RDU On the Rise: Election results recap | Best hot dogs in the Triangle | Deep in development | ‘Staircase’ drama

It’s Friday — welcome to the end of the week! The weekend is just a few hours away.

I’m Avi Bajpai, a reporter on our politics team here at The News & Observer, and I’m thrilled to bring you this week’s edition of RDU On the Rise, a newsletter for young professionals and people who are new to the Triangle.

The top story this week (and I’m confident I’d be saying this even if I wasn’t a political reporter) was Tuesday’s primary election, which saw voters choose which candidates should move onto the general election in November to face off in a number of really important races.

There were a lot of races on the ballot. We had the critical U.S. Senate primaries, which set-up a contest this fall between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Ted Budd. Whoever wins that seat could have a massive impact on the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, which currently is a 50-50 split.

We also had major primaries for the U.S. House, including in the heavily-Democratic 4th District that includes Durham and Chapel Hill, and the toss-up 13th District that covers southern Wake, all of deeply-red Johnston, and Harnett and Wayne counties. Of course, the other big news from Tuesday was the downfall of Madison Cawthorn, who has attracted boundless controversy during his time in Congress.

But there’s so much more: legislative races for the state Senate and House; judicial races for the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, and local district courts; and a bunch of local races in Wake, Durham, Orange and Johnston counties, including sheriff, district attorney, county commissioners, town council, school board, and more.

Covering a ton of races requires a ton of reporters; in total, we had almost two dozen people in the field, at campaign watch parties, or in our newsroom, reporting and updating the state of all of these races as results came in. (I personally had a blast driving out to the other side of the state to talk to voters and report from Cawthorn’s campaign headquarters in Hendersonville.)

One of the clearest takeaways from Tuesday’s election is how powerful Democrats and Republicans sent warning shots to dissenters in their parties, Danielle Battaglia and Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan report. Top Republicans like U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis played a role in ending Madison Cawthorn’s campaign. But Gov. Roy Cooper also leveraged his influence to knock out a fellow Democrat, Kirk deViere, out of the state Senate.

We’re still unpacking what the impact of Tuesday’s results will be going forward, but if you need to catch up on what transpired on Election Day (and Night):

▪ Head on over to our website for all things on Elections.

▪ Check out this helpful list and interactive maps of all the results.

▪ Prefer to listen to a recap of the primary? Catch a special bonus-edition of our Under The Dome politics podcast, in which Dawn and our colleague Will Doran review what happened and what we learned.

In the meantime, this week’s headlines

▪ May means that it’s time for hot dogs. Or as Drew Jackson, our food writer puts it, the “time of ripening in the year when a pork or beef or veggie hot dog, nestled in a grilled or steamed bun, seems in tune with nature.” What’s your favorite hot dog in the Triangle? Let us know by choosing your top eight in the first round of our Hot Dog Bracket. Drew also delivers the news that a popular Triangle Tex-Mex restaurant is leaving The Boxyard RTP.

▪ Deep in development: Real estate and business reporter Mary Helen Moore details how a plot of land in downtown Raleigh sold for nearly $21 million, making it one of the most expensive purchases in city history. She also got the scoop on developers’ big reveal on two high-rise towers planned for Raleigh’s Downtown South.

▪ Have you been watching “The Staircase,” the new HBO Max drama series about the mysterious death of Kathleen Peterson and the Durham murder trial of her husband, Michael? Brooke Cain, our service journalism editor and author of the Happiness is a Warm TV blog, recaps this week’s installment (Episode 5) and much more surrounding the case.

▪ Brooke and Théoden James of the Charlotte Observer also dive into why the director of the 2018 Netflix docuseries on the Peterson case, also called “The Staircase,” says the new drama is unfairly depicting his documentary. It’s complicated, but if you’ve been watching the show, you’ll want to read this.

▪ Need to get away? Nothing hits quite like a beach trip. Luckily, North Carolina’s many beaches are easily within driving distance from the Triangle. Whether you want to dip your toes in the water, go fishing or just sit in the sand, here’s a guide to some of the state’s beaches and coastal regions.

▪ A 17-year-old protester was dragged to the ground and zip-tied by a Raleigh police officer during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020. Almost two years later, the city is settling with her out of court for $37,500. But money can’t change how she felt that day, Nyee’ya Williams tells my colleague, Aaron Sánchez-Guerra.

Any Kendrick fans reading?

It’s been a busy week with the election, so I’m going to be savoring my two days off to get some much-needed rest. While I’m off, I’ll continue taking in “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers,” Kendrick Lamar’s grand return after a five-year hiatus from music.

I’ve been listening to the double LP since it dropped last week. It’s dense, nuanced, deeply personal, and controversial. But as a massive Kendrick fan who’s been listening to everything he’s had to say since “Overly Dedicated,” it feels great to have some new thought-provoking music to dive into.

If you’ve listened to the album, I’d love to know what you think. Is this what you were expecting? How do you feel about it? What are your most and least favorite tracks? Send your thoughts to abajpai@newsobserver.com. (And if rock n’ roll is more of your thing, you won’t want to miss Scott Sharpe’s incredible photos of KISS performing in Raleigh this week in what the band proclaims as their “final tour ever.”)

That’s all from me for this week! Be sure to check out next week’s edition of RDU On the Rise from Kate Murphy, our higher education reporter.

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