It’s been a wild year in politics, and many of the big stories that happened in Washington, D.C., had a connection to North Carolina.
Take a look at five of the year's biggest stories:
Trump, Mark Meadows Legal Trouble
It wasn’t a big election year, but someone who will take center stage next year found himself in a lot of legal trouble this year.
Former President Donald Trump was in and out of the courtroom, making appearances in cases from Florida to Washington, D.C.
And former White House chief of staff and former North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows is one of his co-defendants.
Meadows was indicted this summer in Georgia on charges that he illegally conspired to keep Trump in power despite his election loss to President Joe Biden.
This month a federal appeals court struck down Meadows' attempt to move the case to federal court.
N.C. Lawmakers Depart
More than a third of North Carolina’s congressional members in the U.S. House are not running for reelection.
Democrats Kathy Manning, Jeff Jackson and Wiley Nickel say the new state congressional map, drawn by state Republican lawmakers, gerrymanders them out of a job because their current districts become Republican, making them harder to win.
Republicans Dan Bishop and Patrick McHenry are also stepping down.
Jackson and Bishop are running for N.C. attorney general in 2024, and Nickel said he is considering a run for U.S. Senate in 2026.
The flurry of exits has sparked a deluge of North Carolina Republicans seeking a seat in Congress. The primary is March 5.
Chaos in Congress
So far when it comes to how many bills it has passed, the current Congress is one of the least productive.
Instead, chaos was much more prevalent.
It took Kevin McCarthy 15 rounds of voting to become speaker of the House in January.
But it wasn't meant to be. This fall, eight Republicans voted to oust him as speaker, creating a three-week-long slug fest for a new speaker.
Mike Johnson eventually got the votes.
On top of that, lawmakers repeatedly went down to the wire, debating whether the U.S. would keep paying its employees and its bills.
One person who did find power was Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. He helped McCarthy become speaker, negotiated with the White House in the high-stakes fight over the country’s debt ceiling and eventually became acting speaker of the House.
But that was apparently enough power for McHenry, who announced in December he won’t run for reelection.
Affirmative Action Goes Away
One of the biggest U.S. Supreme Court decisions this year was a North Carolina case.
In a 6-3 ruling this summer, justices found UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
They outlawed Affirmative Action, in which race was considered as a factor in college admissions.
UNC-Chapel Hill later announced it will offer free tuition to students whose families make less than $80,000 a year, a change aiming to expand diversity at the N.C. flagship university.
Mandy Cohen Takes Over CDC
This summer President Joe Biden selected Dr. Mandy Cohen to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cohen led the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She received praise in the role.
But she has a big job ahead at the CDC as she tries to restore faith in the agency that some Americans have lost trust in.
Looking Ahead to 2024
March 5 Primary: Numerous Republicans are vying to fill the open seats in North Carolina’s congressional delegation. Depending on the state of the presidential race in March, North Carolina could also play a significant role in the Republican primary.
Can Democrats flip North Carolina in November? Democrats are focusing significant efforts on trying to flip North Carolina blue in 2024. But history is not on their side. The last time the state voted for a Democrat for president was in 2008 for Barack Obama. Democrats are also hoping to retain a Democrat in the Executive Mansion as Roy Cooper prepares to leave office.
Trump, Meadows in Court: Trump and Meadows will likely be back in court in 2024. Both were indicted this summer in Georgia. Trump also faces a number of other indictments around the country.
N.C. Attorney General Race: Republican Rep. Dan Bishop and Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson are both running for attorney general in North Carolina. Jackson still has to get through a contested primary, but if he’s able to win, it will pit two polar opposite members of Congress against each other.
Will Tillis run in 2026? Sen. Thom Tillis still has three years left in his second term, but as we saw in December, elections take shape very early. Outgoing Rep. Wiley Nickel announced he is considering running for the seat. While Tillis has sponsored legislation in the past that would put in place a two six-year term limit for U.S. senators, he has not announced whether he will seek re-election. He has a lot of time to announce, but this will be a story to watch.