NOTE: We have received amendment requests for the platform listed below and those amendments are still under review. The information below should be considered just a draft as it has not yet been voted on or approved by the Executive Committee of the Union County Democratic Party.

The Union County Democratic Party supports guaranteed, quality healthcare as a right for all Union County residents and supports policies that work toward a more progressive healthcare system. The Union County Democratic Party believes it is the constitutional duty of government to promote the general welfare of the population, to lay and maintain this groundwork so that our communities of families can be healthy, and businesses can prosper.

• Healthcare for All: The Union County Democratic Party supports affordable healthcare by endorsing a single payer, not for profit, universal healthcare plan for all people.
• Working to expand healthcare for all people. Focusing on preventative healthcare for both physical and mental illness saves lives and money.
• Socioeconomic factors should not determine access to quality healthcare.
• The UCDP does not put ideology above women’s health.
• Women can make decisions about their own healthcare, including and especially, regarding reproductive health. The government should not interfere with these choices.
• Mandatory inclusion of reproductive care via employer health insurance programs.
• Oppose privatizing or rationing Medicare or raising the age of eligibility.
• Support legislation to ban the use of conversion therapy in North Carolina.

A sustainable and thriving society requires vigorous environmental protections, sustainable ecosystems, and strong action to combat climate change.

• Protecting and preserving the NC ecosystem through strong and vigorously enforced environmental laws and regulations.
• Eliminating the disproportionate effects of climate change and other environmental degradation on low-income and minority communities.
• Requiring developers to pay impact fees to mitigate the effects of the growth they cause.
• Banning new fossil fuel infrastructure and extraction.
• Eliminating the use of single-use plastic bags in Union County.
• Continued development of distributed solar power and wind power with subsidies as needed.
• Protecting and expanding public lands, to be managed as a public trust, preserved for their environmental values as well as scenic beauty.
• Protecting our supply of potable water, through equitable management of freshwaters sources to assure the provision of safe drinking water to local populations.
• Ban on the privatization of water supplies.
• Oppose exploration or development in state or national parks or wildlife refuges.
• Oppose ignoring established science on environmental decision making.

The backbone of our democracy is a free, universal, high-quality public education system. Schools, libraries, and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

• Fully fund our Union County schools with ongoing increases in K-12 spending.
• Ensure competitive teacher salaries, reduced class sizes, more teacher’s assistants, and construction to repair failing buildings/accommodate population growth.
• Increased funding for special education.
• Support the education of the whole child with counselors, school completion specialists, post-education and career planning, access to family resources through human services, nurses, and mental health specialists.
• Free quality, universal pre-K.
• Expand vocational education and apprenticeship programs.
• Promote a safe and constructive school environment, free from harassment, intimidation and bullying.
• Support training school security officers trained in de-escalation techniques.
• Free school lunches.
• Provide tuition-free, post-secondary education options including free tuition for two-year degrees.
• Oppose voucher programs.
• Charter schools should be non-profit, democratically and transparently governed, offer consistently high-quality education and should not harm neighborhood public schools by siphoning public funds for privately operated schools.
• Subject charter schools to the same health, labor, safety, and accountability standards as traditional public schools.
• Ensure school children have current textbooks, including history books, that are inclusive and historically accurate and science books that fully reflect the strong scientific consensus on issues of science, such as climate change, evolution, and the Big Bang Theory.
• Ensure that educators and classified staff receive wages commensurate with their expertise and responsibility, have opportunities for professional growth, and have the right to organize and be represented by a union of their choice.
• Support Adult Education and Community College programs for life-long learning.
• Advocate for the ability to refinance current student loans and to treat those loans as any other loans subject to bankruptcy.

The government derives its legitimacy from the people, to whom it must be answerable; it serves as their instrument to achieve ends that the people could not achieve individually. Our representative democracy requires full participation by an informed citizenry; a voting process that is fair, transparent and open to all and public officials who are accountable to society.

• Curtail the inordinate influence of money on the political process by re-establishing campaign finance reform.
• Availability of public financing for election campaigns.
• Automatic and online registration for all persons eligible to vote, including utilization of educational institutions.
• Exclusion of lobbyists from any meeting or session of a state legislative or regulatory body or committee from which the public is excluded.
• Preserve the integrity of the election process by ensuring all votes are cast on paper ballots and the use of open source software.
• Making ballot access for presidential candidates contingent on public disclosure of their most recent 6 years’ federal tax returns.
• Using independent committees to redraw voting districts to avoid partisan or racial gerrymandering.
• Increased penalties for anyone who commits election fraud.

Better public transportation promotes equal opportunity, enhances public health, reduces environmental impacts and improves the quality of life for all. Transportation planning decisions must consider direct and indirect environmental impacts, including climate change, water, and air pollution and other effects on human health. Public transportation should provide viable alternatives that reduce individual dependence on the automobile, including the funding of essential infrastructure projects and services.

• Fix, don’t patch potholes/wear and tear.
• Encourage more eco-friendly public transportation options.
• More sidewalks/over street walkways.
• Better trash/waste/recycling services.
• Fight for public assistance programs that allow individuals to support themselves and their families.
• Support the right of students to quality, affordable housing and accommodations within reasonable distance to their place of study, free from exploitation.
• Support ways in which publicly funded, constructed, and owned housing can mitigate the housing crisis rather than depend solely upon private developers to construct new affordable housing.
• Support transit-friendly zoning and walkable, bikeable neighborhoods to encourage sustainability, affordability, and accessibility regardless of age, income, or physical limitations.
• Promote housing policies that provide for mixed income communities and that do not further exacerbate segregation by class and ethnicity.
• Support allowing local communities to create strong tenant and affordability protections against displacement, speculation, rent increases, and evictions without interference from state law.

Union County’s future prosperity will depend upon jobs that ensure a minimum standard of living and that improve the quality of life for all its residents. Food, shelter (including affordable housing), clothing, health care, and education are among the basic human rights of all individuals.

• Closely partner with organized labor and strongly support workers’ rights.
• The ‘glass ceiling’ for people of color and women must be shattered and there must be equal pay for equal, or comparable, work.
• All workers have the right to earn a living wage and reject wage-based discrimination rooted in an outdated view of disability.
• Commit to safeguarding basic human rights and strongly support public services designed to eliminate poverty, hunger, homelessness, help senior citizens, and people with disabilities in order to strengthen all Union County communities.
• Meaningful tax reform which eliminates corporate welfare and achieves a more equitable tax system for working families.
• Fully fund food stamp programs.
• Promote expansion of emergency food networks, senior, and school meal programs to end chronic hunger.
• Support the 8-hour workday and daily overtime.
• Fight any efforts to repeal the 40-hour workweek.
• Advocate for paid sick days, vacation days, and paid family leave for all workers.Enhance workers’ safety programs with adequate and appropriate penalties for unsafe working conditions.
• Support employee rights to organize and collective bargaining.
• Support enforceable organizing agreements that include binding arbitration for first time contract disputes, particularly where industries request governmental approval and/or taxpayer subsidies to expand.
• Oppose so called “Right to Work” laws which deny workers the chance to have strong unions that give them a voice at work.
• Boycott employers who have permanently replaced strikers, protect the collective bargaining rights of workers in both the public and private sectors, and support binding arbitration for police and firefighters who cannot strike.
• Immediately raise the state minimum wage to $15/hour.
• Oppose privatizing public services/repealing regulations intended to reduce corporate responsibility.

All U.S. veterans are entitled to receive equal treatment and benefits, including education, training, health care, home loans, and other financial assistance.

• Insist that veterans and military families have access to medically necessary treatment in the appropriate facility as recommended by the treating physician and support the licensing of medical psychologists to prescribe psychotropic medications to treat veterans’ mental health needs.
• Advocate that veterans in isolated rural areas have ready access to physical and mental health care services in reasonably close proximity.
• Support the elimination of homelessness among veterans by increasing funding levels for temporary, transitional, and permanent affordable housing, therapeutic facilities, and providing resources to veterans including financial management, listing of available housing, and other supportive services.
• Insist that all veterans in need of housing services have access to services in the county in which they reside.
• Demand that service members and their families who are stationed outside the United States are provided a secure system of electronic balloting to ensure full and timely opportunity to vote.
• Insist that those who begin their service as documented or undocumented residents are afforded an immediate pathway to citizenship consistent with their service to the U.S.
• Demand that the government provides assistance to individuals exposed to Agent Orange and other toxins, including contaminated soils, in the course of their military service or as a dependent residing at a former or current military installation.
• Demand that the government recognizes equality in the armed forces and veterans’ groups by advocating for issues specific to women, LGBT, and transgender veterans and service members.

Union County Democrats believe that the American immigration system should be inclusive, fair, and just. Immigration must be consistent with American values of freedom, opportunity, compassion, and respect for human rights.

• Affirm that we can strengthen America’s borders while upholding our values by honoring the tradition of providing a safe place for immigrants seeking a life of freedom and opportunity.
• Oppose travel and immigration bans that are based solely on ethnicity, race, religion, or national origin.
• Oppose detention centers that detain or incarcerate based solely on ethnicity, race, religion, or national origin.
• Ensure that the fundamental rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are applied to every person within U.S. borders or held in U.S. custody.
• Support our elected officials in seeking timely information with regard to status of immigration paperwork for constituents, particularly for those constituents who have suffered hardship from backlogs and undue delays.
• Encourage increased and expedited processing of applications for family reunification and naturalization while supporting reasonable and fair application fees.
• Support efforts to provide undocumented immigrants with a transitional path to earned legalized residency and citizenship, including methods to pay back taxes, learn English, register with the federal government for work permits, contribute to the U.S. through education, work, military service, or other community service, complete criminal and security background checks, and acquire driver licenses and insurance coverage.
• Support efforts to improve the naturalization process and make citizenship more accessible and affordable by increasing transparency on application fees, providing uniform administration of the naturalization exam, implementing accommodations for immigrants with disabilities, and assisting immigrants with citizenship requirements.
• Support efforts to provide an expedited path to citizenship for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) individuals and their families.
• Support efforts to provide assistance in learning English and educational opportunities for cultural immersion.
• Support efforts that maximize educational opportunities for all immigrant students, including access to public education and financial assistance as an investment for our common future.
• Support efforts to provide health care and access to insurance for all immigrants to ensure the well-being of our communities.
• Support efforts to promote available government services to immigrant communities.Oppose scapegoating, racial profiling, religious profiling, bigotry, vigilantism, exploitation, and any xenophobic conduct that polarize communities and denounce actions by the government or individuals that keep undocumented immigrants in the shadows of our society.
• Affirm immigration rights based on human rights and support the goals of the Violence Against Women Act, petitioners for U Visas for victims of crimes, and petitioners for T Visas for victims of human trafficking.
• Ensure intervention for abuse, discrimination, and crime among or against immigrants and removing the fear of arrest and deportation for reporting such abuse.
• Oppose local law enforcement agencies acting as federal immigration law enforcement or cooperating with federal law enforcement absent a federal judicial warrant.

We proudly and vigorously support a woman’s right to choose how to use her mind, her body, and her time. Union County Democrats respect women as full partners in family and society.

• Preserve confidential, unrestricted access to affordable, high quality, culturally sensitive health care services, including the full range of reproductive services, contraception and abortion, without requiring guardian, parental, or spousal consent or notification, or judicial intervention.
• Advocate for comprehensive coverage by health plans and insurance of mental health services and treatment for women, including early screening and intervention for postpartum depression.
• Work to increase availability of comprehensive educational and training programs for formerly incarcerated women to enhance parenting and job skills.
• Work to expand workplace rights for women including flextime, compensatory time, and pregnancy and family leave.
• Recognize that freedom and protection from violence or abuse, domestic and otherwise, is a fundamental human right.
• Promote age-appropriate sex education in school curriculum in Union County Public and Charter Schools.
• Union County Democrats strongly support the rights of all individuals to live, study, and work in a safe and professional environment free from all forms of discrimination and harassment.
• End non-disclosure agreements that force survivors to bear the shame of silence; independent investigations; whistleblower protections; and work toward public and constituent access of any allegations or findings on said allegations of public officials and their staff.
• Sexual harassment/sexual assault will not be tolerated as a condition of employment or career advancement in any form of employment.
• Union County Democrats believe every person is endowed with inalienable human rights, including the right to individual autonomy and to be free from violence and exploitation.
• The UCDP is committed to working with state and federal lawmakers to enhance anti-human trafficking efforts that do not criminalize victims and survivors, to provide sex trafficking victims an affirmative defense against solicitation and related charges, and to provide a procedure for survivors to vacate any such prior convictions so that they can pursue a future livelihood with a clean record.
• We support decriminalization of sex acts committed by individuals forced into human trafficking.

Union County draws strength from our diversity, both culturally and geographically. The economy of North Carolina is built on the combination of the robust commercial and industrial enterprise of our urban areas and the abundant natural resources of our rural areas.

• Encourage elected officials to consider the effects of any new policies or programs on rural Union County, by asking, “Is it fair and will it work in rural communities?”.
• Support legislation that provides funding for equal services to all communities, in order to enhance the vibrant culture and economy of rural areas.
• Ensure that rural residents have reliable, clean, safe, and affordable water and waste disposal.
• Support equitable distribution of state resources, programs, and tax dollars based on need, not population.
• Support policies that allow lawful and responsible gun ownership for hunting and self-protection, compliant with North Carolina’s gun safety and background check laws and regulations.
• Maintain a lasting and respectful relationship with Tribal Nations and oppose all attempts to diminish tribal sovereignty, tribal culture, land and natural resources, and the general welfare of tribes.
• Build a stronger rural and agricultural economy, with sound conservation practices and environmentally sustainable business and agriculture.
• Support stronger agricultural worker protections, including regulation of work hours and worker safety, elimination of child labor, adequate housing for migrant workers, and sanitary facilities in the field.
• Promote collaborative stewardship of our finite natural resources, including land, water, wilderness, forests, and other resources, by providing assistance to producers who conserve and improve natural resources on their land.
• Support strengthening rural broadband infrastructure in order to make rural businesses more competitive.
• Create a rural economic development plan for all rural communities regardless of county population.
• Encourage rural business growth and development of infrastructure, such as water, sewer, power, Internet, and transportation, in order to retain and create jobs.

Like much of the country, Union County is not immune from the over prescribing of opioids. Pharmaceutical companies and doctors abusing the system has led to a large number of local residents addicted to pain medications that may not have been necessary in the first place. It is time to address this problem at every level from the individuals affected to the companies and doctors that created this epidemic.

• County Health Department must work with local hospitals, treatment facilities, and doctors to ensure that adequate levels of care are available to meet the needs of those suffering from mental health and substance use disorder.
• County Health Department must ensure that facilities are expanded and doctors are recruited to address patients with dual diagnoses.
• The county must adopt a response to the overdose crisis that emphasizes the saving of lives and harm reduction instead of law enforcement and the criminal justice system.
• The county must ensure that prisons offer medical practices for drug treatment.

• Support banning discrimination in public accommodations, including restaurants, taxis, hotels, retail businesses, and more, including bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms.
• There should be no religious exemptions of that allow discrimination.Support banning discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in hiring and employment.
• Support banning conversion therapy.
• Suport banning issuance of professional credentials to anyone who engages in efforts to attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Support banning discrimination of LGBTQ+ people, single or married, in foster care and adoption.
• Support comprehensive sex education, including curriculum relevant to LGBTQ+ students.
• This should be a requirement for all schools, including private, religious, and/or charter.
• Support free or low cost access to PrEP.Support repeal of NC House Bill 142 and allow municipalities to pass local non-discrimination ordinances, including allow cities and counties to pass ordinances protecting access of transgender people, to restrooms, showers, and changing facilities.
• Support ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.Support housing incarcerated transgender individuals with the population they deem to be the safest option.Decriminalize sex work.