On March 23, the North Carolina General Assembly rushed through HB2, a bill to override municipal LGBT protections and dictate bathroom usage for transgender people. It’s a date that stands out for Captain Jane Campbell, who was motivated by its passage to challenge one of its authors, Rep. John Bradford (R), in the North Carolina House.
“When I looked even closer, I realized that my own representative had not only sponsored the bill and voted for it, but he was bragging — basically saying that he was proud of the fact that he had been part of the work group that had put together the language for this legislation,” she told ThinkProgress. “Even more frustrating was he did not have an opponent in November’s election.”
The recently retired 26-year Navy veteran was not going to let that stand. “From that point forward, it was like, ‘What do we do? How do we go against this tide such that he has an automatic ticket back to Raleigh after being an architect and sponsor of this legislation?’”
It was already too late for her to file to be on the ballot as a party’s nominee, but she announced on May 6 that she was running for the North Carolina House, and over the following six weeks she collected nearly 3,000 signatures, well more than she needed, so that she will be listed on the ballot as “Unaffiliated.” She has earned the support of the North Carolina Democratic Party, and several prominent endorsements, including the Victory Fund, which has featured her as a “spotlight” candidate because of the impact she could make as the only openly LGBT member of the state legislature.
https://twitter.com/JaneforNCHouse/status/779436565651042304
The specter of HB2
Campbell is a proud North Carolinian. A Davidson College graduate, she actually met Heather, the woman who is now her wife, at a 25-year reunion. When Campbell was considering retirement, the two decided to move back to North Carolina to establish roots, even though Amendment 1 — the last anti-gay marriage amendment passed in any state — still limited their rights. But the arrival of marriage equality didn’t end discrimination in The Tarheel State, a wrong she hopes to make right.
“HB2 is not only having an impact across the state, but it’s national, and we have anecdotal stories, sadly, of friends traveling internationally and people being aware of HB2,” she said, noting that Great Britain had even issued a travel warning for its LGBT citizens against visiting North Carolina.
Her opponent, freshman GOP Rep. Bradford, bears primary responsibility for that tarnished reputation. The week of the legislature’s special session, he boasted that he helped “architect this pending legislation,” then celebrated HB2’s passage by trying to declare that it was “not discriminatory”:
Unknown iFrame situation
Since then, Bradford has stood by his vote and was part of the recent so-called “compromise” to pressure Charlotte to repeal its LGBT nondiscrimination protections as a concession before state lawmakers would consider a repeal. Charlotte didn’t cave.
“I just think it’s crazy,” Campbell said. “Charlotte was not at fault in the first place. Charlotte went through a very deliberative process over several years that to me is kind of like the hallmark of democracy.” The city attempted to pass the LGBT protections in 2015, but failed. The makeup of the City Council changed in last year’s election, and when they took up the issue again in February, it passed. “To me, you really have a clear example of the democratic process playing out in the city of Charlotte, and the antithesis of that — the railroading of democracy — playing out in the General Assembly.”
She hopes to bring the wisdom and leadership from her military service to the state legislature. “I realize the importance of doing your research ahead of time. What we’ve seen from my opponent and from numerous other members of the NCGOP is legislating without fully doing the research to understand — or maybe doing the research and not caring — about the second and third order effects of their actions.” This approach has failed the state, Campbell believes, on women’s health, voter’s rights, and HB2, among others. “Simple research would have told any of them that all of those issues have consequences,” she said, adding of her opponent, “I certainly haven’t seen any facts behind his decision logic matrix.”
https://twitter.com/JaneforNCHouse/status/774063088601473024
Her victory, along with others, has the potential to end the Republicans’ super-majority control of the legislature. If Attorney General Roy Cooper (D) unseats Gov. Pat McCrory (R) — as he seems poised to do — but Republicans maintain a supermajority, it would result in what Campbell calls “a massive ping-pong match.” Cutting the supermajority in at least one chamber would make the difference. “If we’re gonna do the best thing for the 10 million people who live in North Carolina, you have to approach the big issues in a bipartisan fashion.”
Future-proofing by saving education
Though overturning HB2 was the catalyst for her to run, it’s not the only issue driving her campaign. For example, she’s been challenging her opponent’s record on a controversial toll lane project on Interstate 77, a polarizing local issue. But she’s also passionate about fixing public education in North Carolina.
From her perspective, North Carolina has spread out its education funding across too many systems. The cap and oversight on charter schools have been scrapped, for example, and there’s no guarantee that students attending those schools will even have access to transportation or free meals if they need them. The legislature has also invested heavily in school vouchers, many of which fund private religious schools that openly discriminate against LGBT students.
“If my spouse and I had kids, they couldn’t go to the schools,” she explained. As one example, she highlighted Lake Norman Christian School, which prohibits “homosexual behavior” and received $29,272 in vouchers last year. Wes Johnston, head of the school, told the Charlotte Observer last month that if it had to pick between discrimination and vouchers, it would stick with discrimination, but in the meantime it is gladly accepting taxpayer money.
Campbell wants to make sure companies are interested in bringing their business to North Carolina, and she doesn’t think repealing HB2 will be enough. “Companies don’t move to a state just because of tax incentives,” she said. “They move to a state where they know that their employees’ kids are going to have a great education, where the environment isn’t polluted, where it’s an all-around great place for their company and for their employees. We have to touch on all those issues, or — even if we overturn HB2 — we’re still gonna be hard-pressed if our schools continue to basically be the brunt of the NCGOP legislative actions.”
Paving the way for visibility
Given Campbell threw her hat into a vacuum where Bradford was running unopposed, she knows the election is an uphill battle, but she’s optimistic. “I think that we have a very good chance of defeating an incumbent, but I’m not taking that lightly. We’re not gonna sit back and rest easy; we’re gonna run even harder. I’m a competitive type-A person and just not going to let it go. I hope people would see I’m looking at this less from a me-perspective and more that I generally believe we’re part of the change that needs to happen.”
She also recognizes what an impact she could make symbolically. “As the only openly LGBTQ candidate running for the North Carolina House, what I see day in and day out is people making sure that I know that they believe it’s more than a hashtag to say ‘We Are Not This’ — that North Carolinians don’t agree with the discriminatory policies our legislators have put into place in Raleigh.”
Unknown iFrame situation
“My campaign is reaching beyond North Carolina as well and we’re asking folks to invest in our campaign simply because my opponent, in crafting and sponsoring that bill, has taken millions of dollars and thousands of jobs away from North Carolina. I’m going to do what I can to defeat him in November.”
Through her campaign, she has learned that there is a “phenomenal support network” dedicated to fixing the state’s reputation. “We want folks to know that our legislators and the legislation that they’re putting forth do not reflect what so many of us believe is the heart of North Carolina.”