Final Four: The Ultimate N.C. Politics Showdown
Ideas vs. identity. Power vs. principle. What most defines North Carolina politics?
It started with 64 people, moments, traditions, and slogans — and now we’re down to four. Our bracket is nearly complete, and the matchups left are big, bold, and a little abstract.
Because that’s the point. This showdown isn’t just about who’s the most famous or who held the most power. It’s about capturing the essence of North Carolina politics: how we govern, how we campaign, how we argue, and how we see ourselves as a state.
These Final Four contenders each represent something different:
A think tank that helped define modern conservative governance
A cultural tradition that seeps into nearly every corner of the state
A political movement that reshaped N.C. power structures
A 200-year-old motto that still frames how we talk about politics today
Now it’s up to you to decide: What most embodies North Carolina politics?
The polls are open until Tuesday morning, and then we’ll move to the championship.
Final Four matchups
(10) College Basketball Rivalries vs. (11) John Locke Foundation
The John Locke Foundation is the bracket’s biggest Cinderella story — and maybe its most revealing. Unlike the other contenders in the Power Players region, the foundation doesn’t win elections, endorse candidates, or fund campaigns. Yet it emerged from that region by knocking off political giants like Phil Berger and Jim Hunt. That alone is worth noting.
Instead, the John Locke Foundation operates through policy research, journalism, and long-game persuasion. It’s the intellectual engine behind many of North Carolina’s most consequential conservative reforms, on taxes, education, regulation, and more. It speaks to an earnest, ideas-first tradition in N.C. politics, where good government and principled policymaking still carry weight.
By contrast, college basketball rivalries represent something much more visceral. If Locke is about thought, this is about tribe. The rivalry between UNC, Duke, and N.C. State runs so deep that it’s almost a second political party system in North Carolina.
These loyalties form early, run hot, and show up everywhere, from debates about funding the UNC System to political candidates awkwardly navigating fan allegiances.
It's lighthearted on the surface — an easy conversation starter in line at Bojangles’ — but underneath lies a reflection of Southern small-town identity and the central role of the university system as a crown jewel of our state.
(1) The 2010 Republican Revolution vs. (1) Esse Quam Videri
The 2010 Republican Revolution was more than a partisan shift; it was the culmination of a long-building realignment in North Carolina. It brought to fruition the groundwork laid by figures like Jim Martin and Jesse Helms, both of whom fell in earlier rounds in this bracket but whose influence lives on in the coalition that delivered this landslide.
For the first time since Reconstruction, Republicans captured both chambers of the General Assembly — not by accident, but through a broad-based, statewide effort that fused rural, suburban, and exurban voters into a durable majority. It was the political expression of a changing state: growing, dynamic, and unafraid to upend the old order.
It also reflects something uniquely North Carolinian. For much of the 1800s, the state was dismissed as “The Rip Van Winkle State,” asleep while the rest of the South modernized. The Republican Revolution was a new, conscious rejection of that image.
It represents a new era of self-determination, economic ambition, and policy innovation — tax reform, infrastructure investment, and education changes designed to compete nationally.
Esse Quam Videri — “To be, rather than to seem”— asks a different question: What should North Carolina strive to be?
It’s more than a motto. It’s a cultural current that runs through our politics, especially in a state where performative flash doesn’t go far without substance behind it. Esse Quam Videri reflects a quiet confidence and the idea that doing the work matters more than getting the credit. In North Carolina, a candidate might win a headline with a slick line, but they’ll earn respect by backing it up with real results.
You’ll find this phrase in speeches, legislative debates, and even in the self-image of our political culture: pragmatic, grounded, and skeptical of pretense. It’s the value system that gives N.C. politics its tone — hard-working, plainspoken, and rooted in tradition.
Cast your votes and share with a friend
Polls will be open through Tuesday morning, then we’ll move on to the final round.