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By John Hood

RALEIGH — Brace yourself. The arrival of Labor Day traditionally begins the homestretch of electoral campaigns. You may well join millions of fellow voters in utter exhaustion with the politics of 2024. But I promise you the candidates and their surrogates are raring to run this final leg of the race.

That North Carolina is one of the nation’s top political racetracks requires no elaborate proof. You just need to consume media here for a month — no, scratch that, for a day.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump keep visiting the Tar Heel State because its 16 electoral votes remain in contention, as was true in 2016 and 2020. During the month of August, a spate of surveys from Bloomberg, Fox News, The New York Times, The Hill, High Point University, and Carolina Journal confirmed a statistical dead heat for president here.

Some of these polls also tested down-ballot races for Council of State, Congress, state legislature, and other offices. With few exceptions, they found close contests (for statewide races as well as a handful of competitive districts that could determine whether Republicans retain a majority in the U.S. House and supermajorities in the N.C. House and Senate). In CJ’s early-August survey, for example, the GOP’s lead in the generic ballot for legislature was just a sliver, 1.4 points. For Congress, it was 1.6 points.

How much money will campaigns, parties and interest groups spend in North Carolina over the next couple of months? I believe the technical term for that is “gobs.” Much of it will purchase little more than public annoyance. Still, a good amount will convey useful information, affecting the motivations of many voters and the preferences of the small but pivotal number of swing voters who retain tremendous power in a closely-divided state.

One of the most cost-effective expenditures of the 2024 cycle will be a series of four televised debates featuring candidates for statewide posts.

Hosted by the statewide cable network Spectrum News 1 and the N.C. Institute of Political Leadership — for which I serve as board chairman — the debates will kick off in a couple of weeks thanks to generous support from series sponsors Fidelity Investments, North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives, and North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association as well as single-event sponsors Aetna, AARP of North Carolina, and the State Employees Association of North Carolina (as of this writing — other sponsors are still signing up or are welcome to do so in the coming days.)

Moderated by Spectrum News 1 anchor Loretta Boniti, each hourlong event in the Hometown Debate series will be held on a Tuesday evening at 7 p.m., then broadcast by the channel the following Sunday. Here are the dates, locations and matchups:

• On September 17, the lieutenant governor debate at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte will feature Democratic nominee Rachel Hunt and Republican nominee Hal Weatherman.
• On September 24, the state superintendent of public instruction debate at East Carolina University in Greenville will feature Democratic nominee Mo Green and Republican nominee Michele Morrow.
• On October 1, the labor commissioner debate at the old Johnston County Courthouse in Smithfield will feature Democratic nominee Braxton Winston and Republican nominee Luke Farley.
• On October 8, the state treasurer debate at Greensboro College will feature Democratic nominee Wesley Harris and Republican nominee Brad Briner.

As I have noted before, candidates for these and other Council of State races often struggle to compete with presidential, gubernatorial and (sometimes) U.S. Senate candidates for public attention. That’s why the IOPL/Spectrum News series is so important, and its sponsors so greatly appreciated. Please consider watching the video of these debates, reading the associated media coverage, or attending an event in person if you can.

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual,” said one of our country’s founders, Samuel Adams. Instead, each voter is “executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society.”

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member.

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