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![Clayton Henkel](https://ncnewsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/clayton-henkel-300x300.jpg)
Deputy Editor Clayton Henkel manages the NC Newsline website and daily newsletter, while also producing daily audio commentaries and the weekly News and Views radio program/podcast.
NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
As Kamala Harris looks to make history, leaders tell NC women it’s their turn to make history too
By: Clayton Henkel - September 3, 2024
Thirty-two years ago, ‘The Year of the Woman’ was a popular label given to the outcome of the 1992 elections when a sizeable number of women were elected to U.S. Senate and U.S. House. That description was used again following the 2018 elections. This year, as Kamala Harris tries to become the first Black woman […]
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kody Kinsley on a landmark effort to erase medical debt
By: Clayton Henkel - September 2, 2024
It’s a sobering fact that one of the largest sources of consumer debt in North Carolina and across the nation is unpaid medical bills. Of course, no one gets sick or accumulates healthcare debt on purpose, but for most average households – including those with health insurance coverage – even a brief hospital stay can […]
Women’s healthcare advocate Amber Gavin on the state of reproductive healthcare
By: Clayton Henkel - September 2, 2024
It’s been more than two years now since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion care and more than a year since North Carolina enacted a 12-week ban on the procedure – this on top of a raft of other burdensome and medically unnecessary restrictions. So, what can we say about what’s […]
Democrats, education advocates link Morrow to Robinson, describe threat to public schools
By: Clayton Henkel and Rob Schofield - August 29, 2024
A coalition of Democratic elected officials, educators, parents and progressive advocates gathered in Raleigh on Thursday to sound alarm bells over what they say is a profound threat to public education posed by North Carolina’s Republican nominees for governor and superintendent of public instruction. The group, which calls itself the Coalition Against Robinson’s Extremism (C.A.R.E.) […]
Sarah Ovaska on the state of voting rights in the South
By: Clayton Henkel - August 26, 2024
It seldom comes as a surprise when laws negatively impacting people of color are enacted in the American South and a new report from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice provides the latest list of sobering examples. The report, which is entitled “State of the South: Voting Rights Under Assault,” documents how voters of color […]
Meech Carter with the NC League of Conservation Voters discusses clean energy and climate change
By: Clayton Henkel - August 26, 2024
As Tropical Storm Debby reminded North Carolinians in powerful and sobering fashion once again earlier this month, climate change continues to progress and grow more serious. While no one can say that any particular storm is a byproduct of climate change, scientists do say loudly and without equivocation that climate change is making hurricanes and […]
Weekend reads: Elections heat up in swing-state NC
By: Clayton Henkel - August 25, 2024
Latest poll gives Stein a double-digit lead over Robinson in NC’s governor’s race By Clayton Henkel A new High Point University/SurveyUSA Poll shows Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic nominee for governor, leading Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson by 14 percentage points in North Carolina’s closely watched governor’s race. The online poll of more than […]
Latest poll gives Stein a double-digit lead over Robinson in NC’s governor’s race
By: Clayton Henkel - August 22, 2024
A new High Point University/SurveyUSA Poll shows Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic nominee for governor, leading Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson by 14 percentage points in North Carolina’s closely watched governor’s race. The online poll of more than 1,000 North Carolina registered voters found 48% favored Stein and 34% supporting Robinson. Eighteen percent say […]
Robinson focuses on immigration, drugs in releasing public safety plan
By: Clayton Henkel - August 21, 2024
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, released his public safety plan in Statesville on Wednesday. Robinson pledged if elected he would stand with law enforcement, reject efforts to defund the police, and reinstate the death penalty for those convicted of killing police and corrections officers. Robinson said that he would work with […]
Veteran NC political consultant Thomas Mills on the shifting energy in the presidential race
By: Clayton Henkel - August 19, 2024
It seemed almost unimaginable less than a month ago, but as they head into their national convention this week, U.S. Democrats are riding a wave of voter enthusiasm for presidential nominee – Vice President Kamala Harris – and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Indeed, polls in key swing states that showed Republican nominee […]
NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty’s Noel Nickle on their new plea to Gov. Cooper
By: Clayton Henkel - August 19, 2024
It’s been 18 years now since North Carolina last put a person to death as punishment for a crime – a time period in which a fast-growing number of states and countries have abolished the death penalty. Nonetheless, the death penalty remains on the state’s statute books and 136 people still reside on Death Row. […]
Weekend reads: Trump, Harris vie for NC voters, governor’s race kerfuffle, and that Olympic vibe
By: Clayton Henkel - August 18, 2024
VP Kamala Harris outlines economic policy plan during a North Carolina campaign stop By Lynn Bonner and Christine Zhu Vice President Kamala Harris introduced a broad economic plan at her presidential campaign stop in Raleigh on Friday that focused on day-to-day economic issues many people face such as high grocery bills, the cost of raising […]