Many residents in Durham and Chatham counties lack health care. States across the nation are rolling back women’s reproductive rights. Funding for access to women’s health care is under attack. Our rural communities need greater access to health care.  We must continue to fight for Medicaid expansion and fund preventable health measures.

According to the United Health Foundation, North Carolina ranks 33rd overall for indicators of health and well-being. Access to healthcare in North Carolina remains an issue for residents across the state. Twenty counties in North Carolina have relatively few primary care physicians, and three counties have none.

Natalie Murdock’s family has lived in North Carolina for generations. Her father has worked as a social worker, and her mother, Christine Murdock, worked as a nurse. Coming from a family of healers, affordable health care is a priority for Natalie Murdock’s NC senate platform, and she is committed to ensuring all North Carolinians have access to the care they need.

The average household is one medical emergency away from being launched into bankruptcy. States across the nation are rolling back women’s reproductive rights. Funding for access to women’s health care is under attack. Our rural communities need greater access to health care.  We must continue to fight for Medicaid expansion and fund preventative health measures.

Across our District, people that have lived in their neighborhoods for decades are struggling to keep their homes. Natalie Murdock’s affordable housing plans for the NC senate will work to remove legislative barriers that prevent local communities from utilizing the creative and innovative tools neighboring states are using to fight gentrification and keep people in their homes. We can work to expand public-private partnerships, incentivize homeowners to stay in their homes, and provide tax credits to communities that need help with home repairs to maintain the value of their homes. Renters need additional rights and support; let’s continue to fund eviction diversion programs. State agencies that support our homeless populations are working to provide services in the midst of devastating state funding cuts, those services need to be fully restored.

According to a community health assessment, rising housing costs appear to negatively impact renters more than homeowners. 23% of homeowners spent a third or more of their income on housing, versus 48% of renters, in 2017.  Despite being banned in 1968, the practice of “redlining”—calculating risk based on a neighborhood’s racial demographics—has likely contributed to at least 30% of the recent disparity in homeownership between residents of color and white residents.

Public Schools in our district need adequate funding to provide our children with the education and tools they need to compete upon graduation. We must work to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow. Let’s pay our teachers what they deserve, expand free Pre-K, and fully restore our Teaching Fellows Program.  

In Education Week’s 2019 Quality Counts report, North Carolina was ranked 37th for K-12 public school quality, receiving a “C-” grade and a score of 72/100. In the three categories of Chance for Success, School Finance, and K-12 Achievement, North Carolina consistently received scores below the national average, including ranking 48th in the nation and receiving an “F” grade for school spending. According to the most recent data, North Carolina spent over $3,000 less per pupil than the national average. North Carolina currently needs an estimated $8 billion to address facility costs for their public schools. Current funding proposals–a statewide $2 billion bond and a Senate-backed $2 billion school construction fund–do not meet this need in full. Counties spend $3 billion on instructional expenses or 24 percent of the total share of federal, state, and local dollars. Further, as of March 2018, North Carolina had 50,742 eligible children on the waitlist for early childhood education and child care assistance vouchers.

Children also face challenges of racial inequity in North Carolina. According to the most recent data, across the state, black students were over four times more likely to be suspended from school than white students. Studies show that suspension is a key factor in the school to prison pipeline, along with school-based arrests and lack of school funding.

In North Carolina, the state base teaching salary is $35,000–less than the amount needed to afford housing in Durham and Chatham counties. Including the local teaching supplement, that amount increases to $39,900–just barely enough to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. The average base salary for teaching assistants is $23,546, compared to $23,262 for custodians. Further, North Carolina school employees have to work with less staff than the national average. In North Carolina, there is one school nurse for every 750 students, meaning school nurses serve 48% more students than the federal standard. Additionally, there is one school social worker for every 1,427 students, meaning social workers are serving over three times more students than the federal standard. The state also employs one school counselor for every 350 students–100 more students than the nationally recommended 1:250 ratio. In our district, 36% of students in public school meet proficiency standards for their grade level in reading and 35% meet mathematics proficiency standards. Yet, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks among the top five public universities, and North Carolina has been applauded as one of the best states to go to college.

Natalie Murdock is a product of North Carolina public schools–from kindergarten to college. She takes pride in her North Carolina education, and she is committed to ensuring this state provides all children the opportunity to get the best education possible.

We must work to ensure our residents are provided with the training and skills needed to compete in an ever-changing economy. As a minority and woman business owner, Natalie knows the benefit of having goals to ensure that contracting opportunities are made available to all. As a small business owner, Natalie knows how hard it is to grow and expand. Let’s work to support small businesses and entrepreneurship. As new businesses come to our community, let’s make sure they hire locally. 

 North Carolina’s private sector experienced a 1.2% job increase from February 2018 to February 2019, a drop from 1.7% growth between February 2017 and February 2018. Since 2015, the entrepreneurship growth rate in North Carolina, currently at .27%, has decreased by 12%. Over the past 10 years, there has been a 36% decline in loans made to small businesses and entrepreneurs, and 805,985 entrepreneurs in North Carolina are operating without employees. Further, 53% of entrepreneurs need less than $100,000 to start their business, and 63% used their own savings to start their business. Despite all this, small businesses employ almost half the private workforce in North Carolina.

As a minority and woman business owner, Natalie Murdock knows how hard it can be to start a new business. She knows from her own personal experience the challenges businesses in North Carolina face as they grow and expand. Natalie Murdock is personally invested in making the economy work for all North Carolinians, and she’s willing to fight for your jobs.

We must work to ensure our residents are provided with the training and skills needed to compete in an ever-changing economy. Let’s work to support small businesses and entrepreneurship. As new businesses come to our community, let’s make sure they hire locally.

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Our district is in the midst of a criminal justice renaissance. More funds are needed to support the grassroots work of organizations that are working to implement needed reforms. Natalie will work with the community to keep our neighborhoods and streets safe. As your state senator, Natalie will support and fund our NC Reentry Council, fund money bail reforms, support criminal record expungement programs, strengthen domestic violence laws, support common-sense gun laws, and support our immigrant community. We must stop locking people up for non-violent and minor drug offenses. As we combat the opioid crisis, we must also stop criminalizing the use of marijuana.

In a report from the Electoral Integrity Project, North Carolina received a score of 58 out of 100 for the 2016 election. This score is comparable to nations with authoritarian regimes and pseudo-democracies, such as Cuba, Indonesia, and Sierra Leone. Further, North Carolina scored lower on voting district boundary integrity than all countries evaluated by the report, receiving a score of 7/100.

North Carolina’s jail and prison incarceration rates are steadily increasing, with 160,000 people either incarcerated or under criminal justice supervision. North Carolina’s incarceration rates are higher than that of the next highest five countries’ incarceration rates combined.

As a lifelong North Carolina native, Natalie is dedicated to ensuring North Carolina is committed to justice and a fair democratic process for all citizens. She feels a deep sense of duty and obligation toward continuing the path of progress that our parents, grandparents, ancestors and so many others established. Natalie will work to set a new, progressive agenda that will help create a direction to improve life for all in the district, in Durham and Chatham counties, and in North Carolina.

One recent example of how politics instead of the people’s business has set the agenda of the legislature involved the Speaker of the House of Representatives calling for an override vote of Governor Roy Cooper’s budget veto after making sure all Republicans were on the floor, while Democrats presumably thought no votes would be taken. 

 The state’s longtime poor experience with legislative gerrymandering based on race and political considerations serves as another sad example. The legislature’s efforts to take power and the ability of the governor to act as an executive is a third example which is detrimental to the people.

North Carolina’s legislature needs to tackle reforming its operations to guarantee that it works for all of the state’s people instead of the concerns of politicians.

    Such reform should include:

• Changing the state’s Constitution to clearly define the powers of the governor, so that he or she can act as an executive and daily oversee the executive branch. Such a change would ensure state government can work effectively and efficiently daily for the people.

• Changing the state Constitution to stop legislative gerrymandering and establish a commission independent of political considerations. Such a change would ensure that the planning and drawing of all legislative and congressional districts occur fairly and to ensure that each vote matters in legislative and congressional elections. The people need to pick their representatives instead of politicians choosing what people they will represent.

• Establishing clear and fair rules for operation of the legislature. Such a change will ensure that the legislative branch focuses its work on improving the quality of life for all of the people in North Carolina instead of helping politicians hang onto power. After being put in place, such rules should only be changed by a two-thirds vote to ensure legislative rules always remain nonpartisan and focused on the people’s business.

  These rules would require:

• A clear 48-hour notice for all voting sessions

• A clear 24-hour notice on all legislation that can come up in a voting session

• Requirements that no votes can occur after 11 p.m. or on Sundays and other changes that would stop legislative leaders from manipulating the voting schedule and ensuring the legislature focuses solely on the people’s business

• A specific code of conduct that all elected officials would have to receive and sign to ensure that they follow and keep the highest ethical standards

All of these changes and other reforms would make sure the legislature and state government work to improve our schools, create jobs for our people, rebuild roads and bridges and improve life in North Carolina for all residents.