PATRICIA’S PRIORITIES

District 23 sits in the heart of what public-health experts call the “Stroke Belt” — a region with some of the highest rates of stroke, heart disease, and chronic illness in the country. Many of our rural communities and communities of color face even higher risks when preventive care, specialists, EMS coverage, and hospitals are difficult to reach. Healthcare in our district isn’t just a convenience issue — it’s a life-and-death challenge that demands action.

Healthcare challenges in District 23 are widespread and growing:

• Hospital closures and service reductions have pushed basic and emergency care farther away.
• Long EMS response times put rural residents at greater risk during emergencies.
• Limited access to primary care, mental health, and addiction treatment forces people to delay or skip care entirely.
• Rising costs — doctor visits, prescriptions, and insurance — make treatment unaffordable for many families.
• Healthcare workforce shortages leave clinics overwhelmed and specialists out of reach.

These challenges compound over time, creating worse outcomes and higher long-term costs for families and taxpayers.

A practical path to restoring reliable, affordable, and accessible care across all communities in the district.

How:

• Expand funding for rural primary care, urgent care, and mobile health units.
• Incentivize providers to open satellite clinics in underserved areas.
• Support partnerships between hospitals, community colleges, and health systems to improve local staffing.

How:

• Increase funding for rural EMS departments based on call volume and geographic coverage.
• Modernize equipment and vehicles through targeted state grants.
• Create county–state coordination plans to prevent coverage gaps and long response times.

How:

• Increase state investment in rural behavioral-health providers.
• Integrate mental-health professionals into primary care and school-based health programs.
• Expand community-based recovery and crisis-intervention programs to reduce ER dependence.

How:

• Expand state-funded “rural specialty rotations” so cardiologists, neurologists, OBGYNs, and other specialists regularly travel to rural clinics — reducing costly travel and improving preventive access.
• Cap surprise out-of-network billing for emergency services so families don’t get hit with unexpected thousand-dollar charges.
• Expand the state’s prescription-assistance partnerships that negotiate bulk drug prices for low-income and fixed-income residents.
• Create a Rural Health Access Card offering discounted primary care, telehealth, and prescription pricing through state-negotiated agreements with providers and pharmacies.
• Strengthen community-based preventive screening programs — including blood pressure, stroke risk, diabetes, prostate cancer, colon cancer, and breast cancer screenings — to catch health issues early and reduce long-term costs for families.
• Increase support for sliding-scale and low-cost clinics, which reduce out-of-pocket costs for uninsured and underinsured families.

How:

• Partner with community colleges to expand nursing, EMT, and health-tech programs.
• Create “earn while they learn” pathways for CNAs, EMTs, and medical assistants.
• Offer retention incentives to keep healthcare workers serving in rural communities.

For too many people in our district, the dream of staying in their home is threatened by rising taxes, insurance spikes, aging housing, and limited attainable options. Seniors on fixed incomes, first-time buyers, and families trying to build stability all face pressures that make staying rooted harder than it should be. Housing is not just shelter — it’s security, dignity, and the foundation of strong communities.

Housing challenges in District 23 share common causes:

• Rising property taxes and insurance premiums are squeezing seniors and fixed-income homeowners.
• Limited attainable and workforce housing pushes families into long waiting lists or overcrowded living situations.
• Aging homes and outdated systems lead to repair costs many homeowners cannot afford.
• Developers prioritize higher-priced builds, leaving moderate-income households with few options.
• Zoning and land-use rules often restrict the smaller, more attainable housing types that fit rural communities.
• Large corporate investors are increasingly buying up local homes, making it harder for local families to compete.

These pressures combine to force people out of the communities they’ve invested in for decades.

A focused, realistic strategy to keep people in their homes and expand attainable housing across the district.

How:

• Expand eligibility for property-tax relief and keep applications simple and accessible.
• Cap rapid year-to-year tax increases for qualifying seniors and disabled homeowners.
• Provide targeted state grants to help seniors make critical home repairs needed to stay safely at home.

How:

• Support legislation that increases transparency and oversight on insurance-rate hikes.
• Create a state-backed home-insurance assistance program for low-income seniors facing unaffordable premiums.
• Expand funding for weatherization and energy-efficiency upgrades that reduce monthly utility bills.

How:

• Offer state incentives for builders who create affordable, modest-sized homes suited for rural communities — not luxury developments.
• Support zoning and land-use changes that allow smaller homes, accessory dwelling units, and duplexes where appropriate.
• Restore local authority taken away in 1987 so municipalities and counties can address sudden rent spikes, unsafe rental conditions, and housing shortages with community-based tools.
• Establish a Rural Housing Partnership Fund to support local nonprofits that build and rehabilitate attainable homes.

How:

• Expand state grants and low-interest loans for essential home repairs, accessibility updates, and safety improvements.
• Support programs that help with roofs, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical repairs to prevent displacement and maintain safe living conditions.
• Partner with community colleges to grow trades-training programs that supply local expertise for home repair and rehabilitation.

How:

• Require state-funded revitalization projects to include protections so existing homeowners and renters aren’t pushed out.
• Support land banks and community land trusts that return abandoned or tax-foreclosed properties to productive, community-centered uses.
• Tie revitalization dollars to community benefit outcomes — local hiring, attainable housing, and repair support for longtime residents.

How:

• Require state-level reporting and transparency when large investment firms purchase multiple single-family homes in a county.
• Limit bulk purchases by corporate investors in designated rural or workforce-housing priority zones.
• Create first-look programs giving teachers, veterans, seniors, and first-time homebuyers priority access before outside investors can bid.
• Offer tax incentives to sellers who choose local families or owner-occupants instead of corporate cash-buyers.
• Establish penalties for investment groups that leave homes vacant or flip properties in ways that destabilize local housing markets.

Education today looks different than ever. Rural families use a mix of public schools, community colleges, homeschooling, and alternative learning models. Parents want safe campuses, strong academics, career pathways, and transparency — no matter which path they choose. Our job as a state is to support every learner, remove outdated barriers, protect rural public schools, and ensure public dollars come with public accountability.

Across District 23, families and educators face real barriers:

• Teacher shortages in math, science, special education, and CTE.
• Outdated buildings and facilities that are costly and sometimes unsafe.
• Limited course options in rural schools, including fewer AP, arts, and advanced CTE pathways.
• Long bus routes that affect attendance and extracurricular participation.
• Uneven oversight among publicly funded programs across the state.
• A disconnect between education and local job opportunities.
• Outdated community-college residency rules that slow degree completion.

These structural challenges limit opportunity and weaken the local workforce pipeline.

A statewide education strategy that supports public schools, empowers families, modernizes community colleges, and ensures accountability wherever public dollars are spent.

How:

• Expand loan repayment, salary supplements, and retention bonuses for high-need areas.
• Partner with community colleges and universities to create “Grow Your Own Teacher” programs.
• Offer paid student-teaching and internships to remove barriers for future educators.

How:

• Increase state grants for HVAC, roofing, water systems, and classroom upgrades.
• Expand the Public School Capital Fund so rural counties can replace outdated facilities.
• Support energy-efficient improvements that reduce long-term operating costs.

How:

• Partner with employers and trades to build programs aligned with real job openings.
• Support and expand dual-enrollment opportunities so high school students earn college credits or certifications at no cost.
• Modernize CTE labs, tools, and equipment to meet current industry standards.

How:

• Increase funding for school counselors, mental-health professionals, and social workers.
• Support school-based health and telehealth programs.
• Provide tools and training for evidence-based crisis-prevention and school safety programs.

How:

• Use virtual instruction and regional course-sharing for advanced classes.
• Support arts, athletics, and extracurriculars to keep students engaged.
• Expand transportation assistance so distance doesn’t limit participation.

How:

• Expand Pre-K availability, especially in childcare deserts.
• Support partnerships with churches, nonprofits, and childcare centers.
• Invest in early literacy initiatives that prepare children for kindergarten success.

How:

• End the rule that forces students to complete half of their credits at the same community college before they can graduate — even though all 58 colleges operate under the same statewide accredited system.
• Allow students to earn degrees, diplomas, or certifications based on completed credits, no matter which community colleges they earned them from.
• Create a seamless statewide digital transcript so students never lose credits when they move, change programs, or take online classes.
• Expand online, hybrid, evening, and weekend courses to help working adults finish faster.
• Align short-term credentials, certificates, and degree programs with the real jobs available in the district.
• Increase financial support so adults can upskill or change careers without taking on debt.

How:

• Align high school, community-college, and workforce programs with local job opportunities.
• Offer “stay here” scholarships or signing bonuses for students entering high-need local careers.
• Expand entrepreneurship, leadership, and financial-literacy programs that prepare students to build futures here at home.

District 23 has one of the highest senior populations in the region, along with a strong community of veterans, retired service members, and surviving spouses. But aging in rural North Carolina comes with challenges: limited access to healthcare, long travel distances, inadequate transportation, rising home costs, caregiver shortages, and complicated benefits. Seniors and veterans deserve policies that protect their independence and keep them rooted in the communities they love.

Seniors, veterans, and disabled adults face challenges that threaten their ability to age safely and independently:

• Long wait times and long distances for medical, specialist, and VA care.
• Shortages of caregivers and in-home support, leaving families struggling alone.
• Rising costs for home repairs and property taxes, making aging in place harder.
• Limited transportation options to medical care, groceries, pharmacies, and community programs.
• Complex, confusing systems for benefits, VA claims, and support services.
• Isolation and loneliness, which increase health risks and reduce quality of life.
• Aging homes that lack ramps, accessibility, or safety features.

These issues are especially serious in rural communities where services are already scarce.

A practical strategy to support seniors, veterans, caregivers, and aging adults so they can stay safe, healthy, and independent at home.

How:

• Expand mobile clinics, telehealth access, and visiting-provider programs in rural communities.
• Recruit more rural providers with incentives in geriatrics, primary care, dentistry, and mental health.
• Improve coordination between state services and the VA to reduce delays and duplicate appointments.
• Create transportation vouchers and ride programs for medical, pharmacy, and wellness visits.

How:

• Expand grants for home repairs, accessibility upgrades, ramps, roofs, HVAC, and weatherization.
• Strengthen property-tax relief programs for seniors and disabled veterans on fixed incomes.
• Partner with nonprofits and workforce programs to complete repairs quickly and affordably.
• Support “Healthy Homes” initiatives to fix safety hazards before they become crises.

How:

• Increase state funding for in-home care and home-health agencies serving rural areas.
• Grow the caregiving workforce through community-college training, fast-track certifications, and stipends.
• Offer respite-care vouchers so unpaid family caregivers can take needed breaks.
• Simplify hiring processes and credential transfers for home-health workers.

How:

• Create “One-Stop Aging & Veteran Support Hubs” to help families navigate VA claims, benefits, healthcare options, and local programs.
• Expand partnerships with churches, senior centers, and nonprofits to provide meals, wellness checks, and social activities.
• Support mental-health and peer-support programs for seniors and veterans, including teletherapy options.
• Increase funding for senior-nutrition and meal-delivery programs in rural communities.

How:

• Prioritize seniors and disabled veterans in housing rehabilitation and rural repair programs.
• Support transitional housing for veterans at risk of homelessness.
• Require better oversight and accountability in assisted-living and long-term care facilities.
• Develop small, walkable senior communities by revitalizing vacant blocks and unused lots:
• Convert abandoned or underused blocks into single-story, accessible senior homes.
• Include safe walking paths, green spaces, and community gardens.
• Ensure proximity to groceries, pharmacies, clinics, churches, and senior centers.
• Provide incentives for builders who create affordable, senior-friendly housing models.
• Support multi-generational layouts that keep families connected while preserving independence.

How:

• Fund rural transit routes and shuttle services connecting seniors to essential services.
• Provide mileage stipends or vouchers for volunteer driver programs.
• Support partnerships with nonprofits to increase mobility for those who no longer drive.
• Improve coordination between county transit systems and veteran service organizations.

How:

• Expand the number of state Veteran Service Officers (VSOs) to help file claims and reduce wait times.
• Ensure veterans facing long delays at the VA can access community care without added barriers.
• Support job retraining, credential transfers, and small-business grants for veterans.
• Strengthen suicide-prevention and mental-health programs with local partnerships and peer-support networks.
• Improve support for surviving spouses navigating benefits, healthcare, and long-term planning.

Strong communities don’t happen by accident — they happen when people have places to gather, programs for youth and seniors, support during tough times, and leaders who show up and listen. Across District 23, too many neighborhoods have lost their resources, their gathering spaces, or their sense of connection. Revitalizing our communities means investing in people, purpose, and place.

Many local communities face challenges that weaken connection, pride, and belonging:

• Few community spaces, especially where young people can safely gather.
• Limited nonprofit and faith-based support because many organizations don’t have resources to grow.
• Abandoned or underused lots and buildings that sit empty and drag down nearby neighborhoods.
• Families stretched thin without access to childcare, senior programs, or local support systems.
• Loss of community identity and traditions as towns have seen jobs and population decline.
• Limited opportunities for youth engagement, mentorship, and leadership development.
• Small towns competing for shrinking state and federal dollars while larger cities get priority.

Thriving communities require strong relationships, strong spaces, and strong local leadership — not more division.

A comprehensive strategy to strengthen neighborhoods, support families, revitalize gathering spaces, and rebuild small-town identity across District 23.

How:

• Repurpose abandoned buildings into community centers, youth hubs, senior spaces, or multipurpose resource centers.
• Support local libraries, parks, and recreation facilities with state grants for upgrades and programming.
• Create small-grant programs for towns to build outdoor gathering spots: pocket parks, walking loops, small playgrounds, and community gardens.
• Prioritize safe, accessible public spaces that encourage connection across generations.

How:

• Expand state grants that help local nonprofits grow capacity, hire staff, and serve more families.
• Support partnerships between churches and community groups on food access, youth mentoring, senior support, and community events.
• Create a “Community Partnership Network” to connect local organizations with state resources, grants, and training.
• Reduce red tape so local organizations can focus on serving people, not paperwork.

How:

• Support after-school programs, arts initiatives, youth sports, trades exploration, and summer jobs.
• Create leadership and entrepreneurship programs for teenagers and young adults within the district.
• Partner with schools, faith groups, and nonprofits to expand youth mentorship and conflict-prevention programs.
• Provide funding for safe teen spaces and weekend activities to reduce idle time and risky behaviors.

How:

• Expand access to childcare, especially in rural childcare deserts.
• Support senior centers with more programming, wellness checks, and social activities.
• Provide grants for family resource centers offering parenting support, financial literacy, and life-skills classes.
• Promote partnerships that bring services — tax help, job training, benefits navigation — directly into small communities.

How:

• Support community cleanups, beautification projects, murals, and neighborhood pride events.
• Invest in restoring historic sites, cultural landmarks, and Main Street corridors.
• Create small-business pop-up zones in vacant storefronts to bring life back to downtown areas.
• Encourage locally led visioning sessions where residents help shape the future of their own communities.

How:

• Provide training, stipends, or tax credits for volunteer firefighters and EMS members who keep rural areas safe.
• Support civic groups like Ruritans, Rotary, and neighborhood associations that lead local projects.
• Expand state support for community-driven disaster response and emergency-preparedness programs.

How:

• Ensure rural towns get fair access to state grants, not pushed behind big cities.
• Simplify state grant applications so small towns with limited staff aren’t locked out of funding.
• Bring more state agencies directly into the district through satellite offices, resource fairs, and mobile service units.
• Promote regional collaboration so small towns can pool resources and pursue larger opportunities together.

For too long, rural communities have felt ignored, overruled, or shut out of major decisions. Outdated laws create loopholes. Redistricting has become a tool for political advantage, not fairness. Local voices are overridden in processes like Special Use Permits. And residents have almost no mechanism to hold elected officials accountable between elections. This priority modernizes state government for the people — transparent, responsive, and fair.

Residents across District 23 and rural North Carolina see government that isn’t working for them:

• Hundreds of outdated or redundant statutes still on the books.
• Redistricting that lets politicians choose their voters instead of the reverse.
• No recall option for elected officials who stop listening or break trust.
• No way for citizens to petition issues onto the ballot.
• Special Use Permits held as “quasi-judicial” hearings, cutting out community voices.
• Election rules that confuse voters or disadvantage rural communities.
• Transparency gaps that leave residents unsure where their tax dollars go.

People want a government that works with them, not around them.

A bold statewide reform agenda to rebuild trust, modernize government, protect voters, and put rural communities back at the center of decision making.

How:

• Create a statewide public spending tracker showing where major state funds go — by county, agency, and project.
• Require quarterly public updates on all state-funded projects.
• Increase reporting requirements for any agency or organization receiving state grants.
• Make financial transparency accessible and easy to understand for all residents.

How:

• Conduct a top-to-bottom audit of all state laws to identify outdated, redundant, or contradictory statutes.
• Establish a bipartisan “Modern NC Code Commission” to recommend annual clean-up legislation.
• Remove old laws that allow loopholes or penalize people due to outdated language.
• Simplify the legal code so citizens and small businesses aren’t harmed by complexity.

How:

• Create an independent, citizen-led redistricting commission to draw maps.
• Ban partisan and incumbency-protection gerrymandering in the NC Constitution.
• Require maps to follow strict guidelines:
• compactness
• respect for communities
• no partisan data in drawing
• Require all final maps to pass the legislature with a 3/5 supermajority — ensuring bipartisan agreement.
• Mandate all map-drawing meetings and drafts be public with full comment opportunities.

How:

• Establish a statewide recall system for state and local officials who break trust or stop listening.
• Set reasonable signature thresholds to prevent political abuse.
• Trigger special elections when a recall is certified.
• Protect the public’s right to hold leaders accountable between elections.

How:

• Create a clear, structured process for citizens to gather signatures to place non-appropriations public policy measures on the statewide ballot.
• Ensure rural residents can participate without being blocked by red tape.
• Promote direct democracy in areas where the legislature refuses to act.

How:

• End the requirement that SUP hearings be “quasi-judicial” and prohibit public opinion.
• Restore open public comment so residents can speak about local impacts.
• Require transparency from businesses or developers seeking major approvals.
• Ensure local boards can consider community concerns, not just technical evidence.

How:

• Simplify election rules so voters always know where to vote, what ID is needed, and what’s on the ballot.
• Ensure rural areas have fair access to early-voting sites and polling locations.
• Improve election equipment, cybersecurity, and training for rural poll workers.
• Enhance transparency in campaign finance and third-party political spending.
• Require voter rolls to be updated accurately and regularly to reduce confusion.

How:

• Hold regular, rotating town halls across every community in the district.
• Bring “State Service Days” into local towns for direct help with benefits, licensing, and support.
• Create a “One Call, One Office” constituent line that actually solves problems.
• Require state agencies to provide quarterly updates on service delivery in rural counties.

How:

• Expand conflict-of-interest reporting requirements.
• Increase penalties for misuse of public funds or abuse of office.
• Strengthen whistleblower protections.
• Require public bodies to maintain up-to-date online minutes, votes, and agendas.

How:

• Publish regular updates on votes, legislation, and district projects.
• Refuse gifts, benefits, or special favors.
• Stay accessible — in person, by phone, and by email — in every community, every month.
• Show up, be transparent, listen, and do the work.