Republican leaders in North Carolina have studiously, carefully, and purposely taken measures designed to hurt North Carolina Democrats, as well as middle income people regardless to their political backgrounds. Among those measures, Republican legislators have:

  1. Failed to fund public education adequately, and diverted to private schools tax dollars that should have gone to public schools. Plans in the 2016-17 North Carolina budget indicate that over the next 11 years, over $1 billion that should go to public schools will go to private schools instead.
  2. Reduced funding to the state university system for several years, forcing colleges to increase tuition. Many students have dropped out, and others have taken on huge amounts of debt to finance their education.
  3. Cut taxes substantially for the wealthy, but increased taxes for retirees, mobile home purchasers, and many other low and middle income taxpayers.
  4. Promised that corporate tax decreases would lead to more jobs, but corporations have used those tax savings to expand their operations and create jobs in other states instead. Actually, Republican policies have resulted in job losses in North Carolina.
  5. Passed laws that make it more difficult to vote; a voter ID was imposed, the number of early voting days was decreased, same day registration was eliminated, and straight party voting was eliminated. Fortunately, the court invalidated the ID requirement and the early voting decrease.
  6. Forced small businesses to pay more in taxes by eliminating an important deduction that they had once been able to take.
  7. Eliminated the Earned Income Tax Credit and refused to extend Medicare benefits, thus causing increased economic hardships, especially for women, many of whom are heads of households.
  8. Cut funding for state employees, causing stagnant wages for some of those workers and job losses for others. Also, the Republicans cut both the size of unemployment checks and the amount of time in which the unemployed are eligible to receive those benefits.
  9. Enacted laws devised by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a powerful, wealthy organization which drafts “model laws” that are introduced in states controlled by Republicans. Restrictive voting laws, private school vouchers, reducing public school funding, lower corporate taxes, and laws restricting local governments are the results of ALEC proposals.
  10. Acted to ensure Republican legislative control by removing black voters from swing districts and packing them into majority-minority districts so that white Republicans can easily defeat white Democrats, resulting in a large drop in the number of white Democrats holding elective office.Both white and black Democratic office holders, as well as people of other ethnicities, are needed to make education a top priority, to improve the economic welfare of middle income families, to implement a fair tax system, and to promote compassion for our less fortunate citizens.

VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR EACH OFFICE!! Generally, the Democrat is the second name listed for each office. In addition, be sure to vote for Democrat Michael Morgan for the North Carolina Supreme Court. For that contest, Michael Morgan is the first name on the ballot.