NC House District 33: Antoine G. Marshall

Name as it appears on the ballot: Antoine G. Marshall

Age: 36

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: www.Marshall4NC.com

Occupation & employer:  Attorney & Self

Years lived in North Carolina: 27

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 feel like most of my education and work history prepared me to represent the people of House District 33. I graduated from Southeast Raleigh High School in the district. In college I had the opportunity to intern in the Congressional office with Congressman James Clyburn, Congresswoman Donna Christensen and the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus. I obtained my law degree from Wake Forest and moved back into Southeast Raleigh. My first job was as a Sgt.-at-Arms with the NC House where I got to understand the process and procedures in the NC Legislature as an observer. I left the Legislature to work with Legal Aid of North Carolina, working with the poorest residents in North Carolina in mortgage protection, subsidized housing, government benefits where I got a chance to intimately understand the struggles of North Carolina’s neediest residents. Prior to leaving Legal Aid I did community economic development working with community leaders in Rocky Mount in applying the new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulations in advocating for affordable housing with city leaders. After leaving Legal Aid I did another stint with the NC Legislature, this time as the legislative assistant for Sen. Jay Chadhuri, before starting my own firm.

I believe my experience working with communities in need of advocacy, multi decade connection to the district, legal training, and experience with the legislative process makes me well qualified to represent this district.

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?

I believe the three most pressing issues facing the General Assembly for my district would be affordable housing, the growing income inequality, and access to civil justice.

For affordable housing I would give the counties and municipalities the tools they need to build more affordable housing. This includes allowing inclusionary zoning and impact fees. I am also interested in requiring growing counties to submit 5 to 10 year housing plans to the state to ensure they are properly planning for growth, and implementing “Developer Rights” similar to California in order to increase the stock of affordable housing.

I believe that we can address income inequality through our taxing and spending priorities. The NC General Assembly has provided billions in tax cuts to wealthy residents and shifted the tax burden to middle and low income families. Reinstating the tax free weekend and Earned Income Tax Credit are two policies that we know benefitted middle and low income families. 

Access to civil justice harks back to my career with Legal Aid of NC. We have 1 legal aid attorney for every 8,000 North Carolinians who qualify. My experience working with clients facing foreclosure, evictions or domestic violence usually there is not another attorney in court as people get life altering legal decisions.

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?

On the largest piece of my platform (housing), I do believe the remedy is to give municipal leaders more options and authority to pass laws, including development-regulating ordinances. I believe that police oversight is another area that warrants increased local control. I believe that greenhouse gas emissions and criminal justice reform needs to be state led. 

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

I believe in the words of FDR when minimum wage originally passed. “”It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.”

The minimum wage of $7.25 was last adjusted 15 years ago. I would argue even $7.25 wasn’t a living wage in 2009. If I had my way I would implement a tiered system for North Carolina which recognizes the cost of living in high wealth counties like Wake or Mecklenburg is more than the cost of living in Scotland or Bertie county. I would automatically tie minimum wage to a cost of living index (Economic Policy Institute Family Budget Calculator, ACCRA COLI, Consumer Price Index, etc.) and automatically adjust every 5 years.

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

The legislature should allow municipalities to use inclusionary zoning and impact fees to increase the stock of affordable housing. They can provide municipalities with the resources they need in order to anticipate their growing housing needs. 

The legislature can provide down payment assistance programs to career fields we are experiencing shortages in and difficulty in staffing (educators, law enforcement, nurses, etc.)

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.  

The state absolutely has a role in preventing the impact to climate change. If we turn a blind eye to the impending climate crisis and we will still have to deal with the impact. 

We can take the Governor’s Greenhouse net-zero emissions target by 2050 and codify them in legislation. We can become leaders with surrounding states to create a regional carbon cap and trade program similar to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in New England. We can also incentivize more efficient energy use through funding weatherization programs, promotion of energy efficient appliances in construction.

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

Absolutely. The current system has led to dysfunctional government. We are on our 4^th set of maps in the past 5 election cycles. It is confusing for voters and interferes with elected officials ability to create long-standing relationships with constituents.

We need a non-partisan independent redistricting process.  

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? What else should state lawmakers do to improve North Carolina’s public schools? 

Yes, the State does have a constitutional obligation to adhere to the NC Supreme Court and provide every child a sound basic education. The state legislature needs to abide by the Leandro decision. 

Outside of the Leandro decision, we need to bring back the money going to the NC Opportunity Voucher program and put it back into the public schools. We also need to regulate the Charter schools receiving those funds. The investigation from Kris Nordstrom and the NC Justice Center showed the gaping holes and lack of oversight with schools getting more money than they had enrollment and some schools didn’t even have a physical address readily available. 

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 do support raising teacher pay. I don’t think the target should be to the National Average however. I believe that teacher pay is adequate when we no longer have a teacher shortage. Adequate teacher pay is when we can recruit and retain our quality teachers. To where college students choose to go into education majors without it being a vow of poverty.

I believe that we can provide other support for educators outside of pay, including bettering their working conditions and providing downpayment assistance for homeownership that allow teachers to be able to live in the communities they teach in. 

10. Last year, following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, North Carolina lawmakers banned 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? As a state lawmaker, would you support legislation that further limits or prohibits abortion in North Carolina, or punishes/criminalizes abortion providers or patients?

Abortion access needs to be expanded. I do not support the current 12 week ban nor any proposal to punish providers or patients.

As a society we do not recognize the social, physical, mental, or financial sacrifices a pregnancy causes pregnant people. But beyond that we have the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world.

And a personal point of concern for me seeing as how I have 3 black girls who will grow into black women, black women maternal mortality is 3 times that of white women at nearly 70 deaths per 100,000 deliveries. If it were a job, a black woman carrying a child to term would be the 2nd most dangerous job in the country. More dangerous than a police officer or a soldier in deployment. Any additional barriers we put between a woman and her medical decision is going to create more dangerous health issues for women.

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

 
I support full legalization with regulation for North Carolina marijuana laws. Marijuana does not ruin lives like harder drugs like heroin/fentanyl. Some find it beneficial for physical or mental health ailments. It can be an additional source of state revenue. I think it does need to be regulated, but in licensing and regulating we need to remember the communities destroyed by war on drug policies and implement them in a matter that furthers restorative justice. 

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.

Yes, I do support expanding background checks, restoring concealed carry permits issued by sheriffs, raising the age to buy and own assault-style weapons. I would also propose that gun owners carry liability insurance on those weapons to incentivize safe ownership decisions like a gun safe or trigger lock. I also believe that failure to report lost or stolen guns should also come with civil and criminal liability. We cannot have safe and responsible gun ownership if people can lose weapons and be immune from their carelessness.

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

I would like to further expand on access to justice. We have a 6^th Amendment right to an attorney, but that only expands to criminal cases. In my career I have worked to prevent foreclosures, evictions, filed for domestic violence protective orders, helped individuals who might have lost food stamp or Medicaid benefits. I feel like potentially losing your home, access to food or medicine, or safety within your own home is just as important as staying out of prison and yet, when I went to court in these matters, I would regularly be the only attorney handling a single case on the docket, while witnessing scores of individuals try to represent themselves in a very confusing legal system.

We have 1 legal aid attorney for every 8,000 North Carolinians who qualify for legal assistance programs (<200% of FPL). And almost 80% of those individuals will have a qualifying legal condition over the year according to the last access to justice report in 2022. Expanding access to legal assistance programs is one of the most effective anti-poverty programs we can do, and it furthers having a just justice system. 

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