By Mia Khatib
mia.khatib@triangletribune.com
DURHAM — Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People held a statewide meet and greet Tuesday with North Carolina Democrats running for public office in 2024. Candidates raised concerns about the Republican-led legislature and highlighted public education and voters rights as campaign priorities.
Cassandra Stokes, chair of the DCABP’s political action team, said they had a successful municipal season with endorsed candidates Leonardo Williams landing mayor-elect and Nate Baker as the top vote-getter for Durham City Council.
Endorsements for the 2024 elections will start in the new year. “We realize we have a lot of work to do to turn out our voters, especially with the photo voter ID challenges, the new redistricting map, and statewide judicial challenges,” Stokes said.
Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Morgan and Attorney General Josh Stein are running for Governor. Morgan said it’s his decades of judicial experience that makes him best to serve. Stein said right-wing legislators, like Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, are damaging democracy to cling to power.
“When you look at the fact that we have 3,500 teacher vacancies in our public schools, the fact that 12 individuals die daily from overdoses of fentanyl, where we have a 45 day average wait to get an appointment at the DMV, they’re issues that we can overcome,” Morgan said. “I know what state government can do and cannot do, what it should do and should not do.”
As Governor, Stein said he will fight to build the economy from the bottom up and middle out, raise minimum wage and cut taxes for working families, increase teacher pay to at least the national average, and ensure all North Carolinians have access to quality health care.
Former Senator Ben Clark, who is running for Lieutenant Governor, said: “Under Democratic-led rule, North Carolina had a history of leaning forward with regard to education, environment, the economy and health care. And we have an obligation to maintain that forward lean for the benefit of all North Carolinians. That is my focus.”
Sen. Rachel Hunt is also campaigning for Robinson’s position. She said her priorities are to improve public education and accessibility to secondary education, voters rights and health care. She said teachers are treated as second-class citizens, and the Republican-led legislature is suppressing voters through its new law to cut off the time when absentee ballots are counted.
“In 2018, I won by 68 absentee votes ,and they were counted several days after the election night,” she said. “If that had been in effect when I ran, I would not be standing here today.”
Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry is running for Attorney General. She is the only DA in the state, she said, who has refused to prosecute women and doctors when women exercise their choice to an abortion, and she stands by that despite being sued.
“If you do not have a quality education… if your hospitals are closing, if you still don’t have access to broadband technology, not only are your communities not growing, they’re dying,” Rep. Wesley Harris, who is running for State Treasurer, said. “We need a state treasurer who understands that we have to invest in our people.”
Superior Court Judge Lora Cubbage is running for N.C. Supreme Court Justice and Judge Carolyn Thompson, who was recently appointed to the N.C. Court of Appeals, will seek re-election. Cubbage and a representative, who spoke on behalf of Thompson, both encouraged people to not overlook judges when voting.
“Go to the judges first, then go to the government, because if you don’t, this is where the rubber hits the road,” Thompson’s spokesperson said. “The Court of Appeals is important because they correct the errors [of the lower courts], errors in bias, factual errors.”
Luis Toledo is running for State Auditor. He said he is committed to ensuring the office conducts unbiased audits with irrefutable findings and begins conversations around racial equity in the audit world. “[Audits] bring value because they uncover things that then lead to fixing things in government to better serve everybody,” he said.
Maurice Green is running for Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction. He has been a lawyer representing Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education in the Leandro litigation case, and said North Carolina needs to invest more in public education, revere educators, and better prepare students by tending to their individual needs.
“We must invest already, not do this at the same time that we lose dollars to an expansion of a voucher program,” he said. “We can no longer be the state that is at the bottom in funding public education, at the bottom in funding starting teacher pay,” he said.
Mia Khatib, who covers affordable housing and gentrification, is a Report for America corps member.
