GREENSBORO, NC — It’s Monday evening, the night before North Carolinians head to the polls in one of the most hotly contested senate races in the country. Hundreds of Greensboro residents have gathered in the courtyard of the city’s government complex to encourage their friends, neighbors and anyone else they know to vote.
Amber Matthews, a 22-year-old woman with a forceful matter-of-fact voice, is there to share her story.
She is raising her five-year-old daughter and barely making ends meet working two minimum-wage jobs in the fast food industry.
“My voice is just a whisper, but when we come together, we can be heard,” she tells the crowd.
After the rally, she spoke with ThinkProgress at her small, sparse apartment 5 minutes from downtown.
“I work two jobs, I shouldn’t have to be struggling,” she said. “But I still struggle.”
Matthews has worked at a Wendy’s for the last four years, and at a nearby Arby’s for the last two. Between the two jobs, she brings in about $600 every two weeks, barely enough to afford her $550 per month apartment, utility and food expenses, and the costs of raising a quickly-growing daughter.
“Between my bills and her, she’s constantly growing, so I constantly have to buy her clothes, shoes,” she said. “You know she’s a typical kid, she loses things on a regular basis. Like last year, we bought her like a hundred hats.”
Matthews is caught in the coverage gap in North Carolina, not making enough to put away savings but earning too much to qualify for more than a few dollars a month in food stamps. Naturally, she can’t afford health care either.
“I don’t qualify for Medicaid,” said Matthews. “I applied for Medicaid when I was working at just Wendy’s, and they told me I make too much money.”
That quickly became a problem. “My daughter, she had started Pre-k and she broke out with scabies,” she said, a highly contagious skin disease that often affects young children and can quickly spread throughout schools. She brought her daughter to the hospital for treatment, but contracted the disease herself.
“When I went to the doctors, my medicine was $200,” she said. “I’m still in debt from that. I can’t get healthcare that I need because I’m a working mother working two jobs.”
Health care is a huge issue in the state’s midterm election. Senate candidate Thom Tillis (R) has served as the speaker of the state’s House of Representatives since 2011, and led Republicans’ efforts to block Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Tillis has campaigned heavily on his opposition to Obamacare as unaffordable, calling the program “a disaster” in a last-minute campaign ad hitting incumbent Kay Hagan (D-NC) for her support of the bill.
Matthews has little patience for politicians who talk about issues they haven’t personally experienced.
“These people don’t understand the struggle, but then they sit here and say they care about the people,” she said. “How do you care about the people if you’re hurting the people?”
“I don’t understand why you would say ‘I don’t want to raise the minimum wage for this person’ when you know it’s a struggle…Have you ever had to choose between your lights and food? Have you ever had to make the choice between having heat in your house and feeding your child?
Matthews and a small group of about a dozen people traveled to the state capital in Raleigh to try and explain all of this to Speaker Tillis in person.
“He never showed,” she said.