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Here are some of the other stories catching our attention.

27 Presidential Candidates Make Cut For NC Primary

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Jennifer Lang

In March, North Carolina primary voters will have their pick of 27 presidential candidates. And no that’s not just the Republican field.

The North Carolina State Board of elections finalized the list in a meeting Tuesday morning. But since North Carolina holds closed primaries not all 27 candidates will appear on the same ballot.

Registered Republicans will be able to choose from a dozen candidates ranging from current front runner Donald Trump, to middle of the pack candidates like Carly Fiorina to former Senator Rick Santorum who is barely registering in the national polls.

Registered Democrats will get to pick from the three main candidates, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. And one more, Rocky De LaFuente, a San Diego businessman who gathered more than 10,000 needed signatures from state residents to get added to the slate.

And the Libertarian Party submitted 11 names for their primary.

Libertarians, Republicans and Democrats are the three political parties currently guaranteed a spot on the North Carolina ballot. Other parties must gather 90,000 signatures to get a candidate included for the primary. And this year no group or candidate was able to reach that mark.

As for the 1.8 million North Carolinians registered as unaffiliated, they will get to pick which party primary they want to vote in on March 15.

Tom Bullock decided to trade the khaki clad masses and traffic of Washington DC for Charlotte in 2014. Before joining WFAE, Tom spent 15 years working for NPR. Over that time he served as everything from an intern to senior producer of NPR’s Election Unit. Tom also spent five years as the senior producer of NPR’s Foreign Desk where he produced and reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon among others. Tom is looking forward to finally convincing his young daughter, Charlotte, that her new hometown was not, in fact, named after her.