North Carolina this year was home to some of the nation’s closest elections chock full of rhetoric and a deadly natural disaster that spawned all kinds of misinformation about how top government officials were responding.

Those topics — the election and Hurricane Helene — generated some of the most-read North Carolina fact checks of the year.

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PolitiFact North Carolina, is a partnership between WRAL and PolitiFact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking organization. Together, we rate statements made by local politicians and government officials, as well as rumors that gain traction on social media. We rate statements after investigating the claims, emphasizing primary sources, government reports, academic studies and other credible sources.

Atop this year’s most-read list: Are immigrants straining the state’s social safety net? Who’s in charge of North Carolina when the governor leaves the state? And how did the government respond to Hurricane Helene’s damage to western North Carolina?

This recap also features fact checks about presidential candidates President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Roy Cooper, candidates for North Carolina’s top offices, and claims about Helene that were viewed millions of times on social media.

Did Harris stage a photo op with supplies that weren't sent to Helene victims?

A week after Helene hit North Carolina, Harris traveled to Charlotte and met with members of North Carolina’s Air National Guard — and the Associated Press took a photograph of Harris in front of a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane.

Viral social media posts claimed that the plane wasn’t going anywhere because the scene was staged. "Reports that Kamala Harris staged hurricane relief photo op with C-17, no supplies sent to victims," one Instagram post claimed, citing a Oct. 10 episode of "The Shawn Ryan Show" podcast.

It’s true that the plane behind Harris never took off with the Helene supplies — but that didn’t mean the photo was staged.

The North Carolina National Guard told us that the plane was scheduled to fly to Asheville to deliver supplies. However, after the cargo was loaded and the crew arrived for pre-flight duties, an engine issue was identified and the cargo was moved to a second plane. After another maintenance issue was discovered on the second plane, the mission was delayed until the following day, when the supplies were successfully flown to Asheville, according to the guard

In other words, the supplies in the plane behind Harris did get to Asheville, after all. So we rated the claim False.

Trump claims Cooper blocked Helene aid to western NC

Two weeks after Helene hit North Carolina, Former President Trump accused Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper of intentionally impeding aid to the western part of the state.

"It has just come out that Democrats in Washington and the Democrat Governor’s Office of North Carolina (Roy Cooper) were blocking people and money from coming into North Carolina to help people in desperate need," Trump, then a candidate for reelection, wrote Oct. 11 on social media. "Biden knew about it, and so did Kamala! It’s all over the place — A HORRIBLE SITUATION. I will make it up to everyone when we take Office on January 20th. HOLD ON, I’M COMING!"

We wondered what Trump meant about any alleged evidence that had "just come out," but his campaign didn’t respond to our request for evidence. We found a similar headline published Oct. 10 National File, a right-wing outlet: "LEAKED EMAILS: Blue Cross Blue Shield NC Coordinated Directly with NC Democrat Gov to Stifle Aid to Western NC."

The article and Trump’s statement distorted the facts. The insurance company, citing Cooper’s guidance, advised its employees to avoid traveling in western North Carolina — where Helene killed 103 people and left 6,000 miles of roads and 1,000 bridges and culverts damaged. But it also encouraged employees to make donations or volunteer with agencies designated to coordinate relief efforts. We rated the claim Pants on Fire.

NC public schools superintendent candidate Michele Morrow claims the 'plus' in 'LGBTQ+' stands for ‘pedophilia’

Michele Morrow, the Republican state superintendent candidate, criticized her Democratic opponent, Mo Green, for accepting an endorsement from Equality North Carolina, a group that champions the LGBTQ+ community.

In a social media post, Morrow claimed that the group uses a term — LGBTQ+ — in its mission statement, saying: “NEWSFLASH…the ‘+’ includes [pedophilia]!!” She added: “Mo Green will not keep our children safe!”

Morrow’s claim about the meaning of LGBTQ+ is wrong. The plus symbol in LGBTQ+ is intended to “recognize those not captured within or represented by the acronym LGBTQ,” according to the American Psychological Association. It aims to show inclusivity toward people with other sexual orientations and gender identities, said Jazmynne Cruz, a spokesperson for Equality NC, which advocates for gay and transgender rights. The group doesn’t support pedophilia, Cruz said.

The narrative that the community aims to promote pedophilia is rooted in a long history anti-gay movements. We rated the claim Pants on Fire.

Does Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson become governor if Gov. Roy Cooper leaves the state?

After Biden dropped out of the presidential race and Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, political pundits speculated that she might choose North Carolina’s governor as her running mate. Cooper and Harris had known each other for 20 years, dating back to when they served as attorney general of their respective states.

One potential obstacle, pundits noticed, appeared in North Carolina’s state constitution.

“During the absence of the governor from the state, or during the physical or mental incapacity of the governor to perform the duties of his office, the lieutenant governor shall be acting governor. The further order of succession as acting governor shall be prescribed by law,” the constitution says.

Did that mean Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson — the Republican firebrand running for Cooper’s job — could take executive action with Cooper out of town? Legal experts were divided on their interpretation of the law.

Are immigrants without legal status straining North Carolina services?

In January, Republican state legislators called on Cooper to send the state’s National Guard troops to Texas citing a crisis at the southern U.S. border.

“Every day, North Carolinians are forced to suffer the consequences of President Biden’s open border policies,” those lawmakers wrote to Cooper in a letter. “Under his administration’s watch, millions have illegally poured through our southern border and have wreaked havoc on our public safety, strained our social safety net, and weakened the rule of law in our country.”

The rhetoric helped painted a picture of a state overwhelmed by noncitizens who have entered the U.S. illegally under Biden’s administration. But data — offering insight into North Carolina’s crime, public school system and social safety net — painted a different picture.

Records showed noncitizens having minimal effect on North Carolina’s crime rate, Medicaid pool, public schools, and unemployment benefits.

Did the federal government try to seize North Carolina’s lithium after Helene?

Two days after Helene hit North Carolina, some on social media started to doubt the natural origins of the storm.

A Sept. 29 Facebook post focused on the western North Carolina city of Asheville, claiming it “sits on top of billions of dollars of lithium.”

“Is this a coincidence that hurricane (Helene) destroyed all that area?” the poster wrote. “This is the outcome of a well orchestrated man-made disaster, weather modification and geoengineering."

Similar claims circulated after other natural disasters, such as the Hawaii wildfires in August 2023. Social media users also falsely claimed that the fires were intentionally set to mine for lithium.

The claim about North Carolina was also inaccurate. North Carolina has no active lithium mines. Two companies have said they plan to open lithium mines in the state in the coming years. Neither project is in Asheville, one of the cities the storm hit hardest. We rated the claim Pants on Fire.

How did government officials react to Helene?

The most popular North Carolina-related fact check of the year was not about one claim, but several. The week after Helene hit North Carolina, social media was full of false and misleading claims about the federal agencies and government officials involved in the response. Millions of people saw posts falsely claiming:

  • Chimney Rock residents were told their land “was being seized by the federal government.” There’s no proof this ever happened.
    • Biden told North Carolinians he “had no more supplies for us.” This misrepresented Biden’s comments to a reporter. He never said the government ran out of supplies.
      • North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore was blocking volunteer rescue missions. There’s no proof of this, and Moore told us he was trying to help integrate more volunteer rescue missions.
        • Troops were in limbo while waiting for Cooper to sign paperwork. By the time this claim was posted online, Cooper had signed the proper paperwork and that aircraft from Fort Liberty was delivering commodities and joining rescue and recovery efforts, the North Carolina National Guard told us.
          • Cooper was “too busy hobnobbing with rich folks in New York” to prepare for Helene. To prepare for Helene, Cooper formally asked top lawmakers for emergency powers on Sept. 24. The next day, Cooper attended a conference on climate change in New York and returned to North Carolina the same day. Helene hit North Carolina on Sept. 27.

            Click here for detailed explanations of these Helene claims.