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)

  • Reactions to Trump during the coronavirus pandemic

    David Marcus of the Federaliat explores President Trump’s latest approval numbers. Over the past two weeks, President Trump’s overall approval rating and specifically approval of his handling of the Chinese virus have been spiking. You would think that most people would view this as good thing, I mean,…
    Mitch Kokai, March 31, 2020

  • Medicare for All and the coronavirus

    Editors at the Washington Examiner remind us that the Democratic health care policy dubbed Medicare for All would not have prevented our current coronavirus problem. In the midst of a fast-moving virus, in which data are changing every day, and in which governments are taking different reactions in…
    Mitch Kokai, March 31, 2020

  • Feds think gun stores should remain open

    Stephen Gutowski of the Washington Free Beacon highlights a recent federal change involving gun stores. The Department of Homeland Security added gun dealers, ranges, and manufacturers to its essential business coronavirus-response guide on Saturday. The updated guidance from DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) now considers “workers…
    Mitch Kokai, March 31, 2020

  • Pondering a Trump quarantine

    Andrew McCarthy of National Review Online responds to President Trump’s suggestion that he might issue a quarantine. The powers of the federal government in general, and of the president in particular, to quarantine American citizens are not cut-and-dried. The Supreme Court has long recognized that citizens of the…
    Mitch Kokai, March 31, 2020
    Trump considers quarantine

  • National Review sets defeating coronavirus as top priority

    Editors at National Review Online offers national policymakers advice about priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. If President Trump is right that the fight against the coronavirus is the equivalent of a war, we need to focus first and foremost on defeating the enemy. That means, as an urgent…
    Mitch Kokai, March 31, 2020

  • New Carolina Journal Online features

    Lindsay Marchello reports for Carolina Journal Online on the federal CARES Act’s impact on local school district flexibility. The Daily Journal examines the Wake County sheriff’s promise of “kind,” “polite” enforcement of the county’s stay-at-home order.
    Mitch Kokai, March 31, 2020

  • Martin Center highlights conversation with UNC-CH chancellor

    Shannon Watkins of the Martin Center posts the transcript of a recent interview with the top officer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. In your view, what is the primary purpose of higher education and how does UNC-Chapel Hill pursue that mission? Our…
    Mitch Kokai, March 30, 2020

  • JLF CEO Amy Cooke: We Have an Eye on Your Economic and Civil Liberties

    Mitch Kokai, March 30, 2020
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