Mitch Kokai

Senior Political Analyst
Mitch Kokai is senior political analyst for the John Locke Foundation. He joined JLF in December 2005 as director of communications. That followed more than four years as chief state government reporter for News 14 Carolina, now known as Spectrum News. The job included extensive coverage of the General Assembly for the 24-hour local regional television news channel.

Before News 14 Carolina, Kokai worked as a radio news reporter for seven years. He started a radio news department at WENC-AM in Whiteville, then led Chapel Hill’s award-winning radio news team at WCHL-AM. He spent two-and-one-half years as news director and assignment editor for Raleigh’s WPTF-AM.

Mitch is a Columbus, Ohio, native, and a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate. He has lived in North Carolina since 1989.

Posts by Mitch Kokai (page 1)

  • Coke, woke and broke, offers cautionary tale

    Daniel Greenfield writes for Front Page Mag about the problems plaguing one of America’s most familiar brands. “Get woke, go broke”, is a conservative meme about the cost of political correctness that has it the wrong way around. Brands don’t go broke because they get woke, they go…
    Mitch Kokai, March 2, 2021
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  • Federalism helps during divisive times

    Marc Landy writes for the Federalist about the value of federalism during times of difficult politics. Federalism is like a diet. Both the left and right try to stick to it, but each abandons it when the craving for the policy equivalent of fries and a shake grows…
    Mitch Kokai, March 2, 2021
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  • Shakespeare targeted by the woke

    Dan Hannan writes for the Washington Examiner about one of the most disturbing targets of today’s woke culture. “Shakespeare’s works,” the School Library Journal tells us, “are full of problematic, outdated ideas, with plenty of misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism, and misogynoir.” There follows a litany of complaints…
    Mitch Kokai, March 2, 2021
    William Shakespeare portrait

  • Earmarks still mean bad news for taxpayers

    Joni Ernst and Tom Schatz write for National Review Online about the disturbing return of congressional earmarks. Congress isn’t even waiting to lift the decade-long moratorium on earmarking before starting to pig out. Look no further than the $1.9 trillion bill being touted by Democrats as the latest…
    Mitch Kokai, March 2, 2021
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  • Political speech faces attacks

    Alex Baiocco writes at National Review Online about new threats to freedom of speech in America. “We the people. Those words changed everything. Power rested in the people, not the government. Freedom to think, to speak, to act, to criticize your government, all protected.” Great rhetoric, worthy of…
    Mitch Kokai, March 2, 2021
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  • New Carolina Journal Online features

    Andrew Dunn reports for Carolina Journal Online on bills in the N.C. General Assembly to free counties from COVID-19 restrictions. John Trump reports the N.C. Senate’s effort to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s school reopening veto fell one vote short. The latest CJ Opinion explains why N.C. conservatives…
    Mitch Kokai, March 2, 2021
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  • Martin Center column examines COVID-19 on campus

    Megan Zogby writes for the Martin Center about college campuses’ response to the coronavirus pandemic nationwide. Colleges have been trying to stop COVID-19 from spreading on campus, and after a year of experimentation, failure, and success, officials may have found their way. Campuses are combining widespread testing, a reduction…
    Mitch Kokai, March 1, 2021
    hand in blue glove holding a vial marked

  • Setting yourself apart from the corrupt

    J.B. Shurk recommends at American Thinker that people differentiate themselves from today’s popular culture. A few years back, Jim Caviezel spoke at a number of venues to discuss his new movie, Paul, Apostle of Christ. Rather than shying away from his Christianity or attempting to filter his words…
    Mitch Kokai, March 1, 2021
    Praying in church