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 revisits ‘Beer and Circus’ book

    Joseph Warta uses a Martin Center column to revisit key themes from a milestone book in the history of higher education reform. The year 2000 saw the publication of Beer and Circus, the notable book by former Indiana University professor Murray Sperber. It was a big step forward for…
    Mitch Kokai, July 20, 2018

  • Haley slams UN human rights group

    United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley continues to attack the UN’s worst elements. Her latest target: a group that purportedly focuses on human rights. Natalie Johnson of the Washington Free Beacon reports. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Wednesday the United Nations’ Human Rights Council is the “greatest failure” of…
    Mitch Kokai, July 20, 2018

  • FBI director raises red flag about Chinese spying

    Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller reports on new warnings linked to Chinese government espionage. China, rather than Russia, is the “most significant” long-term threat to the United States, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday. During an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt at the Aspen Ideas Forum, Wray…
    Mitch Kokai, July 20, 2018

  • Questioning the focus on inequality

    Brad Polumbo uses a National Review Online column to ponder young adults’ intense fascination with inequality. Thanks to people like [Bernie] Sanders, the idea that income inequality is the “defining issue of our time” has been burned into the collective consciousness of my generation, so much so that…
    Mitch Kokai, July 20, 2018
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  • Obama now decries the characteristics that drove his political career

    Jim Geraghty of National Review Online muses on former President Barack Obama’s apparent change in his approach to destructive identity politics. President Obama stood in a cricket stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, and said a lot of things that could, or should, get conservatives nodding in agreement. But…
    Mitch Kokai, July 20, 2018

  • This weekend on Carolina Journal Radio

    More than 135,000 N.C. students get their education through homeschooling. Another 101,000 attend private schools. Terry Stoops analyzes the significance of those numbers for the next edition of Carolina Journal Radio. Dan Way explains why N.C. taxpayers still pay millions of dollars for an “expired” renewable energy…
    Mitch Kokai, July 20, 2018

  • New Carolina Journal Online features

    Dan Way reports for Carolina Journal Online on the state treasurer’s goal of saving $300 million a year for the State Health Plan. Jon Sanders’ Daily Journal dissects misleading arguments about renewable energy in North Carolina.
    Mitch Kokai, July 20, 2018

  • The memory hole strikes again

    Fans of the Tour de France learned today that Welsh cyclist Geraint Thomas was the first man ever to win a Tour stage ending on the brutal Alpe d’Huez mountain while wearing the yellow jersey as the race’s overall leader. Except he wasn’t. While the Tour’s television announcers stuck to…
    Mitch Kokai, July 19, 2018
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