Name as it appears on the ballot: Tim Longest

Age: 31 

Party affiliation: Democratic

Campaign website: www.TimforNC.com

Occupation & employer:  lawyer/law clerk, NC Supreme Court

Years lived in North Carolina: 31

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?

I am running to serve District 34 in the North Carolina house because I bring the experience, commitment to civil rights and public service, and fresh perspective needed to achieve the brighter future North Carolina deserves.

First, I am the only candidate in this race with prior government experience. I bring experience from all three branches of state government, having served as a legal intern in the General Assembly working for Sen. Jay Chaudhuri during the 2017 long session, as well as in the Office of the NC Solicitor General in Attorney General Josh Stein’s Department of Justice. After becoming a lawyer, I have served as a judicial law clerk on both North Carolina appellate courts, including the NC Supreme Court. Accordingly, I bring practical experience working in state government, including the legislature, and will be able to hit the ground running advocating for the residents of House District 34 as state representative.

Second, I bring a demonstrated history of advocacy for civil rights and voting rights through both law and organizing. I have worked with Southern Coalition for Social Justice supporting litigation challenging discriminatory voting laws and I have opposed those laws as a participant in the Moral Monday movement. I have advocated for civil rights as a legal redress chair with a local NAACP branch and, as a law student at UNC School of Law, organized grassroots efforts to oppose the conservative UNC Board of Governors’ move to close litigation at the UNC Center for Civil Rights. I have also advocated for diversity and inclusion while serving the residents of Raleigh as a commissioner on the Raleigh Human Relations Commission.

Finally, I represent a new generation of leaders stepping up to serve our state and take North Carolina in a better direction. At 31, I’ll be one of the youngest members of the General Assembly. As such, I will bring new perspectives to a body rightfully criticized for failing to represent all North Carolinians. And, as an eastern North Carolina native who made Raleigh home, I understand that, even as I seek to represent an urban district, we must work to bridge the divide between urban and rural North Carolina if we are to move our state forward.

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?

The three most important issues facing the General Assembly are as follows:

  1. Protecting women’s reproductive freedom. After the Dobbs decision, the question of abortion rights rests squarely with state legislatures, and Republican-controlled state legislatures are moving to restrict or even ban abortion. The ruling party in the NCGA has made clear that they will introduce new restrictions or bans on abortion even more restrictive than the current 20-week abortion ban. I will oppose any new restriction on abortion and I will support legislation to codify Roe v. Wade in state law. I believe the right to abortion is a matter of basic freedom and gender equality. I will strongly defend that right.
  2. Medicaid expansion. If the General Assembly refuses to pass Medicaid expansion this year, it must be our first priority in the new legislative session. Passing Medicaid expansion is a moral and economic imperative for North Carolina. Over 600,000 North Carolinians are uninsured because of this policy failure. Many have died or failed to receive necessary medical care because of this decision not to act. Expanding Medicaid will help many low-income North Carolinians get the coverage they need while helping save our rural hospitals.
  3. Funding public education and raising teacher pay. North Carolina public schools have not received the funding they need, and North Carolina teachers have not received the pay they deserve. We should increase funding for our public schools so every child has the resources they need to succeed, and we should raise teacher pay to above the national average to end the teacher shortage and ensure there is a great teacher in every classroom.

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?

Too often, the General Assembly has failed to make progress on important issues and has been an adversary of our municipalities instead of a collaborator. I believe the state should take the lead making progress in an issue area and set broad policy. Indeed, there have been times when municipalities have enacted policies detrimental to our state, such as the criminalization of poverty through local ordinances. However, in general, the statewide policies enacted by the General Assembly should also give municipalities the flexibility to pursue additional innovative policy ideas in areas like emissions regulation, criminal justice reform, and regulation of development. That will ensure municipalities remain the laboratories of democracy generating new policy ideas our state needs without excessive micromanagement by the legislature.

4. Do you support raising North Carolina’s minimum wage, and if so by how much? If not, what other initiatives would you take to support low-income families in North Carolina?

Costs of living have risen dramatically in recent years, but wages have stagnated. There is no better way to ensure working families can get by than by raising the minimum wage to reflect the increases in worker productivity and cost of living. Accordingly, I support increasing the minimum wage to at least 15 dollars per hour, indexed to inflation, to support working families. I also support reinstating an Earned Income Tax Credit to ease the burden on working families.

5. With rent, property taxes, and home sale prices all rising, what, if anything, should the state legislature do to address this growing affordability crisis?

The rapid growth in North Carolina cities has led to an increase in rent costs and home prices as housing supply has failed to keep up with demand. The only way to tackle the crisis in affordable housing is to ensure an adequate supply of affordable housing to meet that demand. To meet this crisis, the General Assembly should fund the North Carolina Housing Trust Fund, which supports home ownership, rentals, and construction of new housing. Additionally, the General Assembly should work in tandem with local governments to ensure they have the flexibility and support to respond to this crisis.

6. Do you believe that the state government has an obligation to prevent the impacts of climate change? If so, please state three specific policies you support to address climate change.  

Yes. The overwhelming consensus of scientists is that climate change is real, and it is here. Climate change is one of the great existential challenges of our time, and North Carolina must rise to meet it. To do so, we must reduce our state’s contribution to CO2 emissions which are the primary driver of human-caused climate change. We can reduce emissions in two ways: by investing in a transportation system that is based on mass transit, including commuter rail and bus rapid transit, and by building an energy system that relies less on fossil fuels and more on renewable energy sources, including wind and solar. We can incentivize the development of rooftop solar and wind energy, and further develop the electrical infrastructure needed to capture and transmit this energy, including electric vehicle infrastructure. Finally, we cannot ignore that low-income communities and communities of color bear the brunt of the harms of climate change, and we should take environmental justice into account in responding to these challenges.

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

Yes. An independent process for redistricting will help deter the gamesmanship in drawing district lines that leads to partisan and racial gerrymandering.

8. Does the General Assembly have a constitutional obligation to comply with the state Supreme Court order in the Leandro case to fully fund public schools and give every child in North Carolina a sound basic education?  

As a law clerk for the NC Supreme Court, I cannot comment on any aspect of issues pending or likely to be pending before the court. In general, our state constitution requires that all children be given equal access to a sound, basic education.

9. When it comes to teacher pay, North Carolina is one of the lowest-paying states in the nation. Schools across the state are facing shortages of educators, support staff, and other key personnel. Do you support raising teacher pay to at least the national average? What else can the General Assembly do to improve working conditions for teachers and make the teaching profession more attractive to potential future educators?

I support raising teacher pay to above the national average. We are facing a teacher shortage in North Carolina which is directly attributable to our state’s failure to pay teachers what they deserve. My father recently retired after nearly three decades as a teacher in eastern North Carolina public schools. When he started teaching, he was able to support our family of four on a teacher’s salary—but for teachers in too many communities across North Carolina, supporting a family on a teacher’s salary alone is no longer possible. The General Assembly should raise teacher pay to recruit and retain the best teachers for North Carolina and end this self-imposed teacher shortage. Additionally, the legislature should recognize teaching as a lifelong profession and incentivize the obtainment of advanced degrees through increased pay.

10. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling this spring that overturned Roe v. Wade. The legal cutoff for abortion in North Carolina is now 20 weeks. Do you believe the 20-week cutoff is too restrictive, not restrictive enough, or just right? As a state lawmaker, would you support legislation that further limits or prohibits abortion in North Carolina, or punishes/criminalizes abortion providers or patients?

I believe the 20-week abortion cutoff, which was previously held to violate Roe and other Supreme Court precedent governing abortion rights, is too restrictive. I trust women to make their own decisions about their bodies. I also believe that gender equality is impossible without unrestricted access to abortion. Abortion is a fundamental freedom, and I commit to fighting against any new legislation that limits or prohibits abortion in North Carolina, or that punishes or criminalizes abortion providers or patients. Furthermore, I will support the codification of Roe v. Wade into state law to protect reproductive freedom.

11. Should North Carolina expand Medicaid?  Where do you stand on increasing the number of slots for the Innovations Waiver for special needs individuals?

Yes. Medicaid expansion must be the General Assembly’s top priority if it is not enacted before the next legislative session. As I previously stated, it is a moral and economic imperative for our state. It also makes fiscal sense, since North Carolinians are paying federal taxes to support a program from which they are not benefitting, while residents of other states are.

I strongly support increasing the number of slots available for the NC Innovations Waiver to ensure individuals with intellectual disabilities can live in the least restrictive setting possible while still receiving the care they need.

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

Yes, I support full legalization of marijuana for adults in North Carolina. The majority of North Carolina voters support full legalization of marijuana. It is time for our state to catch up with the growing number of states who have legalized marijuana for both medical and recreational use. Full legalization will provide revenue to the state and will also benefit North Carolina farmers. Moreover, decriminalization of marijuana possession is necessary because laws criminalizing simple possession have been disproportionately applied to people of color.

13. 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. 

Yes. Questions around gun safety are some of the most highly polarized in our current climate, but I believe it is possible to both accept the right to private gun ownership as laid out in the Second Amendment and enact common sense reforms that will make our communities safer. Day after day, as mass shootings continue to be perpetrated across the United States, including in our own community, we see the fatal consequences of our failure to support policies—such as expanded background checks, banning bump stocks, and extreme risk protection orders—that could prevent further tragedy. As a state representative, I will work to pass common sense gun safety legislation that will help make North Carolinians safer. Children deserve to grow up without having to worry about encountering an active shooter in their schools. But we cannot expect the specter of mass shootings to disappear until we take decisive action to strengthen regulations that would keep guns out of the hands of those who would do harm. 

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

While many of the positions I have stated are shared by a majority statewide, they are not supported by the ruling party in the General Assembly. As representative for House District 34, I will work hard to build statewide support for policies that will achieve the future North Carolina deserves and the election of a majority in the General Assembly from across our state willing to build that future.

Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.