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)

  • Universities Enlist Students As Mask Police

    Spencer Lindquist writes for the Federalist about a disappointing development within American universities involving face masks. How much would you have to be paid to commit social suicide? What if a paycheck wasn’t the only perk, but it also entitled you to a sickening sense of self-righteousness and…
    Mitch Kokai, October 19, 2021
    A white woman with chestnut brown hair is wearing a satin royal blue face mask and a white sun hat looks into the distance

  • Abolishing Buttigieg’s Department: Who Would Notice?

    Editors at the Washington Examiner offer an idea for cutting government waste. It involves the current job held by former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. Here’s a question for you: What if a Cabinet secretary took a couple months off from work and nobody noticed? What if his…
    Mitch Kokai, October 19, 2021
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  • Exploring San Fran’s Government-Induced Problems

    Charles Fain Lehman of the Washington Free Beacon highlights a new book detailing problems in a leading West Coast city. San Francisco has a poop problem. Between 2011 and 2019, reports of human feces on public sidewalks quintupled, rising from roughly 5,500 to more than 30,000. Incidents have…
    Mitch Kokai, October 19, 2021
    Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California

  • Unions Exacerbate Supply-Chain Problems

    Editors at National Review Online explore the role labor unions play in making supply chain problems worse. Organized-labor headlines typically offer a zap of top-line shock — UPS is paying some drivers $134,000 a year? Philadelphia is paying a police detective $310,000 a year? — but those six-figure…
    Mitch Kokai, October 19, 2021
    Container ship at sea

  • Fauci Claims He Dispenses ‘Inconvenient’ Truths

    Brittany Bernstein writes at National Review Online about the latest dubious claim from the face of government’s COVID-19 response. Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday dismissed concerns that he is a polarizing figure, saying he merely speaks truths that may be “inconvenient for some people,” causing them to lash…
    Mitch Kokai, October 19, 2021
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  • New Carolina Journal Online Features

    Andrew Dunn reports for Carolina Journal Online about criticism of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system for failing to investigate sexual assaults properly. Donald Bryson’s CJ Opinion urges Congress to focus on food access. Another CJ Opinion explains why N.C. parents’ customized use of Education Savings Accounts could help…
    Mitch Kokai, October 19, 2021
    School buses in black and white

  • Martin Center Column Highlights Tool for Assessing Higher Ed’s Value

    Chris West writes for the Martin Center about N.C. higher education’s bang for the buck. Shelling out the time and cash necessary to earn a degree is a sacrifice. For many, the question of “is college worth it?” has a simple answer: “yes.” But for others, the answer may…
    Mitch Kokai, October 18, 2021
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  • School Boards’ Problems Exposed

    Clarice Feldman writes for the American Thinker about American school boards’ new scrutiny from concerned parents. Mark Twain famously said, “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.” If you ever doubted the wisdom of this observation, the conduct of…
    Mitch Kokai, October 18, 2021
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