Name as it appears on the ballot: Daniel Ulysses Lockwood

Age: 27

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: lockwood4nc.com

Occupation & employer: Web Designer, Etix

Years lived in North Carolina: 27

1) What are the three biggest issues facing the country right now? If elected, what would be your three top legislative priorities? Please explain why.

We believe that many of the issues this country faces are interwoven—isolating them detracts from a comprehensive view of the situation and hampers our ability to mobilize support for change. Our solutions to these issues must be rooted in that understanding. Overall, we believe the economic disparity between the working class and capitalist class is an underlying cause of the many problems we face. Our free market capitalist system is not designed to solve the injustices we face—it is designed to extract profit from the status quo, unconcerned with the suffering of millions. Inefficiencies of our system must be addressed through legislation. Solutions to global crises can only be organized and implemented by the government.

This campaign’s top three legislative priorities are:

Implementing Medicare For All. Our profit-driven insurance system grifts from the working class and provides us some of the lowest healthcare outcomes of developed nations. We need to free vulnerable American residents from the burden of medical bills and medical debt.

Passing an ecosocialist Green New Deal. The climate crisis is an existential crisis for all of humanity. However, the crisis has, and will continue to, more adversely affect residents of both developing nations and of lower income areas within the United States. The solutions we implement must fully meet the scale of the crisis while considering the impact on the international community.

Ending the War on Drugs. Stopping decades-long failure of a “war” is a critical first step in repairing the generational damage done to marginalized communities. We must demilitarize and hold to account this country’s overly-aggressive law enforcement.

These priorities seek to address the suffering felt by vulnerable and marginalized people in this country and around the world.

2) Given how polarized—and paralyzed—Congress seems to be, why do you believe you would be effective at advancing those priorities? What in your background as a public official or private citizen should give us faith that you can help break through the gridlock? 

This campaign is taking a fundamentally different approach to this seat. We are fighting for issues by shifting the conversation further to the left, engaging in tactics outside of the current imagination, and empathetically developing meaningful relationships with individuals to form robust communities of organizers. We will not hesitate to be a voice of reason in calling out Republicans and Democrats alike for their inaction and ineptitude.

By making Democrats take a hardline stance in support of our platform, we can mobilize disaffected people to vote out Republicans—even in red districts. The way we do this is through working class solidarity and by clearly communicating our vision for a better future, not leaving the onus on voters to do wonkish research. We must reject and counter false, Republican-driven narratives about policies—like Medicare For All—that help an overwhelming majority of Americans. Once elected, we have a limited window of opportunity to push as hard as possible for the future we know we can achieve. We need to avoid the mistake of the Obama-era Democratic majority in starting policy negotiations from the “middle.”

3) Republicans have attacked the way Democrats conducted impeachment proceedings, complaining that it denied the president due process. Do you believe Democrats managed impeachment properly? Do you believe that Speaker Pelosi made the right decision in waiting a month to transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate?

No, the Democrats did not manage impeachment properly. It’s difficult to see consistency in the motivations behind Speaker Pelosi’s actions throughout this Administration. Voter frustration with the Democrats stems, in part, from the party’s inability to hold Republicans accountable. 

Democrats allow Republicans to define the narrative, and then base their actions in fear of those false narratives. Democratic legislators assumed impeachment would be both a political failure and an electoral detriment, and then operated as if the worst-case scenario had already come true. The impeachment process should have started much earlier, even before the Mueller report was released.

4) Would you have voted to impeach the president on the two counts that passed the House in December? Do you believe additional charges should have been pursued, or that, as the president alleges, this was the continuation of a years-long witch-hunt? In particular, do you believe the House should have acted after the Mueller report identified numerous instances in which the president appeared to have obstructed the Russia investigation? Why or why not? 

Yes, I would have voted to impeach the President on the two counts. Our campaign also believes that additional charges should have been pursued. Republicans that defend him are either negligent and uninformed, or are actively repressing any sense of morality and duty to upload the Constitution. Democrats that have allowed Republicans to subvert the law are nearly equally at fault for enabling this behavior. The amoral and lawless actions of the Trump administration have been normalized by the Democratic Party’s inaction.

5) The president recently claimed that Republicans will protect pre-existing conditions, yet his Department of Justice is right now pursuing a case to wipe out the Affordable Care Act, including the pre-existing-conditions protections. Some Democratic presidential hopefuls, meanwhile, are campaigning on a pledge to end private insurance and enact a single-payer, Medicare-for-all-type system, while others want to keep the ACA and add to it a public option. Given political realities, what do you believe is the best path forward on health care?

The only solution that meets the scale of the healthcare crisis in this country is Medicare for All. This plan, apart from being cheaper and more efficient than our current system, is societal empathy—a recognition of every person’s inherent value. This is the only bill that covers all residents and includes comprehensive coverage for all healthcare needs. It means no one will have to suffer from treatable conditions, or choose between groceries and insulin. Moreover, M4A includes a jobs re-training and placement program for workers displaced by the dismantling of private insurance firms.

“Public option” is not an intermediary step or a “compromise”—is a death sentence for the universal healthcare movement. It does not address the administrative bloat of our current system—the market will remain largely the same. It does not prevent the grift of for-profit, private institutions. As private insurers restrict who they cover, vulnerable and sick Americans will all choose the public option, and the unbalanced risk pool will cause public option premiums to skyrocket. The inevitable failure of the public option will tarnish opinions of socialized health insurance for decades.

Medicare for All isn’t just a healthcare policy, it’s a manifestation of the empathy that underscores all of this campaign’s policies.

6) The administration has rolled back a number of regulations aimed at mitigating climate pollution and pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Several leading Democrats have embraced (as a framework) a Green New Deal that would reorient the economy around sustainable energy. Given that climate scientists believe the world has a short window to avert global catastrophe, what steps do you believe the next Congress should take to address the climate crisis? 

Reentering the Paris Climate Agreement is simply not enough and having that as our only communicated goal is a problem. We must fight for a solution that meets the scale and urgency of the problem. The United States must implement the Green New Deal. Leading the world in fighting against the climate crisis will strongly influence the global economy to follow suit.

We need to recognize that free market capitalism will not address the crisis. When we learned of climate change decades ago, capitalism incentivised disinformation campaigns and coverups. 

An ecosocialist Green New Deal will spur massive economic activity by creating jobs to build the energy infrastructure we need. We artificially spur economic activity already with our investment in war. Let’s build solar panels and wind farms instead of bombs and tanks. Let’s invest in the renewable energy infrastructure of consenting developing nations. If we’re to have the military, let’s mobilize it to build instead of to destroy. 

7) As of 2019, nearly 45 million Americans owe more than $1.5 trillion in student-loan debt, which experts say is preventing young people from buying homes, starting businesses, or starting families. Some Democrats have proposed forgiving all or some student loan debt and/or making some or all college free. What steps do you believe Congress should take, if any, to address student-loan debt and the cost of a college education? 

Congress can start by immediately forgiving all student debt and making all public education tuition-free for all residents (regardless of economic and legal status). We want to provide federally funded grants for education-related expenses; guarantee free meals to all college students, staff, and faculty; and pay college students a stipend based on an area’s cost of living. 

We’re hampering our future by saddling Americans with this debt. College for All will cost us nothing compared to the forever wars waged by the GOP.

8) President Trump’s signature legislative achievement is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a regressive, deficit-funded tax overhaul that largely benefited the wealthy while, experts say, producing a positive but small effect on GDP. Given the rising deficit (see no. 9), do you believe the TCJA should be repealed? Do you believe Congress pass more tax cuts? If so, how should they be targeted? Or do you think Congress should raise taxes? What form of tax hikes would you prefer: Capital gains? A wealth tax? Income tax? Something else? Please explain. 

We should repeal the TCJA. Despite Republicans repeating this mantra for decades, trickle-down economics does not work. CEOs don’t create jobs—economic demand creates jobs. Companies won’t create new positions or hire workers unless they are looking to meet unmet demand. And unless legally coerced, companies won’t often raise worker wages/compensation. This is why wages have stagnated for decades.

We can and should reverse the tax cuts implemented by Republican Administrations in recent decades. To help pay for desperately-needed social programs, our campaign supports a wealth taxes, higher taxes on capital gains, higher marginal tax rates on the wealthiest brackets, and taxes on speculation. We oppose regressive taxes, such as sales taxes, that overly penalize lower-income Americans.

9) The Congressional Budget Office says that the deficit will exceed $1 trillion in 2020, though the economy has been growing for a decade. To what degree does the deficit concern you? What steps do you believe Congress should take to reduce the deficit, if any? Would you be willing to cut Medicare or Social Security? If you believe Congress should spend more on climate change or health care, do you worry about expanding the deficit further? If you believe Congress should cut taxes, how would you pay for it?  

We will never support cuts to Medicare or Social Security.

The deficit is not as large of a concern if our spending is toward long-term investment in economic growth and security. It’s time to stop framing these policies/problems only in terms of a short-term price tag, and instead frame them in their long-term benefit and cost-savings:

Addressing the climate crisis now will be expensive, but nothing in comparison to addressing the unimpeded impact of the crisis later. 

Investment in our energy infrastructure is how we continue to lead the world in the coming decades—we can’t linger in the shadow of the past and expect the world to stagnate with us. 

Our healthcare is expensive due to the grifting of the private insurance industry and the administrative bloat of a multi-payer system. Comparing our situation to other industrialized nations with single-payer systems indicates this.

As a nation, we would spend less on healthcare under Medicare For All. More people would receive preventative care, which would drastically reduce the need for expensive, life-saving procedures.

We never ask about the deficit when we cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans. We never ask about the deficit when we engage in war. Instead of providing housing for the ~500,000 Americans living without homes, we funded the Space Force.

If we want to reduce the deficit, then we should roll back the GOP’s tax cuts and significantly reduce our military spending.

10) In January, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, though its status is in legal limbo. Supporters argue that the five states that have rescinded their previous ratification of the amendment had no right to do so, and that a ratification-deadline provision is unconstitutional. The first question is likely headed to federal courts, but ERA supporters say they’ll ask Congress to rescind the deadline. Do you support the ERA? If elected, would you vote to rescind the deadline Congress set almost 50 years ago? 

This campaign supports the ERA as a stepping stone. We need to have specific language in the Constitution affirming the principle of equal rights. We want to see the language of the ERA expanded to include the variety of gender identities and intersex individuals, or worded in such a way to prevent loophole-based distrimination.

If elected, I would vote to rescind the deadline.

11) In the last year, several states have passed laws challenging Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, including some that would effectively ban abortion. What do you believe Congress can or should do to protect abortion rights?

It’s plausible that we will see a 2021 Democratic presidency and majority in Congress. With that opportunity, we could protect Roe v. Wade by packing the Supreme Court.

The important context of why states passed these laws in the last year: the Trump Administration successfully appointed two conservative Supreme Court Justices—Neil Gorsuch & Brett Kavanaugh—effectively stealing them from Democrats and upsetting the moderate “balance” of the court. Reinvigorated anti-abortion interest groups and Red state legislatiors are using this to their advantage; they expect their laws to be challenged in court, re-exposing Roe v. Wade to the threat of overturning by the conservative-majority SCOTUS bench.

While the idea of enshrining the rights of Roe v. Wade via federal legislation is admirable, we fear this plan may backfire. The same danger exists of a legal challenge making it to SCOTUS, and the current bench repealing Roe v. Wade in the crux of its decision.

As it stands, removing Justices from the bench is not a viable option because the process—though granted to Congress in the Constitution—has never been set up. Establishing that process would consume a lot of time we don’t have to waste.

The only way to assure we defend reproductive rights, then, is to pack the Court—and this is where Congress plays a role. We can pass a law to increase the maximum number of Justices, much like FDR looked to do in with the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937. New Justices, appointed by a Democratic President, vetted to uphold Roe v. Wade, could swing the balance of the bench back to the left.

The reality is that Congress can’t pass a law without Representatives willing to submit a bill. However, the current Democratic majority could pass a judicial reform bill in the House tomorrow. This would clear the way for a Democratic majority Senate in 2023, if not 2021. We can mobilize people to vote with a worthy cause: “Protect reproductive rights: Flip the Senate.”

I am the only NC-04 Democratic primary candidate committed to this plan. If I were in office right now, I would build support among my Democratic colleagues through an intimate level of discussion. I would work in solidarity with reproductive justice groups, like the Fight4HER campaign and SisterSong, to carry this plan beyond Congress.

12) Last year, after Congress refused to grant President Trump funds to build a border wall, the president declared a national emergency and diverted funding from the military toward that purpose. Do you believe such a declaration was justified and a wall is necessary? More broadly, do you believe the president’s immigration policies have been beneficial?

The declaration was not justified, and the wall is not necessary—this xenophobic waste of resources is meant only to stoke the fears of Americans and distract from the real sources of our problems. The richest country in the world should be doing more to ensure the safety of those displaced by economic hardship and the global climate crisis. 

The President’s immigration policies have grown to be more and more harmful. Curbing illegal immigration is as easy as making the path to citizenship easier. We have both the resources and the moral duty to make it as easy as possible to come into the United States. Moreover, we should abolish corrupt and unneeded agencies like I.C.E. (created in 2003), and prosecute the leadership of these agencies for the crimes committed against detainees at our border and in the concentration camps. 

We have a moral imperative to be kind and welcoming to immigrants. We must condemn the racism and xenophobia directed at them.

13) In January, the president ordered a military strike that killed an Iranian commander inside of Iraq, leading to the Iraqi Parliament calling for the expulsion of American troops from Iraq, ratcheting up tensions with Iran, and straining U.S. alliances with some European allies. Do you believe the president had an obligation to inform Congress before such a strike? Do you believe the decision to launch an attack on the Iranian general was wise?

The extra-judicial killing of Soleimani was not only illegal under US Law, it was a direct violation of the UN charter. The Administration has failed to produce any substantial evidence that would support the anticipatory self-defense justification. Legally speaking, the President should receive authorization from Congress before making this kind of attack. Congress should bear the responsibility to ensure an attack of this nature is never executed.

This was a morally repugnant assassination of another country’s leadership. This situation would justify penalties from the international community against the United States. Not only was this a poor tactical decision, it was a prime example of executive overreach.

14) In general, what are your views on American foreign policy under the Trump administration? Do you believe it has been beneficial, or have Trump’s decisions—including exiting the Iran and Paris agreements and enacting tariffs on China and other countries—harmed America’s national interests?  

Through its history, American foreign policy has been an exercise in imperialism. We have always placed interests of American capital over the needs of the many. 

Under the Trump Administration, we have flouted international law via extrajudicial killings, set a selfish and isolating precedent by leaving the Paris Climate Agreement, and further destabilized the Middle East. Trump has regularly praised the worst despots and demagogues as “Strong Leaders”, damaging our relationships with more democratic nations. He has renewed our collective fears of a nuclear war. 

Ultimately, this Administration has damaged our relationships with allies and further destabilized the international community.

15) Polls indicate that a narrow majority of Americans approve of President Trump’s handling of the economy, though a broad majority also disapproves of his performance generally. This is often attributed to the president’s crass language, mendaciousness, and erratic behavior, both on Twitter and in rallies. Regardless of whether you support the president’s policies, do you believe he is a good role model or an honorable person?

The President is the platonic ideal of: “The Cruelty Is The Point.” What could our children possibly learn from him other than selfishness and greed? One need only to look at those emboldened by his behavior to know the answer to this question.

Donald Trump has normalized some of the worst qualities of a person: narcissism, pathological lying, racism, sexually abusive behavior, etc. The sheer number of erratic actions prove difficult to keep up with on a daily basis. We cannot continue to applaud this charade. We must not allow him to be cemented as a role model for future generations.