2016 elections

October 15, 2021 - The N.C. Court of Appeals recently rejected a request from the Pat McCrory Committee Defense Fund and the law firm Holtzman Vogel to throw out a libel suit filed against them for falsely accusing voters of committing fraud in the 2016 election. After the former Republican governor narrowly lost to Democrat Roy Cooper that year, McCrory's campaign and its legal agents worked to sow doubt about the election's integrity — a strategy taken to new levels by Donald Trump following his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

November 18, 2020 - Black voters turned out in record numbers this election cycle but had to overcome barriers to the ballot box that undermine the fairness of the electoral process. Advocates continue to call for restoring the Voting Rights Act to ensure that African American voters are protected from voter suppression.

February 12, 2018 - Eight years since the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision lifting limits on political spending, wealthy interests have gained even more influence over elections while transparency has suffered. But grassroots efforts are underway to shift power back to ordinary citizens.

June 16, 2017 - Rural areas draw the ire of Trump opponents on the left and right who charge that residents voted against their own interests. But in the South, which has the country's biggest rural Black population and growing numbers of rural Hispanics, many of the rural communities most threatened by Trump's policies did not vote for him.  

February 22, 2017 - Independent political groups broke records for spending on North Carolina state races in 2016, more than doubling the amount spent during the last election when the governor's mansion was up for grabs.

December 16, 2016 - As North Carolina's special legislative session on disaster relief drew to a close this week, Republican legislative leaders announced a surprise special session that ended with the state's newly elected Democratic governor stripped of key powers and dozens of protesters arrested.

December 1, 2016 - This week the Southern Poverty Law Center issued two reports documenting how Trump's election has led to a spike in hate incidents, with over 200 taking place in the South alone.