Our Digital Messages This Week 👇

A Republican Holiday

It’s hard to believe the holiday season is already here. For many families, this time of year should be filled with warmth, generosity, and moments of joy around the table. But for too many North Carolinians, a trip to the grocery store or a stop at the gas pump is a painful reminder that the basics of life have become harder to afford — and not everyone gets to fully celebrate this season.

The sound of jingle bells is being drowned out by the ringing of cash registers.

Under Donald’s trade war that Michael Whatley has called “record setting in terms of […] effectiveness” and supports them “wholeheartedly,” the economy is failing working families. The average household has been forced to spend an extra $700 on basic necessities, while North Carolinians are paying nearly $486 more every month just to keep up with rising costs fueled by ongoing inflation. These increases aren’t about luxury purchases — they’re about food, gas, rent, and everyday survival.

New polling shows that a clear majority of Americans — including more than a third of Donald Trump’s own supporters — now blame Republican policies for the affordability crisis gripping the country. Sixty-five percent of voters say Republican’s actions are directly responsible for skyrocketing grocery bills.

As families gather around the dinner table this holiday season, sharing meals and talking about how expensive everything feels, those facts matter. As many struggle just to cover the basics, accountability matters more than ever.

Job Cuts

Across the country, workers are being hit with a wave of layoffs that feels all too familiar. This year, U.S. companies have announced 1.17 million job cuts, the highest level since the pandemic. These are the kind of numbers only Donald Trump’s administration could deliver, again.

At the same time, new hiring has fallen to a 14-year low, leaving fewer opportunities for people just trying to stay afloat. These are not abstract statistics. They are the direct result of leadership and policy choices that continue to put working people last.

Healthcare Deadline

On January 1, 22 million Americans will see their monthly health care premiums spike by an average of 114 percent. For many families, that kind of increase is not just a financial burden. It is a life-or-death crisis. When people are forced to choose between keeping coverage or going into the red every single month, many will go without. That leads to more untreated illness, more emergency care, and higher costs for everyone.

So what happens next?

In the Senate, Democrats are giving Republicans one final chance to vote to extend the tax credits that make coverage affordable under the Affordable Care Act for three more years. In the House, every single Democrat has already signed a discharge petition to do the same. Now, only four Republicans are needed to force a vote and move this lifesaving relief forward.

The cost of inaction is devastating. Without action, more than 1.5 million Americans will lose health care entirely. At the same time, over 300 rural hospitals remain at risk of closure because of Republican budget cuts.

This moment is preventable. It simply requires leaders to choose people over politics.

Call to action: Call Thom Tillis and Ted Budd and tell them to vote to extend the ACA tax credits. Their decision will directly impact whether North Carolinians can afford to see a doctor, fill a prescription, or keep their families covered. No one should lose health care because our senators refused to act.

Education Funding

North Carolina has now raised two full generations of children without the public education funding they deserve. For more than 30 years, the lawsuit to enforce our state Constitution’s promise of a sound, basic education has been trapped in legal limbo, stalled again and again by Republicans who would rather protect corporate profits and billionaire tax breaks than invest in teachers, school buildings, textbooks, and student support. 

On Monday, UNC Law Professor Gene Nichol called out Republicans’ inaction on public school funding in a scathing opinion piece in the News and Observer. He points out that when our “realigned, politicized state Supreme Court came into office a couple of years ago” they rushed to re-hear the school funding case and then promptly…did nothing. “Now it’s over 650 days of silence. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He says “they may be having a tough time deciding what kind of damage to inflict on the public schools.”

Honestly, it’s hard to imagine how much lower they could go. Because of Republicans’ systematic defunding of public schools, North Carolina now ranks near the bottom nationally for education funding, earning an “F” grade from the Education Law Center. Classrooms are overcrowded. Teachers are forced to ration printer paper and spend their own money to stock their classrooms. This is not a failure of students or educators. It is a failure of political leadership.

Prof. Nichol got it right: “North Carolina Republicans have no power to disobey our constitutional requirement to provide a system of free public schools – affording equal opportunity to all – no matter how much they hate it.”

Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article313456307.html#storylink=cpy

Stand with Students

Republicans on county boards of elections are actively working to strip voting access from students across North Carolina, and HBCUs are being hit first and hardest. Early-voting sites have already been removed from North Carolina A&T State University and UNC Greensboro, a decision now being challenged at the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Western Carolina University is next on the chopping block, with more closures up for votes in the coming weeks.

Let’s be clear about what this is. Republicans are afraid of the next generation. They are afraid of students who bring new ideas, fresh energy, and a vision for a future that leaves their politics behind. So instead of earning young people’s votes, they are trying to silence them by creating new barriers between students and their fundamental right to vote.

Our colleges and universities have always been the birthplace of movements and the backbone of civic change, especially at HBCUs like A&T, which was targeted by Republican members of the Guilford County Board of Elections. Targeting student voters is not just an attack on access. It is an attack on democracy itself.

Our democracy is strongest when every student can participate freely and without barriers.

Call to action: Post the graphic included in this week’s package and use our sample press release to demand that campus voting sites be protected.

That’s a wrap for this week’s messaging!

We encourage you to take the content from this week’s package and share it across your social media platforms. Remember, your voice has the power to start a movement! This is for you to use in your community, so COPY, PASTE, and SPREAD the word!

See y’all on the internet!

—NCDP Digital

Click here to get this week’s graphics!

Stories To Boost:

News & Observer: NC Gov. Josh Stein reverses cuts to Medicaid, but says it’ll run out of money

Sample Social Post: 

If lawmakers fail to fund Medicaid, the program goes broke by spring. Services disappear. Providers go unpaid. Families lose access to care. All of this is preventable — if the General Assembly does its job.<span style="font-weight: 400;">

Upcoming: