue directly to them, and ordered the case sent to the Wake County Superior Court, which, by law, should have gotten first crack. And now, a case that has dragged well into the new year has no end in…
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The billionaires surrounding Donald Trump at his inauguration suggest who will most benefit from his second term
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to immediately end inflation and to make gas, food, and healthcare more affordable for the middle class, but the image of Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk standing front and center during the inauguration suggested the middle class might not be on his priority list.
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On Tuesday, advocates will read the names of all 60,000 voters Jefferson Griffin wants to erase
A grassroots group and many of the lawful voters whose votes are being questioned will gather in the cold to read each name. Temperatures before dawn on Tuesday are expected to fall below 30 degrees in Raleigh, a data point you might assume has nothing to do with Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin’s attempt to erase…
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Could NC enact more abortion restrictions in 2025?
Republicans no longer have a supermajority in the NC House, but they need only one Democrat to join them, or to simply miss a vote, to still be able to override a veto from Josh Stein. And while Republican leaders have suggested they don’t expect a push for further restrictions in 2025, Democrats say they’ve…
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‘We shouldn’t be here’: Effort to throw out votes in NC Supreme Court race threatens election integrity, Riggs says
Justice Allison Riggs sat down with Cardinal & Pine this week to discuss her opponent’s challenges to 60,000 votes.
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Losing NC Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin asks the court to overrule the voters and name him the winner
Jefferson Griffin, the Republican who lost the NC Supreme Court election, is seeking an unprecedented thing from the court he ran for. He wants them to change the outcome of an election.
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Duke Energy’s plan to delay vital carbon emissions goal is accepted
Duke Energy, one of the worst contributors to climate change in the country, successfully convinced the North Carolina Utilities Commission to let it push a key 2030 deadline to at least 2032, but environmental advocates warn that there’s little time left to run out the clock on this urgent issue.
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Griffin’s attempt to invalidate 60,000 votes in NC Supreme Court Race ‘simply cannot be tolerated,’ elections official says
Most of the challenges are of voters whose driver’s license or partial social security number information aren’t included in a state registration database. But there are many reasons that those details could be missing from the database, and the vast majority of voters disenfranchised by such a culling would be lawfully registered voters.





















