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)

  • Martin Center column examines efforts to rewrite history

    Sumantra Maitra writes for the Martin Center about the “philosophical force” behind the campaign to rewrite history. Two recent stories that dominated academic Twitter were the cancellation of the Western Art History course at Yale and the incorporation of the 1619 Project in the school curricula in Buffalo, New…
    Mitch Kokai, February 21, 2020

  • More signs point toward contested Democratic convention

    Emily Larsen asks Washington Examiner readers to “do the math” when projecting the rest of the Democratic presidential contest. It’s a dream of political junkies and campaign reporters that hasn’t happened since 1952 — a contested political convention. And it could happen this summer. That’s because the delegate…
    Mitch Kokai, February 21, 2020
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  • Bloomberg claims to be fan of Obamacare, which he once labeled a ‘disgrace’

    David Rutz of the Washington Free Beacon highlights one of the more interesting exchanges during this week’s Democratic presidential debate. Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said at Wednesday’s Democratic debate that he was a “fan of Obamacare,” the health care law he called a “disgrace” in…
    Mitch Kokai, February 21, 2020

  • Chinese government policies reminiscent of 1984

    Victor Davis Hanson argues at National Review Online that current Chinese government policies recall the fictional abuses in George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel. The Chinese Communist government increasingly poses an existential threat not just to its own 1.4 billion citizens but to the world at large. China is…
    Mitch Kokai, February 21, 2020

  • Bloomberg’s departure from political correctness might help him

    Kyle Smith ponders at National Review Online how former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be affected by recent revelations from his political and professional past. It’s amusing to learn that Mike Bloomberg, just last year, was filmed speaking with his customary bluntness about transgender individuals: “If…
    Mitch Kokai, February 21, 2020

  • This weekend on Carolina Journal Radio

    The John Locke Foundation and a dozen other free-market public policy groups across the country have joined forces to support a nationally important lawsuit. It’s designed to protect workers’ rights. Jon Guze discusses the case’s significance during the next edition of Carolina Journal Radio. Jon Sanders explains…
    Mitch Kokai, February 21, 2020

  • New Carolina Journal Online features

    Brooke Conrad reports for Carolina Journal Online about a Venezuelan freedom activist’s warning to N.C. State students about the dangers of socialism. John Trump’s Daily Journal explains why we need journalism more than ever, even as the newspaper industry declines.
    Mitch Kokai, February 21, 2020

  • Bloomberg and panic-stricken Democrats

    Mollie Hemingway writes for the Federalist about the role of panic in Democrats’ turn toward Michael Bloomberg as a potential presidential nominee. This wasn’t how the 2020 race was supposed to be. The establishment had a plan to take back control of Washington, D.C. Donald Trump had seized…
    Mitch Kokai, February 20, 2020
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