Name as it appears on the ballot: Lisa Grafstein

Age: 58

Party affiliation: Democratic

Campaign website: lisagrafstein.com

Occupation & employer:  Civil rights attorney / NC Senator

Years lived in North Carolina: 34

1. What in your background qualifies you to represent the people of your North Carolina district effectively? What would you cite as your three biggest career accomplishments?

In my first term in the NC Senate, I have served on several important committees, including the Judiciary Committee, Ethics Committee, and Agriculture, Energy and Environment Committee. I take the work seriously, show up prepared, and work hard to serve my constituents. Sometimes that means working behind the scenes to make a bill better, and sometimes that means challenging the majority party directly and publicly, for example when we debated the harmful 2023 abortion ban and the bill to divert taxpayer funds to wealthy families to use at unaccountable private schools. I have lived in Wake County for 34 years, seeing the area through tremendous growth and change. Southern Wake County now faces challenges around growth and development that I have seen up close throughout Wake County during my 3+ decades here. Despite being gerrymandered out of the existing Senate District 13, I remain committed to serving the people of Wake County in the new Senate District 13.

The three career accomplishments I am most proud of are: 1. Being a mentor to younger lawyers in my work at Disability Rights NC and helping them develop into effective disability rights advocates who are making a difference for the disability community; 2. Winning cases that have made a difference in clients’ lives – from individual employment discrimination cases, to voting rights cases, to ensuring access to Medicaid for thousands of workers with disabilities; 3. Being respected by my peers for my integrity and hard work, including being elected to serve as president/chair of several statewide organizations, and being named among the top lawyers in the state.   

2. What do you believe to be the three most pressing issues facing the next General Assembly? What steps do you believe the state should take to address them?

Recent sessions have brought many regressive policies, including attacks on women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and our basic civic freedoms. In addition to reversing these trends, the issues below are among the most pressing:

Hurricane Helene. We do not yet know the full impact of Helene on our state, or what it will take to address the damage. But it is clear that rebuilding the communities of Western North Carolina will be an important priority for years to come. The General Assembly has started the process of addressing the disaster through an initial appropriation, which I voted for and supported wholeheartedly. We must continue to work with local communities and state agencies to help the region recover. This will almost surely mean appropriations for things like roads and schools, but may also mean giving state and local agencies the flexibility to speed the process of recovery.  

Public Schools. Our public schools throughout the state must also be a top priority. As our courts have repeatedly found, North Carolina has dramatically underfunded local schools and failed to implement the Leandro plan, which would address serious gaps in our education system. In addition to substantially increasing teacher pay to keep up with other states and with costs, we should restore additional pay for longevity and for those who obtain a Master’s degree. I have filed bills to address the growing unmet needs in our schools, including bills to ensure access to psychologists, social workers, and school nurses. Because of the Republican majority’s control of the legislature, these bills were not even given a hearing. Instead, hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated for taxpayer funding of unaccountable private schools to benefit the wealthiest families. We have to take immediate steps to reverse the continual defunding of our schools. In addition to the inherent value in having great public schools, we are also risking the state’s ability to attract and retain the businesses and industries that have helped our state grow in recent decades. 

Stabilizing Revenue. North Carolina is currently on track to have a structural deficit by as early as 2026 – meaning that our revenues will be less than the expenditures needed to meet our budget. How did this happen? The Republican supermajority has put in place an elimination of the corporate income tax – taking it to 0% by 2030. This will cost the state $2B per year. Right now, the rate is 2.5%, which the NC Chamber of Commerce has said is good for business, and which is the lowest in the country. I filed a bill to freeze the rate at 2.5% but could not get Republican support. In addition, reductions in personal income tax are not responsibly targeted at middle class and working class taxpayers; instead, 2/3 of the cuts favor the wealthiest individuals, depleting important revenue and exacerbating the growing wealth gap. Although this issue does not get much attention, it is creating a fiscal cliff that will make it harder to address serious ongoing needs, such as teacher and state employee pay (and serious agency vacancy rates) and our underfunded services for people with disabilities, including those with mental illness, substance use disorder, or developmental disabilities. 

3. To what extent do you support municipalities exerting local control over issues such as regulating greenhouse gas emissions, criminal justice reforms and police oversight, and passing development-regulating ordinances?

I have opposed countless bills stripping local governments of their ability to manage local affairs (such as prohibiting plastic bags), and I support enabling local communities to act locally based on the best interests of their residents. The effort to centralize control is not based on principles of governance, but on principles of power and control.   

4. Do you support raising North Carolina’s minimum wage, and if so, by how much? 

I support increasing the minimum wage to at least $15 per hour. Although that figure may be becoming outdated in some industries, there are still many people who make less. We should also implement a trigger for future increases in the minimum wage so that wages do not lag so far behind increases in the cost of living. I co-sponsored the Working Families Act (SB818), aimed at reducing childcare costs and increasing wages, the Middle Class Momentum Act (SB844), which would increase the standard deduction for families, and Reenact the Earned Income Tax Credit (SB816) to benefit working families. To increase wages, I filed a bill to raise the minimum wage (SB447), and one to make it easier to unionize (SB543) because unions help raise wages. I am endorsed by the AFL-CIO for my support for workers and working families. 

5.  What, if anything, should the state legislature do to address the growing affordability crisis and support low-income families in North Carolina?

We have an affordable housing crisis AND a crisis of housing affordability. Both require that we build more housing, faster. This may require some streamlining of the regulatory process. We need about 200,000 more affordable housing units statewide. We must do better in funding tools like the NC Housing Trust Fund, which provides support for affordable housing options, and we should rebuild community development programs, which have been gutted in recent years. The legislature should also consider giving local governments the ability to ensure new affordable housing units are built into growth. The problem of housing affordability, especially in Wake County, is partly due to growth, which is managed at the local level. But it is also caused by investment firms buying up homes, by some estimates accounting for 1 in 5 sales in recent years. When investors own a significant part of the single-family housing stock, home buyers are quickly priced out of the market. We can pursue tax policies at the state level that discourage this practice by adjusting the tax code to make the hoarding of housing stock an unattractive investment. Finally, we can give local governments more ability to manage growth if we invest in high quality regional public transit.

6. What is your vision for transit in North Carolina? What kind of regional transit systems should the state work to implement and what kind of transit legislation would you support?

The next steps we take on transportation are very important in southern Wake County. Growth is far outpacing the development of transit options. I filed the Train Infrastructure Acceleration Act (Senate Bill 821) to address growing transportation needs throughout North Carolina. Locally, we need transit options to accommodate the rapid increase in housing, particularly in unincorporated areas of Wake County where traffic congestion has resulted from explosive growth. I believe Wake County has made significant progress on the Wake Transit Plan, particularly in extending bus services through more of the county and moving toward clean-fuel buses. Commuter rail has been elusive but should be a priority to address increasing regional needs and reducing environmental and climate impacts.  

7. Would you support an independent process for drawing new legislative and congressional districts?

Yes, I support a non-partisan redistricting commission. Having constant change in districts, and ongoing litigation, causes people to disconnect from the process. Polarized districts make it harder for people to hold their representatives accountable, and make people believe that their vote doesn’t matter. I have worked on voting issues in various contexts for many years, including registering voters, serving as an Election Protection monitor, and litigating voting access cases. In all these contexts, it has been clear to me that people are much more engaged when we make participation in our democracy easier and more meaningful.

8. Do you support expanding funding for Opportunity Scholarships? Do you believe the legislature has a role in ensuring that private schools don’t further raise tuition on families and taxpayers with the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars into the private school economy?  Please explain your answer. 

I voted no on the expansion of private school vouchers because they take taxpayer funds from public schools and use those public funds to support unaccountable private schools. I have no objection to private schools (or public magnet or charter schools), but providing these funds to the wealthiest families harms our public school system. Decreased state funding has driven up Wake County property taxes, making the voucher scheme even more unfair to taxpayers. 

I do believe the legislature should assess whether private schools raised tuition as a result of wealthy families receiving the voucher subsidies. Anecdotally, I have heard that this is the case, and we know that it has happened in other states. In Wake County, nearly 3200 of the applications for the vouchers went to 8 schools operated by one entity, accounting for at least $11M in state funds. There is significant money at stake, and that calls for serious review. 

9.  North Carolina is one of the lowest-paying states for teachers in the nation. Schools across the state are facing shortages of educators, support staff, and other key personnel. By what percentage should the next budget raise wages for teachers and school employees? What else can the General Assembly do to improve working conditions for teachers and make the teaching profession more attractive to potential future educators?

We must address teacher pay and benefits, making a long-term commitment so that teachers are able to commit to the profession without fear that changing political winds will disrupt their career paths. We should reinstate pay for Masters degrees, restore retirement health benefits, and adequately fund and support professional development for educators. I supported the Governor’s proposal (included in a proposed balanced budget) for an 8.5% increase, understanding that that would be a downpayment on a longer-term commitment to address the long-term erosion of pay and respect. Teachers are working harder than ever and getting less respect. We have to equip our schools to meet students’ needs, and that includes treating and paying teachers like the professionals that they are.

Students also need access to school psychologists, counselors, social workers and school nurses. I filed a number of bills this session to address the current shortages in these areas, which included pay increases and addressing the pipeline of professionals. We could have funded these positions with the money that has been allocated instead to the private voucher scheme that primarily benefits wealthy families. The Republican majority declined to take up the bills that would have met these needs. 

The Leandro plan is a roadmap designed to address the deficits noted in this question. And the most obvious action step is to fund the plan. Beyond that, we have to make a long-term commitment that is not dependent on litigation but is grounded in the same rigorous analysis of needs and solutions that underlie the Leandro plan. 

The greatest challenge is overcoming the refusal of those in power to treat public education as a public good, and to invest accordingly. Public education has been maligned as part of a political agenda. Resolving this problem will require nothing less than recasting the narrative about our schools and the role they play in our democracy. 

10. North Carolina bans abortion after 12 weeks’ gestation. Do you think abortion access in North Carolina should be expanded or further restricted, or do you support the current law? 

I oppose further restrictions and co-sponsored a bill (SB19) to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade. Roe was overturned in an opinion by several Supreme Court Justices who had sworn that they would not overturn the decision. I would vote to repeal SB20, the 2023 abortion ban, passed by Senate Republicans who had promised that they would not vote to further restrict access. SB20 went well beyond a 12-week ban; it placed medically unnecessary and dangerous barriers between women and their doctors including a waiting period with unnecessary trips to a clinic, collection of personal medical information to be stored by the state, and being forced to listen to biased “information” written by legislators and not doctors. Women who miscarry or have nonviable pregnancies are suffering unnecessarily due to doctors’ fears of violating the law. We are losing OB/GYNs and med students who don’t want to practice in a state that does not allow women to make medical decisions with their doctors. I also filed a bill (SB540) to protect the right to use birth control, which is also under threat based on the decision overturning Roe. I could not get a single Republican to sign on. I will continue to advocate for reproductive freedom.

11. Do you support reforming North Carolina’s marijuana laws? Do you support full legalization? Please explain your position. 

I voted for SB3, which would have legalized and regulated medical marijuana. I would support legalization of adult use within parameters. In addition to strong protections against underage access, I would like to see strong consumer protection and quality control, as well as the ability for small and local farmers to have fair access to participating in the market.

12. Do you support strengthening gun safety regulations such as expanding background checks, banning bump stocks, and raising the age to buy or otherwise regulating the sales of assault-style weapons? Please explain. 

We can protect the rights of responsible gun owners, while taking common sense steps to protect public safety, such as background checks. Background checks are not a barrier for law-abiding citizens. That is why I opposed the repeal of the permit requirement for pistols. There is also widespread support for regulating the sale of assault weapons and bump stocks; even gun owners and gun enthusiasts understand that these are vastly more dangerous and should be treated differently. Red flag laws can also be an important tool for law enforcement and the community to prevent potential violence and to protect individuals experiencing a mental health crisis from engaging in deadly self-harm. Most people agree on these modest measures, and we can achieve them if we are able to stop extremists from controlling our gun policies.   

13. Are there any issues this questionnaire has not addressed that you would like to address? 

Additional information about my positions and qualifications can be found at lisagrafstein.com. If readers have specific questions, I would welcome those. My email address is [email protected]. Thank you.