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As hundreds gathered at the North Carolina state Capitol to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Gov. Josh Stein thanked them for braving temperatures nearing triple digits Saturday.
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“Now every one of you who is here today braving the North Carolina heat is a patriot,” Stein said with a big smile, drawing chuckles from the audience.
The National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning for Raleigh and Wake County until 8 p.m. Sunday, saying that heat index values could hover around 110. Temperatures are expected to hit 103 degrees in Raleigh, a mark that would set an Independence Day record and surpass the 2024 record of 101 degrees.
Responding to the heat, several state agencies set up tents and handed out free bottles of water. State Capitol Police drove ATVs shuttling packs of water to those who needed them.
Draped in half-American, half-German flags, Andreas Szabó and his husband, Andre Kurth, fanned their faces with N.C. Zoo-branded handheld fans. Szabó, a council member from the German city of Rostock, celebrated the 25th anniversary of his city and Raleigh becoming sister cities Friday and stuck around for Saturday’s festivities.
To beat the heat, Szabó and Kurth took advantage of the air conditioning inside the State Capitol and took a tour.
“We have to drink much — not only beer,” Szabó joked. “We’ll try water.”
Having the celebration under the shade of the Capitol plaza helped Raleigh residents Joe Hooker, 29, and Rayna Yvars, 31, stay cool, Hooker said. Vendors and re-enactments offered much to enjoy after the parade; Hooker said he found a carpentry station showing how Revolutionary-era cabinets were built most interesting.
Yvars said she enjoyed seeing different cultures the vendors represented — a showcase of what America was founded on.
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“I know over the past couple years politics have been very heated in all different directions,” Yvars said. “But I think it’s still cool to be able to walk around and meet different strangers, and we’ve met different people today, even from all over the world, who think that America is amazing.”
During his speech, Stein focused not only on North Carolinians who sparked the country’s independence movement — like Cornelius Harnett, who led the adoption of the Halifax Resolves — but on North Carolinians who worked to extend the “light of liberty” to disenfranchised Americans.
Stein told the stories of Wilmington native Abraham Galloway, who escaped slavery, worked as a spy for the Union during the Civil War and became one of North Carolina’s first Black state senators. Of Goldsboro’s Gertrude Weil, who founded the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League and advocated for women’s right to vote. Of Greensboro’s Henry Fry, a Korean War veteran who became the state’s first Black chief Supreme Court justice.
“Every time our nation faced a defining moment, North Carolinians reached out, grabbed the baton, and carried the cause of freedom further than where they found it,” Stein said. “Now we have that same responsibility. Will we carry our freedom forward? Will we leave our democracy stronger than we found it here in North Carolina? We say yes.”
Stein’s speech was a good lesson in North Carolina history for Air Force veteran Eric Harper. Harper said he enjoyed seeing people of different races come together to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary.
“Having to see the other side and be on the defense of this nation,” Harper said, “and then see what we’re actually protecting is a great thing.”
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This story was originally published July 4, 2026 at 3:17 PM.