Steve Ford has lived in North Carolina since 1981, when he moved here to join The News & Observer of Raleigh. He retired in late 2012 as the paper’s editorial page editor. In that job, he supervised the opinion pages, wrote editorials and wrote a weekly column.
Steve grew up in Northern Virginia. He graduated from Yale University and served in the U.S. Army as a photographer, including a year in Vietnam. He and his wife, Jeanne, who is an attorney, live in Cary and have three grown sons. He began volunteer work with the N.C. Council of Churches in the spring of 2013, helping to keep an eye on state government and writing about public policy issues.
In his spare time, Steve enjoys outdoor activities, taking road trips (back roads, especially) and playing the piano. He and Jeanne are members of Christ the King Lutheran Church, Cary.
Bad ‘faith’ on Sunday voting (8/25/2026) - In advance, there’s no definitive way to gauge the impact of pending cutbacks to opportunities for Sunday voting in North Carolina’s upcoming midterm elections. But the intent behind those cuts is crystal-clear: They are meant to suppress the number of votes cast by African-Americans – votes that tend to favor Democratic candidates. The Republican legislators […]
Election chaos, on demand (7/13/2026) - When the time comes that the distinguished public servants who control North Carolina’s General Assembly aren’t rummaging in their bag of tricks for even more ways to tilt election laws in their favor, then we can expect the sun to rise in the west and pigs to take wing. So it’s no surprise that the […]
Struggling schools, a tilted bench (4/9/2026) - North Carolina’s Supreme Court has seven members. All are known as justices, an honor that seems to crystallize their responsibility in our system of government. But as to how elusive they may find actual justice to be, consider the April 2 refusal by a 4-3 majority to uphold an obligation vitally important to generations of […]
Voters face ‘Midterm Madness’ (2/5/2026) - Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, Presidents Day: Ah, the familiar milestones of February. Now comes a less-familiar one, sort of sneaking up – the start of early voting for North Carolina’s March 3 primary elections. Feb. 12 is when voters will begin choosing political parties’ candidates to appear on general election ballots in November. It’s not […]
Gerrymandering, voter suppression at center stage (10/16/2025) - The latest hot topic in the world of North Carolina politics is sadly, even maddeningly, familiar. Republican leaders of the General Assembly plan once again to redraw the state’s U.S. House district map as they seek to increase their party’s already lopsided edge in the state’s congressional delegation. Even one additional seat – bringing the […]
Decade of Dangerous Vouchers (7/15/2025) - July 23, 2015, was a dark day for an enterprise central to North Carolina’s civic well-being: the education of the state’s schoolchildren. Sadly, the path down which the state Supreme Court blundered 10 years ago has grown only more treacherous and contrary to the overall public interest. The occasion was a 4-3 ruling by the […]
Risky turn for N.C. elections (5/30/2025) - Our democracy, with free and fair elections at the cornerstone, can be warped in favor of those who manipulate the election process to their advantage – who gets to vote, when and where, and which votes are included when they’re finally counted. Call that a cornerstone of autocracy. For the past 15 years in North […]
High Court Race, High Stakes (4/11/2025) - Has the N.C. Supreme Court – deeply polarized in recent years under conservative Republican control – finally signaled that the prospect of throwing out thousands of votes in an election to fill one of its own seats might be more than it wants to swallow? Even if the beneficiary would be another Republican who wants […]
90 Years Rooted in Faith: Gatherings for education, inspiration (2/24/2025) - As we celebrate 90 years of faithful work for justice and equity this year, we’re sharing stories of 90 Years Rooted in Faith that reflect the heart of the North Carolina Council of Churches. Each month, you’ll hear from staff and long-time friends of the Council as they highlight the transformative impacts we’ve had on […]
Tuition giveaway’s real costs (9/12/2024) - Amid the turbulence of a high-stakes election season stands a sadly familiar outpost of stability – the N.C. General Assembly’s relentless support of private schools at the expense of the public schools that inevitably serve most of the state’s children. That support advances under the banner of parental choice. Republican legislators who wield their super-majority […]