As a proud North Carolinian, I am appalled at our recent gubernatorial election. I am relieved that Roy Cooper won, but I am astounded that Pat McCrory was able to pull in over 2 million votes. I am curious as to whether those two million people actually knew who they were voting for or if they simply voted a straight ticket without consideration towards the candidates. Obviously this may seem biased coming from a liberal, but even if I were conservative I can’t envision myself voting for this charlatan.

Whether or not you are against the premise of House Bill 2, I assume that you are against our state losing money. House Bill 2 has single-handedly tanked our economy. It is estimated that we, as a state, have lost over 395 million dollars strictly from businesses/musicians/ sporting events that were supposed to take place. Specifically, the NCAA and ACC removed 15 collegiate championships that were supposed to take place in the state. These organizations cited equality and diversity as reasons for moving. These championships alone cost the state 91 million dollars. Similarly, the NBA had intended to host its popular All Star Weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. After Governor McCrory refused to repeal HB2, the NBA announced that they were going to move the All Star Weekend out of North Carolina. This hit us hard. Not only does a state rich in basketball history and fandom miss out on a highly anticipated weekend, but North Carolina lost 100 million dollars from this move alone. I won’t mention each concert and each business that moved because of HB2 but they add up to around 200 million dollars in lost revenue for our state. All of this could have been prevented, yet it wasn’t.

The second big problem I have with Pat McCrory is education. Being the son of a teacher, and growing up through a public school system, I care deeply about our teachers and the future of our education system. McCrory has shown time and time again how low teachers and public education rank on his priorities list. In preparation for the recent gubernatorial election, McCrory bragged about how he recently implemented “the largest teacher salary increase in state history.” However, the North Carolina Association for Education noticed some discrepancies in the figures provided by the governor. McCrory claimed that teachers’ salaries had been raised to over $50,000, yet the NCAE claimed that these figures were false. Whether these figures are true or false, North Carolina teachers are still ranked 41st in the country in teacher pay. This is unacceptable and is an awful way to inspire students who may have aspirations of teaching. On top of this, McCrory has recently suggested a two percent cut in funds for public education. This amounts to about 173 million dollars lost for public school funding. Any person can see that this is ridiculous.

It is going to be difficult for us as a state to rebound from these losses in our economy as well as in our education system. It is going to be even harder now that Pat McCrory has implemented laws that will limit the power of Roy Cooper when he arrives in office. I don’t know about you but that seems like a complete abuse of power to me. Nonetheless, hopefully Roy Cooper will do everything in his power to get us out of this hole that Pat McCrory has caused. In conclusion, I implore you to research your candidates before you vote. Don’t just check the box next to their name because of where their partisanship lies. Obviously, we are all guilty of this. If everyone was cognizant of each candidate and their values, then there is no way that Pat McCrory would have gotten 2 million votes. So, please be prepared and be intentional when voting.