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)

  • Budget before tax reform

    Mattie Dupler Springer of the National Taxpayers Union would like to see Congress pass a budget before tackling tax reform. She explains why in a Washington Examiner column. This week, all eyes in Washington are focused on the Big Six and the release of their tax reform framework.
    Mitch Kokai, September 26, 2017

  • Public not confident in Obamacare exchanges

    Ali Meyer of the Washington Free Beacon reports new poll results that are likely to disturb supporters of the Affordable Care Act. Half of Americans believe that the Obamacare exchanges are collapsing, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The report found that 62 percent of…
    Mitch Kokai, September 26, 2017

  • Trump tax plan might make Dems mad

    Robert Donachie of the Daily Caller explains why President Trump’s tax proposal is likely to anger his new-found friends among the Democratic congressional leadership team. President Donald Trump’s long-promised reforms to the U.S. tax code will reportedly include tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, a feature that will…
    Mitch Kokai, September 26, 2017

  • Unions and chronically absent teachers

    Frederick Hess muses at National Review Online about teacher unions’ responses to a new report about chronic absenteeism among teachers in traditional public schools. Last week, a new study reported that 28 percent of teachers working in traditional public schools use sick days or personal leave to miss…
    Mitch Kokai, September 26, 2017

  • The ‘radical’ Founders

    Jay Cost explains at National Review Online why the American Founders’ vision of freedom continues to anger authoritarians. What is amazing about the Constitution is how radical it is — not only by the standards of 1787, but even by our own today. The system of government it…
    Mitch Kokai, September 26, 2017

  • New Carolina Journal Online features

    Lindsay Marchello reports for Carolina Journal Online on a new study that shows teacher absences are more common in traditional public schools than in public charter schools. The Daily Journal highlights a focus on zero-based budgeting for the administrators who oversee North Carolina’s public universities.
    Mitch Kokai, September 26, 2017

  • Elon scholar identifies problems, potential solutions in N.C. public records law

    State law promises access to North Carolina’s public records. But flaws within that law can reduce government transparency and increase inefficiency. That’s the argument Elliot Engstrom, fellow at the Elon University School of Law, presented to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society. Engstrom identified key problems with the current law.
    Mitch Kokai, September 25, 2017
    Featured image thumbnail

  • Leef examines speech protections in latest Forbes column

    George Leef’s latest Forbes column focuses on the latest high-profile court case involving an attack on free speech. One of the great liberal (in the true sense of the word) decisions by the Supreme Court is West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, the 1943 case where the justices…
    Mitch Kokai, September 25, 2017