The Republican Party was in desperate straits in the weeks following the 2012 presidential election. There were several reasons. One, its losing nominee, Mitt Romney, was a poor candidate whom a significant part of the GOP base, and an even more significant part of the overall electorate, did not want. Two, its opponent, President Barack Obama, appeared to have found the secret to assembling a permanent winning coalition. And three, Republican leaders worried, sometimes publicly and sometimes privately, that the party was on the wrong side of some key issues, especially immigration.

The North Carolina House and Senate have enacted very different versions of a 2025-27 state budget, even though the two plans would authorize virtually the same amount of spending. The differences are so vast, in fact, that some insiders predict no comprehensive budget will this session.

I recently read an opinion piece from a noted North Carolina columnist essentially blaming former Gov. Roy Cooper for the sharp decline in North Carolina student test scores during and after the COVID pandemic. It asserted that Cooper closed North Carolina public schools too soon and left them closed too long.

What do you do about Joni Ernst? The Republican senator from Iowa is being mocked by liberal media and beyond for her snarky response to a question about cuts in Medicaid: “We all are going to die.”

Leonard Leo is a conservative activist who helped Donald Trump create the most lasting legacy of his first term: the appointment of 226 federal judges, including three to the Supreme Court. As the longtime head of the Federalist Society, an organization of young conservative lawyers, Leo nurtured and advanced many of Trump’s nominees.