The North Carolina Chamber has rated me as a “Jobs Champion” for my votes last year on legislation the Chamber favors. The Chamber advocates on behalf of business and industry in North Carolina. It listed me as a “Jobs Champions” for my votes for bills that the Chamber considered to be pro-job growth and against bills that the Chamber opposed. … Read More

This month my colleagues and I sent legislation to Governor Cooper requiring the $58 million fund he negotiated with energy companies building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline – announced the same day his Department of Environmental Quality approved a key permit for its operations – be distributed to school systems in eastern North Carolina along the path of the project. The … Read More

The President’s Budget for FY2019 includes $315.776 million in Department of Defense major military construction at installations in North Carolina.  This budget would fund projects at the following bases, in the amounts indicated: Fort Bragg:                     $42.366 million MCAS Cherry Point:     $240.830 million MCAS New River:          $32.580 million In addition to this major construction, North Carolina businesses can anticipate perhaps another … Read More

Piedmont Natural Gas announced the opening of a new compressed natural gas (CNG) refueling station in Fayetteville, a sign of growing demand as more companies choose clean, affordable natural gas to fuel their fleets of cars and trucks. This is the second new CNG refueling location the company has announced in a year’s time. Replacing the company’s existing Fayetteville station, … Read More

I am proud and excited to announce that as of early this past Monday morning, I have officially filed to run for reelection for North Carolina Senate District 19. I hope to continue to work on behalf of the citizens of my district as I have for the last four terms here in Raleigh. I have been working to reduce … Read More

This past month, I helped pass a bill that directs the state to tap into a network of scientific resources with the UNC system for investigating water quality and implications of the GenX contamination of the Cape Fear River, discovered this past summer. I helped introduce this measure, which highlights, among other things, the availability of mass spectrometers within the … Read More

This past month, I announced that Cumberland County Schools could receive over $15 million dollars in additional state funding under a bill he helped craft that shifts nearly $58 million received by Gov. Roy Cooper away from what some are referring to as the governor’s personal ‘slush fund’ and instead toward local school districts directly in the corridor of the … Read More

This past month, we unveiled an aggressive effort to improve student outcomes in the early grades by phasing in smaller class sizes and lower student-to-teacher ratios in kindergarten through third grade classrooms, providing millions of additional state dollars to fund special subject area teachers and eliminating the state’s Pre-K waiting list. The co-chairs of the House and Senate education committees … Read More

This past summer, I was instrumental in creating and awarding bonuses to educators who went above and beyond to ensure that students exceeded expectations in their end of year testing. The General Assembly approved a bonus for 3rd grade teachers who scored in the top 23% in growth in the state and/or locally for Reading. a bonus for AP/IB teachers … Read More

Please attend  the 2018 NC Women MilVets Summit & Expo May 02, 2018 at the McKimmon Center at NCSU in Raleigh, NC. The N.C. Department of Military & Veterans Affairs and the NC Veterans Business Association, working with the Department of Veterans Affairs and other partners, will conduct a special event designed to Empower, Educate and Enrich the lives of … Read More