Name as it appears on the ballot: Graig Meyer

Age: 50

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: https://www.graigmeyer.com/

Occupation & employer:  Social Worker, Education Consultant

Years lived in North Carolina: 26

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 approach my work with the mantra of Listen, Unite, Lead. As a social worker, I’ve been trained to listen first and listen deeply, asking questions without assuming I know answers. As an elected official, it should be our foremost duty to find common ground through listening and unite our people for shared prosperity. As a leader, my job is not to say what’s popular, but to make popular what needs to be said and help build support for it.

Although it’s difficult to have major accomplishments while serving in the minority of the legislature, I would say that the two biggest accomplishments during my time there are Medicaid Expansion and the law that commits our energy providers to carbon neutrality by 2050. My personal favorite part of working in the General Assembly is the constituent service and community work that my office does.

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?

Obviously the front of mind issue is Hurricane Helene recovery and climate change. The General Assembly should ensure that as we rebuild our communities destroyed by Helene, we should empower them to rebuild in a resilient way that reflects the realities of climate change. We must build on our commitment to reduce carbon emissions from power generation by also addressing the root causes of climate change that come from emissions from transportation and agriculture.

The issue that is rising to the top of our agenda is addressing housing affordability. It is the General Assembly’s shame that we have not done any significant legislation on housing in the last decade, and therefore ended up in a crisis state for so many North Carolinians. In communities like Chapel Hill, we’ve had a housing affordability conversation for decades. Now that that is expanding to more exurban and even rural communities, the opportunity is opening for us to make real progress. 

Education will always be a top tier issue for the General Assembly. And I will never stop advocating for schools that support every child fully, adequately pay our teachers, and are valued as important hubs for our community. And, we need to stand firm against taxpayer funded private school vouchers for rich people.

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?

North Carolina grants very limited power to local bodies, and sometimes we need to expand their ability to do things that the state cannot or should not. For instance, Sen. Murdock and I introduced the Transportation for the Future Act that would give local governments much greater ability to invest in transportation that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and increases use of things like public transit, bicycle, and pedestrian transportation. Similarly, our role should be to equip local governments with the tools they need for addressing other important issues where locals need to lead, including development and criminal justice.

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

The federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour is a poverty wage and has not been raised in over a decade. Raising the wage would help women and people of color who are over-represented in minimum wage jobs. 

I have introduced bills to raise our state minimum wage to $15/hour over a five-year period and index it to the Consumer Price Index. 

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

Democrats and Republicans should work together on a host of bipartisan solutions to empower local governments to increase the supply of affordable housing, including rentals. 

We should not hold our municipalities back from encouraging more affordable housing. For example, it is essential that we remove restrictions on multi-family housing so that there is more freedom at the local level to pursue different types of housing options. We can also free up municipalities to make land use and transportation changes that will help fuel dense housing development, increase supply and increase affordable housing. 

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?

Last year, I introduced the Transportation for the Future Act. This Act would vault North Carolina into the future by empowering communities to chart their own new, modern transportation futures. Today, the General Assembly requires almost all of our state transportation dollars to be directed toward large highway projects at the expense of our economy, our communities, and our climate.  This outdated vision of transportation planning should be left in the 1980s while we create a modern North Carolina that keeps up with the times, and delivers the diverse transportation options that communities want. 

The Act ensures local governments from small towns to big cities have a greater say in the transportation system that works best for their community— not just lawmakers in Raleigh. 

The Act lifts current limitations on rail, bike and pedestrian funding and the prohibition on incentives for working from home. And, for the first time, it allows for the environment to be part of the consideration for future transportation needs. 

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

Yes. 

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. 

No. I don’t believe there is any way for the legislature to control the price of private schools. That said, it is beside the point: state government should not subsidize private tuition for mostly wealthy families for so-called Opportunity Scholarships. Instead, we should prioritize our public schools.

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 pay teachers more. We can’t fill teacher and state employee jobs when people can easily find other work that pays more in the private sector. We have had state budget surpluses the last few years, but have chosen to eliminate the corporate income tax instead of using that revenue to pay our employees what they deserve.

Yes, it matters that North Carolina ranks 46th in teacher pay. But there is so much more that we can be doing that is a matter of will, not just money. North Carolina lags in every academic readiness indicator we have. We must prioritize our public education system away from private school “vouchers” and toward investing in our children.  

One example of something that doesn’t cost any money is rolling back the so-called Parent’s Bill of Rights. Making it easier to harass teachers and administrators and instill fear that they cannot discuss a child’s gender only leaves educators feeling demoralized. 

Bills that restrict educators’ professionalism are driving them away from the profession. North Carolina teachers are leaving their professions in alarming numbers, with 16% quitting after last year. 

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? 

North Carolina should reinstitute the abortion protections we had for decades under Roe v. Wade. Politicians make crappy doctors, and the General Assembly should stay out of women and families’ healthcare decisions. 

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

I have become one of the legislature’s primary proponents of legalizing cannabis. 

I’m the primary sponsor of S. 346, the Marijuana Justice and Reinvestment Act. The bill sets up a structure to legalize, tax, regulate and reinvest new tax revenue into communities of color damaged by the ineffective war on marijuana.  

Right now, anyone can walk into a hemp store and buy a product with similar psychoactive qualities of cannabis. We should regulate and tax cannabis so that we can get a handle on this issue, including working to monitor and discourage use of cannabis for those under 21. 

My campaign highlighted the issue this spring in our viral campaign ad “Two Stops,” which can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/MeyerCannabis. 

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. Every day, 120 people in the United States are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded. The gun homicide rate in the U.S. is 26 times higher than that of other high-income countries. Data and research shows that common-sense public safety measures can reduce gun violence and save lives.

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

Paid family leave should be a universal right. That North Carolina doesn’t ensure any amount of family leave when people have a baby or a health crisis strikes is part of the reason why we are last in the nation for workers’ rights.  

Nearly 1.6 million workers in our state don’t have a single paid sick day. Nearly 4 in 5 working people in North Carolina have no access to paid family and medical leave through their employers when a new baby arrives or a serious health crisis strikes. 

Last year, I sponsored S418, which would ensure:

-All of North Carolina’s working people have 12 weeks of leave to welcome a new child or to care for a seriously ill loved one; 

-18 weeks to recover from a serious medical condition and 

-26 weeks to care for a family member injured while serving our country.