C2C’s NEWSLETTER:
on THE ISSUES
We can expand medicaid now
On Valentine's Day hundreds of advocates for Medicaid Expansion swarmed through the General Assembly, visiting Representatives and Senators to urge them to finally support Medicaid Expansion. For 10 years Republicans have been holding back on the grounds that the Federal Government wouldn't come through with their promised 90% of reimbursement for the 600,000 working adults who make too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid, and too little to afford health insurance on the Affordable Care marketplace.
We took a carrots approach: handing out valentines and candy hearts with notes that said: Wouldn't it be sweet if we expanded Medicaid?
Democrats and the Youth Vote
In November’s midterm, Democrat Cheri Beasley lost her Senate race to Republican Ted Budd. Republicans gained a supermajority in the NC State Senate, and they fell short by only a single seat of securing a supermajority in the NC State House. Sadly, with less than ⅓ of registered voters aged 18-40 turning out, NC Democrats failed to mobilize young voters. The turnout of registered minority voters in that age group was even more disappointing with only ⅕ of registered Black and Hispanic voters under 41 casting ballots.
2022 Election Results: What the Numbers Tell Us
Even though a lot of people only come out to vote for Presidential elections, at County-to-County we know that every election counts.
In 2010, we learned what happens when folks get complacent and don't come out to vote in midterm elections. For the first time in 100 years, Democrats lost control of both houses of the state legislature and, as a result, lost control of the redistricting process as well as the ability to define the issues that receive priority and a vote in the legislature.
How we win in North Carolina
In a post-election editorial in the Raleigh News and Observer, Paige Masten lays out her prescription for electoral success in our state:
Knocking on doors and registering voters when a major election rolls around is important, but it’s not the way to achieve long-term success. If Democrats want to win in North Carolina, they’re going to have to start laying permanent infrastructure in counties they have too often ignored. That means empowering communities, recruiting candidates for local office and investing resources year-round. It also means having a message that resonates with voters in those communities — understanding their unique concerns about everything from the economy to health care and having a plan to address them.
Sound familiar? This two-fold approach outlined by Masten is the approach that County-to-County has put into practice for the past six years.
GUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE - THE GOP’S AGENDA IF THEY WIN
No Republican candidate running in 2022 says it upfront.
But read between the lines in recent remarks by Kevin McCarthy, and you’ll see that hacking back Social Security and Medicare remains very much the party’s intent, if they win the House on November 8.
Why This College Student is All-In for Democrats This November
When I was 13, right before the ill-fated Presidential election of 2016, I heard conversations in the recess yard about how Hillary Clinton was trying to change America as we knew it and that Donald Trump, while a bit of a jerk, was the only way to stop her - “the lesser of two evils.” These sorts of comments were typical of the Catholic middle and high schools that I attended - isolated, conservative bubbles where most of my peers were happy to parrot their parents’ talking points and views, not giving politics a second thought.
WHY I AM VOTING FOR DEMOCRATS
My name is Chloe, and I am a 20 year old college student at Vassar College. I spent my entire life growing up in Chapel Hill and Carrboro attending the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
Like many people, I got involved in politics after 2016 because I was so afraid of what Trump’s election would mean for the United States. However, I have stayed involved because I came to understand the egalitarian goal of the Democratic Party to improve the lives of all, regardless of their annual income, their zip code, their gender or race.
The Economy, Inflation, and the Midterm Truth
With early mid-term voting well underway and November 8 just around the corner, it’s clear that economic growth and inflation are the issues on which NC Republicans have chosen to hang their hats in this election cycle.
That’s hardly surprising. Women’s reproductive health is undoubtedly a hot button issue. But the GOP position on abortion rights is so unpopular that they have largely decided to go silent. Instead, they’re attempting to sway voters with a time-honored claim: that Republicans are the party of the economy. Trouble is, the statistics just don’t bear this out.
WHY VOTE THIS NOVEMBER?
Our very democracy is at stake in the coming election.
In fact, the radical right has already shown us that they intend to substitute their will for our Constitution. Before you vote, take some time to think about it.
COMBATTING “THE BIG LIE”
Since April 2020 our airwaves have been dominated by messages that warn us of rampant voter fraud. "That's the only way I could lose,” former President Trump told us before the 2020 election. And when he did lose, his slogan, “Stop the Steal,” and his drumbeat of election fraud amplified his lie, casting him, in the minds of many of his followers, in the role of patriotic victim. According to the NYTimes "stolen election" was mentioned 325,000 times on Twitter in just one month this summer. And during the same time period, over 2.5 million people watched an online video about voter fraud. You might have seen it.
None of this is true. Biden won, fair and square, by thousands of votes in every state that the Trump team contested.
AMERICANS WANT COMMONSENSE REGULATIONS TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE
After the mass shootings in Buffalo, NY, Uvalde, TX, and Highland Park, IL of this summer, Americans once again voiced the need for government action to prevent more senseless killing. Their support for controlling gun violence has now hit its highest point in a decade. A July 2022 CNN poll revealed that most Americans favor stricter gun laws, with more than 4 in10 saying that recently enacted Safer Communities Act restrictions don’t go far enough to solve the problem of gun violence.
NC Voters Want More Funding for Public Schools
If you ask North Carolina voters what they care about, 60% want the Republican dominated legislature to stop starving public schools.
They don't want tax cuts, and they don't want vouchers for private religious schools. They want their tax dollars to go to pay for public school teachers, books for public schools, and nurses and social workers at public schools. In short, they want their kids and kids in their community to have the same chance to go to a well-funded public school that they had.
Where are North Carolina’s Teachers?
On the first day of school some children across our state will arrive to find no teacher in their classroom.
Every headline about the impact of the lack of teachers on the opening of school this year contains the word ‘crisis.’
Superintendents in 98 of 115 North Carolina school districts report 11,297 teacher and staff vacancies: 3,619 K-12 teachers, 1,342 bus drivers, 850 special education teachers, 354 counselors, social workers and psychologists; 70 assistant principals, 698 central office employees, and more than 4,362 other support staff. Consider the teacher shortage alone.
WHAT CAN NORTH CAROLINIANS DO ABOUT THE HIGH COST OF HOUSING?
Whether owners or renters, Americans feel the pain of high inflation in the cost of basic shelter. The stories we hear about families searching for a home are very concerning to all of us. In North Carolina the estimated shortfall is that 900,000 homes are needed by 2030 to meet the requirements of the growing population.
President Biden has released a plan to address the housing shortfall in the next five years. He proposes several administrative steps that he can take to ease the housing crunch while other measures will require Congressional action.
Making North Carolina Safer From Gun Violence
Mass shootings like those in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, NY break our hearts and galvanize us to act to stop the rampant gun violence. As Governor Cooper said in his passionate speech on May 25: "We need Republicans in North Carolina and across the country to come to the table and pass these bills [that protect our communities] ... Or we need to choose new leaders."
What Makes North Carolina a Good Place to do Business?
The Republican Legislature thinks cutting taxes is the answer.
They have reduced corporate taxes to 0.
That might have been enough in the old days, when manufacturing was strong here, and you needed a strong back and willingness to work hard.
But jobs in the 21st Century are different.
Abortion in North Carolina: What Happens Here?
As the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) debates its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Mississippi case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, the future of abortion rights in America hangs in the balance.
A draft decision on the Dobbs case was leaked May 3, 2022, to the news site Politico, and the uproar online and in public spaces across the country has yet to subside. While a decision upholding Dobbs and overturning Roe would eliminate Federal protection of the right to an abortion, it would not create a Federal prohibition; what it would do is allow states to ban abortion outright if they chose. After the draft decision was leaked, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper tweeted “Now more than ever, governors and state legislatures must stand up for women's healthcare.”
Many states stand poised to roll back a freedom American women have had for fifty years with “trigger” laws that have been passed with the express intent to create bans as soon as a decision overturning the Roe precedent was handed down from SCOTUS.
What would happen in North Carolina?
The Message on the Leandro Case for Educational Funding
The growth of children helps us see the passage of time.
Back in 1994, eighth-grader Robb Leandro and his parents saw that his education from Hoke County Schools was not adequate. He and his family joined five other poor counties in a lawsuit against the state saying the state had a constitutional obligation to adequately fund the education of all children in North Carolina.
Why We Need Medicaid Expansion
Too many families in North Carolina lack access to quality, affordable health care. Over 1.1 million North Carolinians lack affordable insurance -- more than in 38 other states -- because our Republican-dominated state legislature has refused to expand Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Broadband: Level the Playing Field for NC Families
An essential utility, High Speed Broadband makes it possible for students to learn online, parents to work from home, and for subscribers to see their doctor even if they can’t get into the office. The Biden Administration and Governor Cooper unveiled the “Internet for All Initiative” that aims to bring Internet to every American by the end of the decade.