Name: Matthew Kordon
Age: 29
Party affiliation: Libertarian
Campaign website: kordonforliberty.org
Occupation & employer: Game Director/ Lead Software Developer at Otyugra (self employed); Medical-Legal Litigation Assistant at Medical Science Affiliates, LLC
Years lived in the area: ~4 years in my District, 19 in Wake County
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?
“Hello, everyone.
(1) My most direct accomplishment was scoring a unanimous vote at the 2026 NC Libertarian Convention to expand our Party’s stance on Environmentalism. I was the chief author of a bill passed by everyone of a chamber that contained hard-to-please nonconformists! I learned much as a delegate.
(2) I have much leadership experience whether from founding my business, leadership positions in high school/ university clubs, or taking the initiative on creating a public event in Cary to celebrate ‘America 250.’
(3) The trust I built matters. I grew the Party at the State Fair in 2025 with strategy, energy, and empathy. I won over neighbors through servant leadership and persistence. I delivered a speech to town council members that stayed with them after I left the room (as shown in one of my YouTube videos). I stood my ground in lonely positions and won the respect of opponents. I earned the undivided loyalty of a volunteer, much to my benefit.”
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 last time I was asked to make a prediction, I was mostly correct. Additionally, this is not my answer to the question, ‘what would I realistically pursue in my first 100 days?’
(1) I was early on ‘cloning ethics’ and ‘outer-space funds’; nevertheless, I predicted deepfake technology and ‘other STEM topics’ like social media, cybersecurity, and data centers becoming government topics. STEM will continue making waves. We will need to be open to smaller nuclear plants; address ethical debates around DNA manipulation; strengthen labeling laws for more than just AI; but mostly just watch STEM create a better tomorrow while holding back the temptation to panic.
(2) The criminal justice system is an evergreen issue because North Carolina faces both jail-capacity and corrections-staffing shortages. This is a parallel to the much-discussed teacher-retention woe. That said, students have generally declined in many districts while jail populations have grown since 2020. We can either build the capacity needed to keep offenders off the streets and reduce the need for new cells by removing victimless crimes from the books. What we cannot do is continue to undervalue this problem.
(3) I sense as a student of sociology and history that North Carolina and the nation are deep within a period of growing social strain. While I do not expect a climax in the next two years, many unresolved problems have been accumulating for decades. These include but are not limited to declining trust in institutions, political polarization, social isolation, falling birth rates, economic uncertainty, rapid technological change, and escalating rhetoric. Intertwined, these issues create challenges that require foresight and humility.”
3. Federal cuts to Medicaid are expected to cost the state $50 billion over the next decade, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. How would you address Medicaid funding to maintain coverage for the millions of North Carolinians enrolled?
I believe this narrative lacks imagination. You imply keeping all recipients enrolled is the only solution, but there are better, happier options, and I say that as someone enrolled in NC Medicaid. Citizens need to rebuild the voluntary, charitable infrastructure in this country, bad health needs to be prevented proactively, and welfare programs need to be decentralized to closer levels of government.
If NC is being presented the opportunity to take over Medicaid from the Federal Government in a leaner form, we should take it. We would make it more cost-effective to show people decentralization with libertarian reforms works and has less corruption. We would remove some regulations and fire bureaucracy set up to ensure compliance, build care centers quicker, allow medical innovation, enable recipients to survive without Medicare through inexpensive insurance, reduce health occupational training costs, and more.
Of course, meaningful reform is tricky for individual legislators, shaped by committee assignments.
4. The General Assembly has voted to put a constitutional amendment on ballots that, if passed, would put a cap on property tax increases. Do you support the amendment? Why or why not?
“I am “”Against.”” Please allow me to explain. I believe this proposal approaches the issue the wrong way. My preference is for more local democracy which ensures self-rule, regional design, and stronger accountability with an essential human touch. Likewise, state government ought to set sensible long-leash boundaries rather than impose omnipresent restrictions with the potential to do damage for decades.
Property tax concerns can be addressed through legislation and elections without permanently altering the NC Constitution. Constitutional amendments should be reserved for wise, abstract principles, not used as a response to mob-like surface-level frustrations with tax policy. No one sees themselves as in a mob until they look and realize they are enthusiastically voting with people in the state with little to no foreknowledge of the amendment prior to election day.
A constitutional amendment is a heavy-handed way to react to a problem that can be fixed: replace first-past-the-post with something that gives voters more parties to choose from with a real shot of winning and voters get the nuance they crave. That way, when a Libertarian tells you they want to significantly lower property taxes more than all the other candidates, you can choose that without fear of wasting a vote.”
5. How would you address the rising costs of housing, childcare, and basic necessities facing North Carolina families?
“Elect me, and I will address rising costs at their deepest roots, however in my power, so long as central planning is not required. Our economy’s health is a ‘first 100-day’ priority without question. Looking to historic solutions for inspiration, greater reliance on hard currencies and foreign currencies would apply upward pressure to the powerful people at the Federal Reserve who devalue our money. It would also give ordinary people an escape from inflation; thus, I pledge to end all taxation on precious metals, cryptocurrency, and currency exchange.
Transportation, gas, and food are among the most noteworthy goods and services within ‘basic necessities.’ All three are heavily affected by federal and global circumstances, so you can expect me to pen resolutions of advocacy. Nevertheless, the NCGA and I must cut the gas tax in half, simplify the DMV paired with lower vehicle registration fees, abolish the ride-share tax, change zoning law to produce mix-use bikeable places, allow rural counties flexibility to develop stronger food and cotton agriculture and manufacturing, deregulate farmers’ markets, and so on.
We must build house after house to keep up with demand, rather than to ask the government to co-pay the bank for our already-built houses in short supply. Childcare by contrast, like with hair care services, can be made cheaper with ending government occupational permits and de-zoning.”
6. Climate disasters are intensifying: Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina in 2024, Tropical Storm Chantal flooded the Triangle in 2025, and coastal erosion threatens the Outer Banks. With much affordable housing located in flood-prone areas and FEMA resources stretched thin, what is your plan for climate resilience and disaster relief?
“Regardless of how we view ‘manmade climate change,’ the possibilities are grim and serious, so we must be cautious and prepared.
I believe state and local governments should maintain disaster relief reserves for natural emergencies. Those funds should be legally protected from unrelated spending. States and highly populated regions must take emergency preparedness seriously rather than assuming federal authorities can always respond immediately and effectively. FEMA, as if to demonstrate my point, defended an incomplete ability to help in Western NC in 2024 because they cited being unfamiliar with the terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Rather, insurance companies help nudge people away from living in disaster-prone places and offer high coverage in case they don’t mind paying more now so that they can have deep coverage in a worst-case scenario.
Regarding environmentalism, well, allow me to reprint what I had added to the LPNC platform: “”Ecological problems are best addressed through private action, innovation, and the free exchange of ideas. The LPNC holds that affected claimants may sue defendants for damages resulting from harm to life and health, or to property. Therefore, laws that protect defenders from this liability must be repealed to enable restitution. We also call for legal protection of voluntary animal stewardship.”” In addition, I wish to research said innovations to directly address environmental issues.”
7. The General Assembly recently passed a new congressional redistricting map. This marks the state’s seventh congressional map since 2016. How do you view the most recent redistricting? And do you support independent redistricting processes, or do you believe the legislature should retain this power?
I view the current redistricting result with extreme distaste as someone independent of the left-right polarization. From a fairness grounds, it is simply unacceptable and unrepresentative. Yes, I support independent redistricting. 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, on the condition that primary elections remain semi-open rather than fully open. Otherwise, a redistricting committee would need to be bound by statutes that prescribe defensible required framework and restrictions.
8. North Carolina ranks near the bottom nationally in teacher pay. How would you address teacher compensation, and what will you do to ensure a budget passes that adequately funds education?
“Regarding teachers, they lack freedom when they are given forced benefits. I believe they should be allowed to opt out (such as vacation days and company medical insurance) to then receive direct pay instead in case money is what they want most; it would make an enormous difference in their lives and could be altered as needed, once yearly. It is shocking how much teachers lose through forced benefits in a one-size-fits-all. I believe merit is more important to reward than level of educational attainment in no small part because educational degree attainment cannibalizes academic dogma at the expense of lived experience.
I happen to have a 15-point plan for how I would change education and I plan to release a video detailing that plan before November. Community-and-virtue-rooted education with high standards (rather than prioritizing maximum graduations) is my goal. But to specifically ensure adequate (rather than bloated) education funding, my plan involves firing certain superfluous roles, breaking up learning resource monopolies through decentralization, and no longer giving out laptops to students. Furthermore, money should follow the students, not through an over emphasis on private school funding but through letting alternative ed parents keep their money with tax exemptions. It makes more sense to shift rather than raise funding; the private school funding after 2023 rules has been too high, so we can move money from that by returning to the 2023 law.”
9. North Carolina currently has a 12-week abortion ban with certain exceptions. Some legislators have proposed further restrictions. Do you support the current law, believe access should be expanded, or would you support further restrictions?
“The changes I want to abortion law would, on net, be only a little less restrictive. I want to end the extension for incest (eugenics is bigoted) but extend legal weeks through week 16. I also want to crack down on abortion pills received in the mail or the ability to get an abortion without the consent of the partner if the partner is a spouse. I have mixed, nuanced thoughts on the matter as you can see. I tend to get a lot of positive feedback on this stance as well as an equal amount of critique from both ends, so I suspect I happen to occupy the middle with my earnest view.
I support women having access to contraceptives and IVF operations.”
10. Federal legislation will ban most hemp-derived THC products, like Delta-8, by December 2026, threatening North Carolina’s hemp industry. Meanwhile, recreational marijuana remains illegal and medical marijuana bills have stalled. What is your position on hemp regulation and would you address the upcoming federal ban, if at all?
“My understanding is that the NC House does not have the authority short of calling a Convention of States to protect hemp. I pledge to write a trigger law that significantly loosens the regulations for the day Congress changes their mind. Hemp is a huge industry involving farmers, transporters, bulk sellers, shops, and many consumers. Indeed, many people are angry about this in my urban District.
Regarding Marijuana, I reviewed the latest research on the topic. Importantly, Libertarians have been calling for legal Marijuana since 1971. This has now become a 80-20 issue and I am outraged that the Republicans and Democrats are still dragging their feet on something vigorously demanded. I do not make promises like this often but I firmly believe the Democrats, including my opponent, are failing to take Marijuana seriously and have burned their goodwill with the Republican enough that a Libertarian has a better chance of getting a majority on board to legalize. It is legal in 40 states and is less harmful than alcohol! Reefer Madness people need to end this front on the failed war on drugs and focus on labeling, lightly-taxing, and age-restricting it instead. Addictiveness aside, there is no harm in trying it out to solve medical woes, and thus, we must continue to study its usefulness, which will uncover more reasons to legalize it, not fewer.”
11. Iryna’s Law eliminates cashless bail, requires mental health evaluations for certain defendants, and attempts to restart the death penalty by requiring alternative execution methods if lethal injection is unavailable. The law also accelerates death penalty appeals. Where do you stand on the death penalty and these criminal justice reforms?
“Although I have gone on record criticizing aspects of Iryna’s Law including some of the details surrounding the death penalty implementation, I do not oppose the whole of the penalty, and neither should anyone else. Why? Because I have never once heard a compelling, logically-sound and up-to-date reason to justify ending the NC death penalty and I will give 250 dollars (out of my own pocket) to anyone who writes me an email at [email protected] that can convince me to change my mind. Not even my smart Libertarian friends were able to come up with an unassailable defense.
I want you to stop and think about how porous, contradictory, and weak every argument against the death penalty is. Plenty have rebut the arguments elsewhere so I will entrust you with researching those persuasive rebuttals.
Perhaps the reason this is a debate is because many people backwards-justify a view inspired by pacifism, which is that killing feels icky, as if refusing to discern between intent to kill and murder. As I see it, the death penalty, as history shows, accomplishes crucial outcomes in a civilized way that nothing else can do in its absence. It stops future crime and potentially saves the government money on imprisonment welfare (though not always in practice because government screws this up). The penalty allows for consequences to match crime of a grander scale, gives prosecution and jurors more options, and feels natural when you are the victim. Perhaps best of all, the death penalty is a society’s way of explaining to everyone what it will not tolerate and is therefore our greatest weapon against the greatest kind of domestic threat. I find it noteworthy that the attacks against it are discordant from every angle whereas the supporters of the death penalty are very unified.”
12. Tech companies are investing heavily in North Carolina data centers, bringing tax revenue but also consuming significant electricity and water resources. How should the state balance data center investment with environmental protection and community concerns?
“The NCGA is subsidizing and encouraging data centers all the while mobs (if the town of Apex is any indication) demand centers stay out of their region. There is a sensible middle path: we must cease to be a tax haven or sweetheart-dealer for centers. In addition, I want a law saying they must pay for their own electricity and grid lines. The truth about these useful server buildings will spread to the skeptics in time so long as we enforce tort against noise pollution. We should invest in energy production and trust that neighboring states like Virginia will want cheap energy for the centers they rapidly build.
It is dawning on me that I have given my stance on data centers perhaps as many as five times already in other questionnaires and on camera; it is a timely issue. I will refer everyone to watch the September 20th NC House candidate forum the Wake County Libertarian Party uploaded to their YouTube channel if you wish to hear more.”
13. Give an example of an opinion, policy, vote or action you changed based on constituent feedback. If you have not yet held elected office, describe a time when you changed your position on an issue after listening to those affected by it.
Listening to a resident repeated talk about how much she felt burned by out-of-state immigration as a force that destroys local culture and causes other problems made me appreciate that although I like the benefits of immigration on our economy, I was not looking at the issue holistically. In particular, it helped me to want to prioritize the side of libertarianism that decentralizes instead of indiscriminately attacks government, as well as focus on ending incentives to bring people to a place like a magnet, in an artificial way. Liberty incidentally brings prosperity and eager migrants, but actively making it a goal to attract more people to the state is needlessly disruptive to people who were here first.
To be clear, it is not as though I wish NC had closed borders, but rather, I believe there exists such a thing as too much immigration too quickly given real world consequences.
In practice, this means a climate friendly to small business formation, sufficiently funding the legal system to limit unacceptable behavior, cutting back welfare, ending deals to out-of-state businesses, not subsidizing the cost of drinking water, not central planning subsidized communities (except to de-zone in a way that makes communities more tight-knit), keeping park land public property, protecting endangered species, and making English the official language. Some of these were goals of mine before but my priorities shifted. Local character is strengthened when we have locally owned businesses, shared public space, stable institutions, and a common civic culture.
14. Are there any issues this questionnaire has not addressed that you would like to address?
“Transparency and privacy are topics I think need to be discussed more. The NC government is not as transparent as it could be including in the way it handles police body cam footage. Meanwhile, AI surveillance cameras have popped up everywhere and are ripe for abuse and ignore the fourth, fifth, ninth, and tenth amendments. It has radicalized me into hating spyware, the nonconsensual storing and selling of personal data, and the vast majority of governments that failed to be moral when they set these up in thousands of cities across the country without a second thought. I disliked the government, disliked them even more during COVID, but lost all faith in Democrats and Republicans when I saw they were willing to start us down the road to 1984.
The need for the second amendment has never been greater and I believe we should enact constitutional carry which stalled in the NCGA this year.
Regarding my answers, if the Holy Spirit helped me to write them, then I am grateful to God Almighty and feel He deserves a shout-out; God is my strength.”
