Issues
Improve Family Health and Wellness.
All North Carolinians deserve access to quality care they can afford, especially those with mental illness and substance use disorders. North Carolina is one of only thirteen states that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Wendy will push to expand Medicaid, meaning over 12,585 new people would be covered by insurance in Johnston County.
MEDICARE FOR ALL
We need a single-payer, national health care system which guarantees care for all regardless of their ability to pay. Expanded and improved Medicare for all means everybody in, nobody out.
Medicare for All can only be achieved through a broad based grassroots campaign. Join us to replace this broken profit driven system with a health care system that serves us all.
Fight for Public Education.
Dr. May believes in the right to a quality public education for every child. Fight for Public Education.
Dr.May believes in the right to a quality public education for every child. She will fight for greater investment in our teachers and students, not play politics with future generations. These investments include increasing access to early childhood education, raising teacher pay, investing in supplemental staff to support the needs of our students, and creating incentives to recruit and retain diverse educators to work with our increasingly diverse student population.
Expanding Broadband Internet Coverage
Access to a reliable broadband connection must be considered a required part of our state’s infrastructure. Businesses, schools, and families rely on this as a basic utility for everyday life.
As our state continues to experience the effects of COVID-19, North Carolinians rely on a stable internet connection now, more than ever. In this new remote environment, we need the internet to complete many of our typical daily tasks, such as educating our children and working each day. Certain parts of NC that lack reliable broadband connections, such as our rural communities, have been particularly hard-hit by this transition.
In this new environment, North Carolinians without a broadband connection are unable to connect to their everyday lives. This is unacceptable. We must ensure that we are providing our citizens with the tools necessary to remain connected and thrive.
Wendy believes that providing statewide access to a reliable broadband connection ought to be a critical part of our state’s infrastructure, not a luxury. She will fight to eliminate these coverage gaps.
“Ending Right to work laws”
“Right to work” is the name for a policy designed to take away rights from working people. Backers of right to work laws claim that these laws protect workers against being forced to join a union. The reality is that federal law already makes it illegal to force someone to join a union.
The real purpose of right to work laws is to tilt the balance toward big corporations and further rig the system at the expense of working families. These laws make it harder for working people to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
Protecting Right to Organize (PRO) Act
From my Union President:
Protecting Right to Organize (PRO) Act during his State of the Union address.
“President Biden made clear tonight that a robust labor movement will make our economy stronger than ever. Employers have had far too much power for way too long. Passing the PRO Act law is an essential step for workers to ensure they share in the wealth they help to create, and allow them to build a better future for their families. The PRO Act will give workers the freedom to organize, unionize, and collectively bargain for safer working conditions and fair wages, ushering in a new golden age of labor and the middle class. SAG-AFTRA applauds President Biden for prioritizing this essential piece of legislation and will continue fighting to make the PRO Act the law.”
This PRO Act would empower workers to exercise freedom to organize and negotiate for better wages and working conditions, remove archaic barriers to organizing, increase worker protections, and strengthen the institutions that hold corporations accountable. SAG-AFTRA played a leading role in advocating for the legislation. Last spring, SAG-AFTRA members participated in a PRO Act Day of Action with the AFL-CIO.
Invest In Our Future Workforce.
North Carolina must build an inclusive economy that works for everyone.
This vision begins with investing in public higher education so that it is affordable for working families.
Wendy is committed to making it cheaper for students to attend college and create innovative partnerships with our private sector to prepare our workers for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
Dr. May understands the need for a livable wage coming from a single parent household, due to the death of her father.
The livable wage, also known as the living wage, is defined as the amount of income determined to provide a decent standard of living. In public policy, advocates define the living wage as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. Basic needs include housing, food, healthcare, and other essential needs.
The living wage should pay for the cost of living in any location and should also be adjusted to compensate for inflation. The purpose of the living wage is to make sure that all full-time workers are compensated enough to live above the federal poverty level.
Verify4 to better understand their role in helping people obtain credit. Verify4 delivers data to lenders to verify a borrower’s income and employment. The company has a mission of empowering people by improving access to credit, employment, housing, and other economic opportunities.
I encourage you to bring the Verify4 service to North Carolina. The Verify4 service will open credit markets, create jobs and contribute to the state budget.
Verify4
Verify4 will provide North Carolina’s workers and consumers with:
Free use of their income and employment data from the North Carolina Division of Employment Security;
Real-time authentication of their employment and income history for persons seeking credit, a new job, or to rent an apartment/house; and
A modern user-friendly technology maximizing data security and data privacy.
Verify4’s service will also provide economic benefits to North Carolina:
Up to $ 509 Million in total annual estimated statewide economic benefit from increased lending to private sector, less systemic risk in financial services sector, improved efficiency. This increased economic activity will translate into an anticipated 3,600 permanent new jobs;
Resulting in $ 38.6 Million increase in state/local tax revenue, equivalent to 716 teacher or 1,081 firefighter salaries;
$28.1 Million in annual cost savings for North Carolina employers (public and private) by automating the current manual verification of income and employment; and,
Up to $3.2 Million in annual direct revenue to North Carolina with a mature Verify4 program that can be used for job training and costs the state nothing to implement & operate.
The United State Department of Labor permits the Verify4 program under its current rules. North Carolina operated a system similar to this without incident as recently as 2012. We believe the time is right to bring this service back to consumers.
Ensuring Support for Small Businesses
Wendy understands that small businesses are a vital part of the N.C. State House District 28 and the Johnston County communities and North Carolina.
Right now, we are experiencing unprecedented times in our state and country. In order to reduce the spread of COVID-19, businesses and their employees have had to make significant sacrifices. We must continue to prioritize the public health of our community, but we must also find new, innovative ways to support our local small businesses. For those businesses that remain closed, through no fault of their own due to COVID-19, we must provide them financial support.
We need to support our local businesses. As a small business owner herself, Wendy understands the struggles they face. As your representative, Ms May will pursue all avenues of support and financial assistance for Johnston County small businesses and their staff.
Protect Our Environment.
Protecting our clean air and water for the health and safety of North Carolinians should be our top priority, not the bottom line of corporations benefiting from our natural resources.
Dr. May will reverse the harmful era of Republican deregulation and make sure our state agencies have the resources they need to keep polluters accountable. Lastly, Wendy will drive NC forward as a national leader in renewable energies to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Environment & Smart Growth Policy
Security, safety, health, protection, responsibility, quality of life
We have a responsibility to protect the quality of life, not just for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren. To do that we need to both stop the degradation of our environment now and pursue policies that build a better future. These goals fit into three categories, laws that: (1) reduce the pollution of our air, water and land—including gases that accelerate climate change; (2) conserve energy and quickly develop clean and renewable sources of energy; and (3) pursue policies that build infrastructure to create environmentally friendly cities and towns for the future.
Restore Our Democracy.
We must end gerrymandering and voter suppression in North Carolina. Wendy is committed to making it easier, not harder, for people to vote through automatic voter registration. She is also committed to ending gerrymandering for good by implementing nonpartisan, independent redistricting to ensure voters are choosing their elected officials, not the other way around.
Voting Rights
Throughout our history, people have fought and died for the right of every eligible citizen, regardless of race, gender, or status, to vote in free and fair elections. Our approach to elections must reflect these courageous efforts by maintaining our focus on expanding voting accessibility while ensuring election security.
North Carolina is unfortunately the poster child for voter disenfranchisement. In the past decade, Republican leadership drew maps designed specifically to diminish the power of black voters. The maps termed “the largest racial gerrymander ever encountered by a federal court” were ultimately thrown out as unconstitutional. But before elections could take place to remedy the harm, Republicans moved to use their illegal power and enshrine a racist requirement for Voter ID into our constitution. The Republicans’ repeat efforts to require Voter ID have been called out by the courts as targeting black voters with “surgical precision.”
With the 2021 redistricting process, Republicans have done it again, drawing more illegal maps to give themselves partisan advantage, without care for the disenfranchisement they cause along the way.
Wendy will fight to take voting rights in the other direction. In the legislature, she will work to ensure universal voter registration, expanded opportunities to vote by mail, and for a non-partisan redistricting process.
As we the battle over redistricting and Voter ID requirements are now before the courts, Wendy will work to ensure our courts remain strong, and filled with justices who won’t stand idly by as Republicans attempt to entrench power through unconstitutional maneuvers.
A healthy democracy that represents all our citizens is essential for a just North Carolina.
Reproductive Rights
With a shift in the U.S. Supreme Court, we are at risk of losing long-standing federal legal safeguards to protect a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. It is up to us in North Carolina to hold the line, and I won’t let women down.
Unfortunately, in North Carolina Republican politicians have been tireless in their quest to insert themselves into the deeply personal decisions women are sometimes forced to make. Politicians don’t make great doctors, and politics has no place in a private decision between a woman, her faith, her family, and her doctor.
Women should have control over their own healthcare decisions, and the legislature should be more concerned with ensuring increased access to health care rather than restricting it.
Civil Rights and Equity
There is no fight more important to me than the ongoing struggle for racial justice. I have been a long time advocate for Civil Rights and Equity. Racism has a long legacy in North Carolina, and unfortunately many of our systems and institutions still reflect its influence. In the legislature I will fight hard to end disparities in education and healthcare, to reform our criminal justice system and to combat environmental racism.
I also stand proudly with my family in the LGBTQQAI2GNC citizens . I have consistently publicly opposed Republican attempts to treat our queer brothers and sisters as “other”. Ms. May will in the future, will push for statewide non-discrimination protections for LGBTQQAI2GNC citizens.
Dr. May will also work hard for the equal rights of women. Women deserve to be paid equally for equal work. As an economic driver of the New South and a hub of education and higher learning, North Carolina is uniquely poised to educate and employ a new generation of both male and female business leaders. Dr. May will also led the charge for paid family leave, which by ensuring all parents can take the time they need to care for loved ones, boosts female participation in the workforce and normalizes a task too often left to women.
All North Carolinians deserve to be treated equally with dignity and respect, without exception.
LGBTQQAI2GNC CHILDREN
Ban harmful conversion therapy from being practiced on minors in North Carolina: Conversion therapy does not recognize the sanctity of LGBTQ+ youth and is a dangerous and unwarranted discriminatory practice. North Carolina should pass a statewide ban, expanding the actions of several cities and counties who have taken up the initiative.
Ensure LGBTQ+ youth in the child welfare system are placed in homes that understand and support the unique stress they experience: All children served by the child welfare system should be placed in safe and compassionate facilities that provide them appropriate physical and mental care.
Place children in settings appropriate to the gender they identify with, rather than the gender of their birth: Systems serving youth populations must take a child’s transgender identity, rather than the gender assigned to them at birth, into consideration during a pre-placement assessment.
Remove language in North Carolina law that is discriminatory to transgender youth: Transgender youth face unique obstacles which can lead to mental health issues. Legislating discrimination on children who are transgender only places them at higher risk.
Create bully-free schools without reinforcing the school-to-prison pipeline: The education system must have a stronger support system for this population, including safer schools and support from the community.
Programs serving young victims of sex trafficking must expand their reach to male and LGBTQ+ victims: Sex trafficking is often viewed as a crime against females. While females are the predominant population, services must be adapted to meet the unique needs of male and LGBTQ+ victims.
Enact state-specific statutes to support the Safe Schools Improvement Act of 2019. This federal legislation mandates that school policy prohibit bullying or harassment conduct based on a student’s actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.
Decriminalization
Someone is arrested for a cannabis offense every 58 seconds. There were 545,601 marijuana arrests in the country in 2019, and 92% of these arrests were for cannabis possession alone — not for sale or manufacturing. In the U.S., there are more arrests for cannabis possession each year than for all violent crimes combined.
Thirty-one states and Washington, D.C. have enacted laws to stop jailing their residents for possession of small amounts of cannabis. In 18 of those states, cannabis is legal for adults 21 and older, while 13 have “decriminalized” simple possession. Most of the decriminalization states impose a civil fine, which avoids the life-altering collateral consequences a criminal record carries. Decriminalization laws avoid imposing harsh punishments for possessing a substance that is safer than alcohol, while freeing up law enforcement to focus on serious crimes. Many of these laws were first enacted in the 1970s, and they have proven so non-controversial that several have been expanded.
Criminal Justice
A conviction for possession of a small amount of cannabis can lead to a lifetime of harsh consequences (also called collateral sanctions) and result in denial of student financial aid, housing, employment, and professional licenses. Discriminatory enforcement means these punitive collateral consequences disproportionately affect people of color.
Cannabis legalization is a key component of broader criminal justice reform, and perhaps the most profound change being driven by the cannabis movement is in the area of criminal justice.
As the cannabis reform movement has gained momentum, voters have become increasingly troubled by the long lasting, residual harm the war on cannabis has placed on lives through criminal histories. For most voters, it no longer makes sense that cannabis is treated as a legal product accessible by adults, yet individuals are still denied housing, an education, or employment because of a prior conviction history. Even more troubling is that discriminatory enforcement of cannabis laws has disproportionately sent individuals from Black and brown communities to jail, resulting in these communities being hardest hit by collateral sanctions.
This injustice has opened the door to expungement of criminal records. Most states considering legalization are now also including plans for expungement in their proposed legislation, and states that adopted legalization early on are adding expungement provisions to their existing laws. Ms May agrees and would push for a similar drafted legalization law like Illinois’ MPP-drafted legalization law will expunge close to 740,000 records and has been heralded as a breakthrough in criminal justice reform.
Economics
Cannabis prohibition entails direct enforcement costs — including police, prosecutorial, judicial, and correctional resources — and prevents the taxation of cannabis production and sale.
Cannabis legalization, on the other hand, offers tremendous financial benefits for state governments, and cannabis tax revenues can be allocated for social services and programs — funding education, school construction, early literacy, public libraries, bullying prevention, behavioral health, alcohol and drug treatment, veterans’ services, conservation, job training, conviction expungement expenses, and reinvestment in communities that have been disproportionately affected by the war on cannabis, among many others.
By establishing regulated adult-use cannabis markets, state and local governments are able to tax cannabis sales and benefit economically by creating thousands of new jobs. In states with taxed and regulated cannabis markets, overall sales and tax revenue have quickly exceeded initial estimates.
Learn more about the economic impacts of cannabis prohibition and legalization, including savings, tax revenue, industry growth, and equity.
Responsible Gun Ownership
Dr. Wendy Ella May is a responsible and trained gun owner, and owner of a training center who relies on her weapon as one way to keep her family safe. Like many gun owners, she believes guns do not belong near our kids in schools and parks or in the hands of people who are considered a harm to themselves or others. She supports the 2nd Amendment and all responsible gun use, and is working hard to preserve North Carolina’s natural resources so we continue to have woods and streams to support hunting and fishing.
Ms May envision an America where all are safe from gun violence, and where responsible gun owners take the lead to promote safe gun ownership and sensible laws and regulations.
We believe our Second Amendment rights come with responsibilities. We believe in common-sense efforts to reduce gun violence and promote gun safety.
Reparations for Slavery
Slavery led to giant disparities in wealth that should be addressed with reparations.
The wealth of the United States was largely built on the backs of slaves. As Ta-Nehisi Coates, author and correspondent for The Atlantic, explained, “by 1836 more than $600 million, almost half of the economic activity in the United States, derived directly or indirectly from the cotton produced by the million-odd slaves. By the time the enslaved were emancipated, they comprised the largest single asset in America: $3 billion in 1860 dollars, more than all the other assets in the country combined.”
African Americans were not compensated for their economic contribution, leading to decades of financial struggle. The most recent data available shows that black Americans held about 2.6% of US wealth while being 13% of the population. On average, white households had a net worth of $80,000 more than black households.
William A. Darity Jr., PhD, Duke University economist, and Kirsten Mullen, folklorist, stated, “The origins of this gulf in Black and White wealth stem from the immediate aftermath of slavery when a promise made to provide the formerly enslaved with 40 acres in land grants went unmet—while many White Americans were provided substantial ‘hand outs’ (typically 160 acres) of land in the west.
Experts from the Hamilton Project, the Federal Reserve, and the Brookings Institute noted, “Efforts by Black Americans to build wealth… have been impeded in a host of ways, beginning with 246 years of chattel slavery and followed by Congressional mismanagement of the Freedman’s Savings Bank (which left 61,144 depositors with losses of nearly $3 million in 1874), the violent massacre decimating Tulsa’s Greenwood District in 1921…, and discriminatory policies throughout the 20th century including the Jim Crow Era’s ‘Black Codes’…, the GI bill, the New Deal’s Fair Labor Standards Act…, and redlining. Wealth was taken from these communities before it had the opportunity to grow.
As Darity and Mullen conclude, “Public policy has created the Black–White gulf in wealth, and it will require public policy to eliminate it.” Reparations is one such public policy.
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