7 big questions for N.C. in 2021

COVID and politics will shape North Carolina for the next year

The week between Christmas and New Year is always a dead week in the news business. You’ve still got to work, but nothing is happening and nobody is answering their phones. The newspaper still needs copy, though, so we manufactured it by means of years-in-review, rankings, top stories, looks ahead. As a business reporter, one of my annual stories was a look at how the stocks of North Carolina’s 50 largest publicly traded companies fared the previous year. 

The top stories are all pretty obvious this year. Between the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 election cycle, there was very little oxygen for anything else.

Next year likely won’t be much different. Between the roll-out of the COVID vaccines and the Biden administration’s first year in office, the agenda feels already set. We’re still at least a year out before things start to feel more normal. 

So, appropriately, my burning questions for 2021 mostly revolve around COVID and our state’s recovery from it - with a little bit of elect…