👻 Boo! It's Friday the 13th.

🌤️ Today's weather: Sunny and cooler, with a slight chance of rain tonight. High 57. Low 36.

🎂 Happy birthday to our members Joanna Refvem and Joshua Milne!

Today’s newsletter is 940 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Blue Dog Democrats are making a comeback in North Carolina, riding the 2026 Blue Wave that potentially ousted six incumbent Republicans.

• Jamie Ager, who won the mountain-based 11th District, and Paul Barringer, who won the 13th District around the Triangle, will join the Blue Dog Coalition, a moderate Democratic caucus focused on fiscal responsibility.

Why it matters: The Blue Dog revival broadens a Democratic caucus stretching from Democratic socialists to fiscal conservatives — and could make legislating more complicated.

Flashback: North Carolina's Blue Dogs once included former NFL quarterback Heath Shuler, a coalition co-chair who represented the Asheville area until 2013. He retired after Republicans redrew his district to favor the GOP.

• Other members included Mike McIntyre, who represented southeastern North Carolina until 2015, and Larry Kissell, who represented the Sandhills until 2013.
• More recently, Wiley Nickel joined the coalition in 2023. He left Congress in 2025 when his district was redrawn into the one Barringer just won.

What they're saying: "To me, it's about common sense approaches that work across the partisan divide and get at or move us towards a more fiscally sustainable and responsible future," Barringer told Axios in a phone call from Washington about his decision to join the Blue Dogs.

• Barringer, who was a Republican until 2016, said he believes the election proved that Democrats who ran as moderates can win red areas.
• Barringer won a majority of votes in Johnston County, which has long been a bastion of Republican voters.

State of play: Chris Cooper, author of "Anatomy of a Purple State," said it is notable the Blue Dogs seem to be having a moment at the same time as there is a rise in progressives.

• "I think the lesson is that Democrats let their candidates fit their districts," Cooper told Axios. "Jamie Ager fits his district like a glove, and Paul Barringer does as well. But they're not going to work in downtown Durham."

Between the lines: Rep. Don Davis (N.C.-1), who won re-election, fits the moderate mold without the Blue Dog label.

• His willingness to vote with Republicans and agree with President Trump has drawn criticism from fellow Democrats.
• Cooper expects that tension to persist as Davis weighs a 2028 Senate bid: "You already see some of the Democrats pop up and say, 'Well, he's a little bit too conservative.'"

Keep reading

Gov. Josh Stein pardoned two turkeys yesterday at the executive mansion in Raleigh.

Zoom in: They are Lord and Lady Stanley, named after the Stanley Cup.

• Both VIPs (very important poultry) will live out their days safe from the Thanksgiving table.

Fun fact: Poultry is North Carolina's top agricultural product, bringing in $4.7 billion annually, per N.C. State.

🏡 Duke University and Raleigh's AJ Fletcher Foundation are donating $1.65 million into Durham's Flexible Housing Assistance Fund. (WRAL)

• The money will go toward security deposits, application fees and other barriers to get families into housing.

⚖️ A Wake County grand jury indicted former Republican state Rep. Jason Saine on embezzlement and other charges. Saine denies wrongdoing. (News & Observer)

🚔 The Raleigh Police Department retired its lone remaining Crown Victoria this week, 15 years after Ford stopped making the iconic police cars. (X)

⚾️ While UNC's chancellor Lee Roberts is opposed to the Triangle getting an MLB team, saying it will make it harder for college athletics, N.C. State's chancellor supports it. (WRAL)

There's a lot happening around the Triangle this weekend.

• Here are a few of our top picks for what to do:

🏈 See if new N.C. State coach Philip Rivers makes an appearance at Carter-Finley when the Wolfpack take on Syracuse on Saturday.

🌝 Buy tickets to Moonlight in the Garden tonight, a chance to experience N.C. State's JC Raulston Arboretum after dark.

🎨 Take part in the Second Friday Art Walk in Chapel Hill.

🔥 Attend the annual Liberty Arts Iron Pour in downtown Durham on Saturday, with local artists demonstrating blacksmithing, glassblowing and woodworking.

🦹‍♂️ Check out North Carolina Comicon in downtown Durham on Saturday and Sunday.

🍻 Raise a glass to Oaklyn Springs Brewery's four-year anniversary in Fuquay-Varina on Saturday.

⚽️ Watch the ACC men's and women's soccer tournaments this weekend at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary.

🖼️ Support Raleigh arts at ArtBash, the annual fundraising gala for ArtSpace.

🌰 Celebrate all the varied uses of the chestnut at the Chestnut Carnival in Pittsboro on Sunday.

🎁 Get a start on Christmas shopping at the Vintage Noel shopping market at the N.C. State Fairgrounds all weekend.

We're down to our Final Four of places to catch a flick.

State of play: These are some heavy-hitter matchups:

• The Five Points institution of The Rialto takes on the town-owned Cary Theater.
• And in the other matchup: The Alamo Drafthouse's Raleigh outpost takes on the historic Carolina Theatre.

Vote here

The Carolina Hurricanes won yesterday's game in Finland with three goals from their Finnish players.

By the numbers: Sebastian Aho scored twice in the 4-1 victory over Seattle.

• Defenseman Juuso Välimäki also scored.

What's next: The NHL Global Series between the Canes and Kraken continues tomorrow with a 1pm puck drop.

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☀️ Zachery is thankful that the Triangle is one of the few places on the East Coast where the sun never sets before 5pm.

🎬 Mary Helen is going to be a movie extra this weekend.

Thanks to Melissa Oyler for editing this newsletter.