Why isn't the N.C. House Freedom Caucus a bigger deal?

The 33-member bloc has made and broken bills, but still feels more like a rumor than a power center

Statehouse “Freedom Caucuses” are having something of a moment.

In Wyoming, a slate just captured control of the state’s lower chamber and installed its own leadership team and agenda. Nationally, the State Freedom Caucus Network is adding chapters, hosting summits, and putting out glossy videos about successes in Arizona, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and across the country.

If you click over to their website, you can see all those states proudly shaded on a map. North Carolina isn’t one of them.

But we do have a House Freedom Caucus. It just operates very differently — and mostly out of view.

I’ve known for years that this caucus existed, but not much more than that. So I perked up when chairman Rep. Keith Kidwell gave a rare peek behind the scenes on WUNC’s politics podcast back in October.

“We have made and broke many a bill,” he told host Colin Campbell.

Kidwell says the caucus now has 33 members — almost half of all House Republicans. The officers are Kidwell as chairman, Rep. Ben Moss as…