Name: Matthew Patrick Clements
Age: 53
Party affiliation: Libertarian
Campaign website: facebook.com/matthew4freedom
Occupation & employer: IT Support – Fitch Creations, Inc.
Years lived in the area: 36 Years
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’ve been a volunteer with the NC Libertarian Party for over a decade, as well as a local non-profit. I’ve managed businesses on Franklin Street and understand the challenges of local businesses and residents and how the General Assembly in Raleigh limits the autonomy of local government. My three biggest career accomplishments are managing the expansion of a local business to a second location, next starting a professional writing and photography career, and finally making a lateral entry into IT from operations. I have a lot of experience with journalism, photography, information technology, social media, public speaking and leadership.
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?
1. Education. North Carolina has a state constitution that guarantees a sound basic education for every child. The Leandro case has proven that the legislature and now the judicial branch are not fulfilling this guarantee to the residents of North Carolina. We need to improve our public schools, especially with vocational programs, STEM, civics, home economics options for students. I do not support any tax dollars going to support private non-secular educational programs.
2. Corruption. North Carolina and the representatives in Raleigh pick and choose winners and losers, whether it is rubber stamping huge rate increases from Duke Power, or the abuse of Certificate of Need laws to limit health care options, to the abuses of ABC System with warehouse issues, board corruption, liquor allocation. We need a common sense approach to work together to solve the problems facing North Carolina, not bi-partisan rancor and strife.
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?
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?
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?
No. Raleigh needs to stay out of the way of counties and cities ability to govern themselves. This is not a one size fits all solution to problems. Wake County is very different from Bladen County or Orange County for that matter. Property taxes, tax rates and property evaluations need guidance but not central planning from Raleigh.
5. How would you address the rising costs of housing, childcare, and basic necessities facing North Carolina families?
In the scope of a State legislator, I don’t have any solutions for the inflationary mess that the Federal Reserve and government have created with printing money out of thin air backed by nothing by the good faith of the United States. The dollar is not connected to anything tangible (like gold prior to Nixon getting the US off the gold standard to be able to pay for the war in Vietnam by printing more fiat currency) so housing costs have to go up along with the costs of everything else. When I was a child one parent could work full time and afford to buy a house, and have child care or allow someone to stay at home to raise kids. Now with mortgage rates out of control, gas prices and inflation rampant, finding a way to help North Carolina families to be able to thrive is going to be a challenge.
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?
North Carolina has realized that the Federal Government has abrogated their disaster assistance after seeing how FEMA dropped the ball after Helene and other events. Seeing Raleigh allow Duke Power to continue to use solid and liquid dinosaur powered electrical generation for our power needs shows that no one really is taking human influenced carbon additions to the environment as the global challenge for melting ice caps, destroying ecological diversity, increasing weather variability. The state and local communities need to work together for solutions to rapidly repair and assist folks affected by disasters.
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?
Politicians should never be allowed to select their voters. Gerrymandering, packing and cracking are stupid political games that both legacy parties are complicit in the State of North Carolina. The Republicans have been the worst recently about it and perhaps they thinned out their districts to allow more proportional representation. I support the Iowa Model for independent redistricting. I also strongly support Ranked Choice Voting. RCV can eliminate voting for the lesser evil and keep runoffs from having to be held.
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?
First of all I advocate for a separation of the NC Education Lottery proceeds and the state budgeting process. The lottery is a tax on economically illiterate folks whom can least afford to ‘gamble’ their future, and when it allows Raleigh to move money out of the education budget for pork projects or other uses it violates the State Constitution’s guarantee of a sound basic education for children. Teachers are some of the most underpaid and appreciated employees of the state in our nation. They are some of the most important for the future success of our society. We need to adequately and competitively compensate them for their service. We need to fund 100 counties with vocational, home economics, civics, STEM, language programs, computer science to prepare our future leaders. If we have guaranteed something in our ‘social contract’ that children cannot consent to at birth, we should hold up our end of the bargain.
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?
I do not believe that the government has any role in interacting between a medical professional and a patient. I do not believe in bans or restrictions. Perhaps if folks worried about the success of infants and children as much as the ‘rights’ of an unborn child this would not be a culture war issue. I do not advocate for the use of force to compel anyone to carry a fetus to term. I also do not know where the moral line is for the sentience of a zygote or an embryo, nor do I think that is something that should fall within the scope of legislation.
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?
I fully support ending the war on drugs in North Carolina. The Federal issues with the Farm Bill and accidentally making things legal just showcases the stupidity of legislating morality. I would support legalizing marijuana, and decriminalizing almost everything else. The war on drugs is a racist scam foisted upon the United States to victimize political opponents historically. It has to end. I would like to free all non-violent victims of the war on drugs and commute their sentences. I support ending the war on drugs nationally as well. Don’t lock folks in cages for a plant. Don’t accidentally protect the cartels’ markets for illicit drugs.
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?
The state should never be allowed to murder a resident. You cannot appeal a death sentence after it is carried out. I will never support the death penalty and would be thrilled if the state of North Carolina outlawed the use of the death penalty. Forcing local courts to hold folks in jail because of a rule in Raleigh is moronic.
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?
Data centers should have no special treatment. No subsidies, no property tax breaks, no sales tax breaks. They should pay higher rates than individual rate-payers and be responsible partners using a limited resource in our water resources. Also, corporations that pollute should be held responsible for their actions – for instance the Chemors PFAS pollution in the Wilmington area and the recent ‘settlement’ from the Federal Government was an insult to the residents of North Carolina. If you damage something with your business, whether it be a hog lagoon waste, or data center, you should be held financially responsible for remediating that damage and a financial penalty to those affected.
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.
Growing up in Wilmington I didn’t understand the scope of the institutional racism that was an integral part of our society and government. From redlining, to pistol permits, licensing, restricting voting – to today’s closing polling sites in areas on Sundays and campuses. I didn’t understand the scope of the issue or the problem growing up as a middle class white kid. I didn’t know that Hugh MacRae Park was named after a racist who helped a coup to help usher in the Jim Crow era along with the Daughters of the Revolution. Imagine the generational wealth and advantages that our government denied to those whom the 13th Amendment freed from chattel slavery – but set up for abuse as victims of Jim Crow and the War on Drugs to become slaves once again.
14. Are there any issues this questionnaire has not addressed that you would like to address?
I would like to abolish the NC ABC System and replace it with nothing. I would like to eliminate the Certificate of Need laws in North Carolina. I also strongly support eliminating corruption from special interests and political parties from our collective governance. The people of North Carolina do not have a lobby in Raleigh to help advocate for their success, like Duke Power, or UNC Health, or Blue Cross Blue Shield do. We have to fulfill our promise to the residents of North Carolina in service to all, not picking and choosing winners and losers.
