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 probes the future of law school

    Chris West writes for the Martin Center about the impact of legal innovations on law schools. The world of law school and the legal profession is in turmoil. This is because there are not only many market distortions at play, but because the economy is undergoing transitions. One of…
    Mitch Kokai, May 25, 2018

  • Trump’s tweets and judicial overreach

    Jenna Ellis writes for the Washington Examiner about the judicial overreach displayed in this week’s court decision involving @realDonaldTrump. In a 75-page defense of crazy judicial overreach, a federal court held on Wednesday that President Trump (and anyone else with administrative permissions to his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account) cannot…
    Mitch Kokai, May 25, 2018

  • Your tax dollars at work: Booze-tracking jewelry edition

    Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon documents a novel way to spend taxpayers’ hard-earned money. The National Institutes of Health is preparing to spend millions on research studies to develop jewelry and clothes that can monitor the alcohol intake of Americans. The agency recently submitted two grant…
    Mitch Kokai, May 25, 2018

  • Conservatives versus feminists

    Heather Wilhelm argues at National Review Online for the mutual exclusivity of conservatism and modern feminism. In last weekend’s New York Times, feminist writer Jessica Valenti argued that conservatives can’t be feminists, and that any claim to the contrary boils down to an empty charade. Conservatives, she wrote,…
    Mitch Kokai, May 25, 2018

  • Assessing America’s declining birth rate

    David French asks at National Review Online whether a downturn in the American birth rate signals “the death of hope.” Last week the National Center for Health Statistics reported that America’s general fertility rate hit a record low in 2017. That record — bad enough on its own…
    Mitch Kokai, May 25, 2018

  • This weekend on Carolina Journal Radio

    Thousands of protesting public school teachers greeted lawmakers returning to Raleigh last week. Terry Stoops places those teachers’ complaints in context for the next edition of Carolina Journal Radio. Joseph Coletti explains why Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget proposal would guarantee future tax hikes. Elon University law professor…
    Mitch Kokai, May 25, 2018

  • New Carolina Journal Online features

    Lindsay Marchello reports for Carolina Journal Online on $35 million of school safety measures included in the proposed state budget adjustment. John Trump’s Daily Journal explains that a recent court ruling means craft brewers’ legal battle with the state and with beer distributors is just beginning.
    Mitch Kokai, May 25, 2018

  • Clearing up the logjam of Trump’s judicial nominees

    Carrie Severino explains for the Washington Examiner a proposal that could speed the process of confirming federal judicial nominees. By insisting on going through the cloture process for nearly every nominee, Democrats have slowed confirmations to a glacial pace. Their plan is to slow the confirmation of qualified…
    Mitch Kokai, May 24, 2018