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2022 Elections : The candidates for US Senate

There's a chill in the air, leaves on the ground, campaign literature on doorknobs....it must be election season! Early voting is in full swing, and all North Carolineans have the opportunity to select a new senator to replace retiring senator Richard Burr ( R ). Details on when and how to vote can be found here, including how to get a sample ballot.

This is an overview of the candidates for US Senate. Each of the candidates below is seeking to represent North Carolina in the US Senate, and will be joining Thom Tillis ( R ), who has served in the US Senate since 2015.

The Candidates

Presented in the order they will be listed on the ballot

Fun fact: the ballot order is determined by an official picking of a ball out of a bingo machine, then going in alphabetical order starting with that letter. This time, the ball picked was the “C”, so all candidates are in alphabetical order starting with C.

Candidates have differing campaign and message cornerstones and do not all speak to the same issues. Using a combination of public polling, candidate focus, and media conversation, highlighted issues for the candidates below include:

  • Inflation
  • Healthcare
  • Immigration
  • Education & student loan forgiveness
  • Crime (including cash bail, bail reform, and policing)
  • Guns
  • Abortion
  • Minimum wage
  • Marijuana

Matthew Hoh - Green Party

United States Marine Corps veteran

  • Inflation
    • supports addressing inflation by implementing Medicare For All, federal rent control, and reducing dependence on foreign oil
  • Healthcare
    • supports Medicare For All single-payer healthcare reform
    • supports cancellation of medical debt (policy details not provided)
    • supports expansion of protected medical leave for employees
    • supports legislation to mandate insurance cover pregnancy prevention measures
  • Immigration
    • supports immigration reform (policy details not provided)
    • characterizes the current situation at the US-Mexico border as a crisis
  • Education & student loan forgiveness
    • supports cancellation of all student debt
    • supports free college & technical schooling
  • Guns
    • believes the Second Amendment confers an individual right to firearm ownership
    • supports universal background checks and mandatory waiting periods for firearm purchases
  • Abortion
    • supports repeal of the Hyde Amendment
    • supports federal legislation to prohibit states from restricting abortion
    • supports legislation to mandate insurance cover abortions
  • Minimum wage
    • supports increasing federal minimum wage to $22 per hour with annual adjustment
  • Marijuana
  • Miscellaneous

Cheri Beasley - Democratic Party

Former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, former judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals

  • Healthcare
    • supports expanding the Affordable Care Act to include a public option
    • supports Medicaid expansion
    • supports federal funding for Planned Parenthood
    • supports federal legislation to create paid family and medical leave (policy details not provided)
  • Immigration
    • supports the continuation of DACA
    • supports pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently in the United States (policy details not provided)
  • Crime (including cash bail, bail reform, and policing)
    • supports passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (legislation intended to regulate policing practices and training, limit qualified immunity for police officers, and expand investigatory power for the Department of Justice; bill has passed the US House and been received by the Senate)
  • Guns
  • Abortion
    • supports repeal of the Hyde Amendment
    • currently supporting the Women’s Health Protection Act (has been around since 2013, recently passed the House of Reps, Senate has not voted on it)
    • supports federal funding for Planned Parenthood
  • Minimum wage
    • supports $15 per hour minimum wage
  • Marijuana
    • supports marijuana legalization
  • Miscellaneous
    • supports increasing pay for armed forces service members (policy details not provided)
    • supports expansion of veterans’ services (policy details not provided)
    • supports passing the PRO Act (legislation intended to expand legal actions of unions; bill has passed the US House and been received by the Senate and sent to committee)
    • supports making the Expanded Child Tax Credit, part of the American Rescue Plan, permanent (policy details not provided)
    • supports passing the Paycheck Fairness Act (legislation intended to strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as shifting the burden of proof to employers to justify pay gaps; bill has passed the US House and has stalled in the Senate)
    • supports passing the Freedom to Vote Act (legislation intended to expand voter registration, restore voting rights, establish Election Day as a national holiday, set mandatory post-election audits, and expand prohibitions on foreign spending on campaigns; bill has introduced in the US Senate) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (legislation intended to implement preclearance requirements for states with repeated voting rights violations; bill has passed the US House and been received by the Senate)
    • supports passing the Equality Act (legislation intended to disallow discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation; bill has passed the US House and is in hearings in the Senate)
    • supports campaign finance reform, believes Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission should be overturned
    • supports congressional action to re-propose the Equal Rights Amendment (which has now been ratified by 38 states, but the original proposal has expired and requires congressional action to complete the constitutional amendment process)

Shannon W. Bray - Libertarian Party

United States Navy veteran

  • Inflation
    • supports return to the gold standard (policy details not provided)
  • Healthcare
    • opposes single-payer healthcare
  • Immigration
    • opposes construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border
  • Crime (including cash bail, bail reform, and policing)
    • supports decarceration for non-violent offenders
  • Abortion
    • opposes federal legislation regulation abortion
    • supports state legislation limiting abortion
  • Marijuana
  • Miscellaneous
    • supports cyber security for infrastructure (policy details not provided)
    • supports expansion of VA services
    • implies support for eliminating the senate filibuster
    • supports abolishing the Federal Reserve (policy details not provided)
    • supports decriminalization or legalization of all drugs with the exception of fentanyl
    • supports designation of personal data as personally owned property (policy details not provided)
    • supports legal right to have data removed from systems at individual request (policy details not provided)

Ted Budd - Republican Party

Current representative to the US House of Representatives for NC-13
Congressman Budd is in the unique position among this slate of candidates of having a legislative voting record. This means Congressman Budd has a vote history and a history of sponsored legislation. This is reflected in the policy positions listed below.

  • Inflation
    • supports increasing active duty soldier pay and has written a letter encouraging Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin to increase pay under the current National Defense Authorization Act
  • Immigration
    • characterizes the current situation at the US-Mexico border as a crisis
    • supports construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border
  • Education & student loan forgiveness
    • opposes student debt cancellation
    • introduced federal legislation to increase oversight of school curricula
  • Crime (including cash bail, bail reform, and policing)
    • opposes police defunding
  • Guns
    • co-sponsor of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act (a bill requiring states to recognize other states’ concealed carry permits for non-residents; some states already do this but in limited and inconsistent ways)
    • voted against the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022 (bill has passed the US house and been received by the Senate)
  • Abortion
    • co-sponsor of the current version of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would federally limit abortions past 15 weeks
      • this bill does not prohibit states from passing laws that limits abortion further
      • previously this bill prohibited abortions after 20 weeks (has passed the US House of Representatives thrice, has received majority vote in the Senate but failed to pass due to the 60 votes needed to avoid Senate filibuster)
    • voted to uphold the Hyde Amendment
  • Marijuana
  • Miscellaneous
    • after former Senator from NC Kay Hagan died in 2019, Ted introduced bill to get the traffic control tower at PTI named for Kay Hagan (Hagan was a Democrat)
    • supports increasing active duty soldier pay and has written a letter encouraging Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin to increase pay under the current National Defense Authorization Act
    • voted against DC statehood twice, in 2020 and 2022
    • introduced the Make PPE in America Act in April 2021 (bill was passed and has been enacted)
    • voted for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, a bipartisan bill that would update filing fees, including tying future updates to inflation, for companies requiring antitrust approval to complete mergers (bill has passed the US house and been received by the Senate)
    • recently voted against supplying military aid to Ukraine

Michelle Lewis - unaffiliated, write-in candidate

  • Healthcare
    • supports healthcare reform to expand access (policy details not provided)
  • Education & student loan forgiveness
    • supports tax breaks for families who choose homeschooling over public schooling
  • Crime (including cash bail, bail reform, and policing)
    • opposes defunding the police
    • supports ending cash bail for petty offenses and misdemeanors
  • Guns
  • Miscellaneous
    • supports increased services for veterans, especially combat veterans

Are you a candidate and see something you’d like to correct? Please reach out from an official email address.