Here’s a screenshot from 2015 that shows the first bill I ever filed.
It was a bill to end gerrymandering.
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How?
By passing a constitutional amendment that would implement an independent redistricting system, as many other states have done.
What does that mean?
In short, it means we would no longer let politicians draw the districts.
Why?
Because they cheat. My party cheated. Now the other party is cheating.
What happened to my bill?
It was sent to the Ways and Means committee - which hasn’t met in 20 years.
Why?
To send a message to the new guy: The corruption will continue.
What happened then?
I kept filing it. Year after year.
Support grew. The corruption of gerrymandering became more visible to the public.
People protested. Courts intervened.
And now we’re on the brink of finally ending it.
If we elect just a small handful of the new candidates who are publicly committed to independent redistricting, gerrymandered will fall into history.
If that happens, we will have accomplished something remarkable - something that will permanently upgrade politics in our state by forcing more legislators to actually listen to their constituents because they’ll be at greater risk of losing their next election if they don’t.
And the politicians who don’t like it - they can step up or they can step out.
Because we are determined to end this unethical practice of party-protectionism and finally return our elections to whom they belong:
You.
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This morning there was a political earthquake in North Carolina.
A legislator in the state House announced she was switching parties from Democrat to Republican.
I want to make sure you understand how dramatic the impact of this one switch will be.
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Until today, Democrats had enough votes to sustain the Governor’s veto - but only by a margin of one vote in the NC House.
With this switch, Republicans now have a supermajority in both chambers, which just gave them full control for the first time since 2017.
I can’t overstate the consequences of this switch.
While we don’t know how she will vote on any given bill, dozens of bills that were essentially dead - from elections law changes to reproductive freedom to LGBTQ rights to education policy - may have just sprung back to life.
Yesterday I learned about an event that happened three weeks ago. It appears that someone - who has yet to be identified - fired a shot into the home of my opponent's parents.
It was absolutely an act of violence and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.
At this point, we don't know who did this or why. Thankfully no one was hurt, but whoever did this should be held accountable.
Some initial press reports - which since been corrected - claimed that this house appeared in one of our ads. That is false. There were also claims that I have an ad where I stand in front of my opponent's house. Also false.
Whoa - now my congressional opponent is running an ad saying that I *support domestic terrorism.*
He's saying I side with people who try to harm us.
That's a pretty harsh accusation.
If only I had some way to fight back.
Oh wait.
What if I had enlisted because of 9/11 and deployed to Afghanistan with Army Special Operations.
What if I had manned a .50 cal as we drove across the desert while I scanned my sector for hostile movement because I was trying to make sure we all came home alive.
Ukrainian resistance has been remarkable and from a military standpoint we don’t know the outcome.
But we know this: When Russia invaded its neighbor, it set itself on a path to swift economic disaster.
Let’s tally up the cost from just the last three weeks:
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- The ruble recently traded at its lowest level ever and is now worth less than a penny. Russia has doubled its key interest rate to 20% and banned trading the ruble for dollars to try and prop it up. These are emergency measures and not expected to prevent a further collapse.
- Russia’s stock market has now been closed since the day after the invasion began - the longest market closure in its history - as the government knows that the crash it was experiencing will immediately resume once it reopens.