Name as it appears on the ballot: Matthew Kordon

Age: 27

Party affiliation: Libertarian

Campaign website: https://kordonforliberty.org

Occupation & employer:  Software Engineer and Videogame Creative Director at Dell Technologies and Otyugra respectively

Years lived in North Carolina: 21

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 2018, I ran for Treasurer in a class-sized university club in which the vote was tied (I kindly conceded to my opponent); I spoke earnestly about underlying virtues and it persuaded many on my plan for financing the club. I have frequently held leadership roles from High School onward out from a sense of duty. I have been sharpening my leadership by reading books and having lived experiences. 

(1) Hiring a game design consultant last year improved my understanding of incentives and systems which is applicable to law design; gamification is lacking in North Carolina government. (2) My technology degree with a concentration in business included studies in history; communication; philosophy; geography; earth science; and economics, thereby preparing me. (3) My servitude to my communities through churches and a recycling club endowed me with a love and respect for all people as well as cynicism towards their flaws.

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?

(1) Perhaps in the next session, cyber security; cryptocurrency; deep fakes; cloning technology; outer space funding; endangered wildlife; and other STEM topics are going to be important to tackle. We should prepare for these advances with both tolerance and alertness. (2) I expect health care to be a contentious and urgent issue to address and I am the only one willing to privatize and straighten health care or at least pressure my colleagues to reduce its funding along with other areas of inappropriate spending. (3) Criminal Justice is a volcano that threatens to roar back to life with such a massive prison population and declining approval of police behavior (from 61% in 2003 to 45% approval in 2023). Suspects and inmates deserve better treatment and half of our population is primed to start noticing this. We need to end qualified immunity for police officers and the slave labor of prisoners.

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 believe environmentalism is just as much a Local issue as it is a State one, but hardly a Federal issue; we need to cooperate on caring for the planet but the State should override municipalities when the urgency is high enough. I believe the same is true about zoning laws and criminal justice. In practice, the outcomes of local elections sometimes need vetoing as a check against tyranny and injustice.

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

I support government employees and prisoners being paid a competitive wage with benefits no greater than typical employees of the private sector but that the minimum wage should otherwise be abolished and that prisoners should not collect their earnings until they complete their sentence in full.

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

The state government should loosen zoning restrictions and construction regulations (which have run amok and gone way past reasonable), and end all funding for low-income families beyond the help they need to stay fed and with water. The government does not owe us shelter, unemployment benefits, or subsidies for a low income. Some believe we do not respect hardworking Americans enough, and that is looking at the problem the wrong way. We instead need to respect fruitful labor only, labor that brings recognized value into the world, and this is the way to do that.

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?

I desire for our transit technology to be transitioned into private ownership with modest regulations, such as requiring them not to discriminate by the race of a customer and to obey core safety rules. With enough changes, any form of transportation is either profitable or due for replacement by something far superior. I would not support anything contrary to this goal unless it is a reasonable new safety rule, for example, as I do not view that as contrary to the values I hold. Likewise, I would support running transportation like a for-profit business.

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

Yes. The top five largest political parties in our state should elect one person each to a board of redistricting during a primary election once every ten years.

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.

The second question is very important for us candidates to contemplate; God bless you for asking that question. I do not support expanding the opportunity scholarships because it has very recently turned into a massive slush fund and an excuse to stringently regulate alternative forms of education. In a post-HB10 world, the idea of expanding this program even further is ludicrous! I would like to gradually undo the changes made to private education funding this past session which is the thing Democrats say they want but might not have the guts to attempt for fear of upsetting those who love the new spending. This radical increase in funding was a mistake and was not Libertarian, even if we do want people to have access to alternative ways of education and proper competition. The moral way to level this playing field is to grant tax relief and lower government funding.

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?

While I am open to paying teachers more, I suspect the problem is not that teachers need higher pay or benefits but that they are unfulfilled in other, valid ways. Teachers and bus drivers have very little freedom to govern their classrooms or school buses due to strict guidelines by pointless middle management and are expected to endure much abuse at the hands of parents and students. The leftwing influence on schools has had the impact of making children feel pigeon-holed into classes they do not like, with teachers who cannot be fired and with teachers who can neither punish them for bad behavior nor take a weapon of self-defense with them into their class or school bus. Much needs to change.

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?

In contrast with our gubernatorial candidates and the many attack ads, you ask this question in a way that acknowledges the full depth of possible answers, and I appreciate that. To answer your question, I would make the following two changes: Expand legality until week 16 ends, and end the special exception for incest. Killing babies for the excuse of incest is cruel to the babies who did nothing wrong and might be born healthy. Week 17 is the earliest a fetus shows signs of human sentience, which is to say brain processing and reaction to external stimuli. I support women having access to contraceptions and IVF operations.

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

Because of the 10th Amendment, I believe North Carolina can make Marijuana legal, and indeed it ought to. In the way that I think alcohol should stay legal, I want marijuana legal even more than that, which is no more a gateway drug or danger than alcohol. It should be fully legal and modestly taxed. It especially needs to be legal for medical use which seniors deserve.

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.

I believe all gun owners should simply need to endure government-run safety training which then results in a license. There would be no background checks or bans of any kind. Once a gun owner gets this license, which never renews, they can do whatever they want with their gun (while obeying the law and the rules of property owners) so long as they do not transfer it to a person who is without a license. I believe there should be a minimum age for the license at about age 14.

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

In closing, I need to compare myself with my opponents to give you an overview of your options. I am the only option who has neither broken financial law nor engaged in bigotry on the campaign trail. I want you to take a moment and reread that previous sentence. I am the only option who will defend the National Guard’s age-old duty of protecting our State and keep them near NC rather than at foreign conflicts. I am the only option who will make Ranked-Choice Voting a priority. I am the only option with both an outlined plan and a humble focus on just five topics. I am the only option who enters dozens of neighborhoods to speak with voters. I am the only option who will limit our out-of-control government to pay off our state debt. I am the only option who cares dearly about parental rights.