Watauga Democrat: Josh Stein Calls To “Turn Partisanship Down,” Focus On Solutions For North Carolinians

“Let’s take our red and blue hats off and put on our North Carolina hats and let’s figure out what we can do to solve this problem.”

In case you missed it: The Watauga Democrat published a story this week about Josh Stein’s recent visit to Boone, highlighting his record fighting for North Carolinians as Attorney General and answering questions from Appalachian State University students on how he’ll tackle the high cost of living, address the climate crisis, and work across the aisle to get things done.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s 2024 campaign for governor rolled into Appalachian State University for a question and answer session with students on Wednesday. Sept. 7.

As part of his tour of the state’s universities, Stein talked about his accomplishments to the event’s attendees, which the Appalachian State College Democrats organized.

As Stein began his speech, he noted the importance of the consequential election coming up. He also touted his record as North Carolina Attorney General in which he said he led efforts to hold drug companies accountable for the opioid crisis, worked to stop teen vaping across the state, defended people’s right to vote, upheld environmental protections, brought justice to sexual assault victims, tackled issues like the cost of living and created good paying jobs.

Stein also touched on the importance of his faith and his family’s consequential history related to the civil rights movement in the state. Stein’s father, Adam Stein, co-founded North Carolina’s first integrated law firm in 1967, which Stein said was accomplished despite facing threats and fire bombings.

“They won victories in our nation’s legal battle against discrimination,” Stein said. “There were many cases that were here in North Carolina but had national implications. They believed in their core what the words in our constitution said and were willing to go to court to fight for that so the nation lived up to the words that were in that document.”

Attendees had the opportunity to ask questions, the first of which focused on how young people can get involved. Stein said there are many things that young people can do, such as volunteering, and said there are many young people involved in his campaign and administration.

The next question was related to the cost of living. Stein said the lack of affordable housing is a major issue in addition to the costs of rents and mortgages increasing. Stein said there are things the state can be doing to award municipalities to get more housing built. Stein said there are also actions that can be taken through local governments and the tax code.

Regarding economic hardships, Stein noted the inflationary pressures that families face despite rising wages. Stein said that real wages have increased more than the cost of living.

Stein addressed the issue of climate change raised by another question and said the state must reduce the likelihood of increasingly severe storms by reducing carbon emissions and investing in technologies such as solar and wind power.

The last student asked Stein how state democrats can work with republicans on issues to do what’s best for the citizens of North Carolina. Stein said that issues such as the opioid epidemic cannot care less if people suffering are Republican or Democrat and added the same is true for victims of sexual assault, among other widespread issues.

Stein said that he ultimately cares about helping the people of North Carolina but added that there are issues where it is hard to find common ground with his political opposition.

“What I try to do is find the issues where we can turn partisanship down,” Stein said. “Let’s take our red and blue hats off and put on our North Carolina hats and let’s figure out what we can do to solve this problem.”