On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln dedicated the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg on a portion of the grounds where so many had fought bravely and died in a war-changing battle just four months before.  The nation’s first Republican president gave a speech that day that has lived on into…

using together an engaged membership, an extensive network of local chapters, and support from national organizations, the Tea Party movement in North Carolina has become bigger than the sum of its parts. Other studies, such as the Democracy North Carolina Annual Report Card on the legislature have done a superb…

While a large number belong to national Tea Party organizations, many Tea Party members also belong to one or more local Tea Party chapters. These groups help create an intricate web of Tea Party organizations across the state. More than 80 local Tea Party chapters were active in North Carolina…

Wealthy donors like the Koch Brothers and North Carolina’s Art Pope have been extensively examined.  National groups with an impact on North Carolina, such as Americans for Prosperity, have been similarly investigated and exposed.  Nevertheless, significant indicators suggest that the current political conjuncture is a result of more than just…

On Saturday, August 2, 2014, about 200 almost all-white Moore County Tea Citizens and supporters gathered in Pinehurst North Carolina’s Cannon Park for a Fifth Anniversary Picnic and Rally.  A three-piece country band played popular favorites.  Three gray-haired women, full of vim if not vigor, were celebrated as the local…

This report on the Tea Party in North Carolina details the movement’s constituent organizations, the issues they mobilize around, and their impact on public policy.  It also describes the broad-based non-electoral opposition it has engendered.  As the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights (IREHR) reported in January 2014,…

. Eric D. Knowles, Brian S. Lowery, Elizabeth P. Shulman and Rebecca L Schaumberg, “Race, Ideology and the Tea Party: A Longitudinal Study,” p. 6, PLOS Open Access, June 2013, Vol 8, Issue 6, www.plosone.org . Ibid, p. 4. . Ibid, p. 8. . Christopher Parker and Matt Barreto, Change…