Name as it appears on the ballot: Jeffrey Hoagland

Age: 38

Party affiliation: Republican

Campaign website: electjeffreyhoagland.com

Occupation & employer:  CMP Engineer, Nhanced semiconductor

Years lived in North Carolina: 35

1. What in your background qualifies you to represent the people of your North Carolina district effectively? What would you cite as your three biggest career accomplishments?

I am a nuclear physicist who has helped expand knowledge of physics and who has done a few projects resulting in massive money savings.  My biggest career accomplishments are when I was published in a nuclear and particle physics paper from my time working at Los Alamos National Lab, my second biggest accomplishment was when I was promoted to my current position, I lowered the consumable cost down to 30% of what it was while at the same time tripling the output of the department, my third was solving a surface area to pressure problem that prevented a great number of wafer breakages.

2. What do you believe to be the three most pressing issues facing the next General Assembly? What steps do you believe the state should take to address them?

Energy cost, public safety, and logistics of moving people are the 3 most pressing issues facing the general assembly.  Energy cost can be address by investing in thorium nuclear plants, and the state can do that by giving funding to the TUNL (triangle universities nuclear lab) to convert the coal plant on the UNC campus to a thorium nuclear plant.  Thorium reactors waste is just as radio active as coal ash, but it makes about 1 million times less waste than coal and is safe after 100 years instead of 24,000 years like uranium waste is. This would also give North Carolina the ability to expand converting coal plants to thorium ones as having the first as a teaching and research facility which would allow for easy training and expansion across North Carolina, lowering energy cost around the state.  And once the coal plant on UNC campus is no longer taking in coal delivery on the working rail line, it gives a very easy line to put a people train on, which would start the initial infrastructure of having a commuter train.  We need to invest in a mass transit system and this would give a good point to build upon.  As for public safety we need to not only fund the police, but we need to start holding town managers, police chiefs, and local prosecutors who are not issuing warrants for arrest of known criminals, like the one who stole the breadman truck at gun point. 

3. To what extent do you support municipalities exerting local control over issues such as regulating greenhouse gas emissions, criminal justice reforms and police oversight, and passing development-regulating ordinances?

Local municipalities regulating pollution emissions I support as long as they have a way of measuring what they are regulating.  I don’t think local municipalities have done a good job of criminal justice reform and police oversight as they passed changes to problems that were not happening in local municipalities which has not led to more crime in our local area. And passing development-regulating ordinances is the main point of local municipalities as local people know what can be built safely and effectively better than a central authority. 

4. Do you support raising North Carolina’s minimum wage, and if so, by how much? 

I do not support raising the minimum wage. The minimum wage is based on the federal poverty level and should be renamed to poverty line wage. The second reason is that stating there is a minimum wage gives large corporations a easy way of negotiation, by just letting them list the minimum as what they are paying vs allowing people in a local area to negotiate wages based on the local economy and needs of the local people.

5. What, if anything, should the state legislature do to address the growing affordability crisis and support low-income families in North Carolina?

They should work on the infrastructure of moving people around, this is best shown by the major I40 expansion in Raleigh that finished and the interstate 885/ highway 147 that finished in Durham that resulted in the rent in both cities dropping to below the national average, while in Chapel Hill, just a few miles away, they made it harder to move people through town by densifying the population and adding the blue hill district and the average rent in Chapel Hill rose to $1900 a month, $400 above the national average 

6. What is your vision for transit in North Carolina? What kind of regional transit systems should the state work to implement and what kind of transit legislation would you support?

North Carolina has 100s of miles of rail lines all read built, we need to start using them to move people, and we need to follow cities and countries that use trains as an example and not make it free but change a far rate so that people will us it

7. Would you support an independent process for drawing new legislative and congressional districts?

No, there is no such thing as independent process when drawing district lines, every one is biased and everyone has an opinion 

8. Do you support expanding funding for Opportunity Scholarships? Do you believe the legislature has a role in ensuring that private schools don’t further raise tuition on families and taxpayers with the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars into the private school economy?  Please explain your answer. 

I do support expanding opportunity scholarships, as I believe that competition bring innovation.  This is shown in Florida, where now for the 2^nd year in row they are ranked #1 in the country for education. I think we should also expand the opportunity to openly allow for students to go the different districts, like if students from Durham county or Orange county want to come to Chapelboro schools, this program should help them do that.

9. North Carolina is one of the lowest-paying states for teachers in the nation. Schools across the state are facing shortages of educators, support staff, and other key personnel. By what percentage should the next budget raise wages for teachers and school employees? What else can the General Assembly do to improve working conditions for teachers and make the teaching profession more attractive to potential future educators?

Teacher and school worker salaries should always a raise to match inflation, administrators should match if they earned it.  As for working conditions, we need to make schools a place for learning again that is free of disruptions.  And I believe the best way to that is to put more tracks into the education system, instead of just books and college track, we should add trades track for people who want to go into them, as well as other real-world tracks so that students can get a learning that is used outside of an academic setting.

10. North Carolina bans abortion after 12 weeks’ gestation. Do you think abortion access in North Carolina should be expanded or further restricted, or do you support the current law? 

I think rape, incest, and for the health of the mother should have no restriction, but for just elective abortions we have to look at when viability is, which right now the earliest born and living child was born at 21 weeks, so I think that after 22 weeks, or just before the 3^rd trimester, the baby is viable on its own and elective abortions should not be allowed.  I do not support the 12 weeks, even though that is the law in Europe save for France which is 14 weeks, I think with our current technology 22 weeks should be the elective cut off date.

11. Do you support reforming North Carolina’s marijuana laws? Do you support full legalization? Please explain your position. 

I support full legalization of marijuana but believe we would need to add laws similar to drinking and driving that add on penalties if you do something that hurts someone else while high

12. Do you support strengthening gun safety regulations such as expanding background checks, banning bump stocks, and raising the age to buy or otherwise regulating the sales of assault-style weapons? Please explain. 

No, we already have a federal background check that is done for every purchase, banning bump stocks is stupid and unconstitutional as to enforce it would involve unlawful searches, and I think an 18-year-old should be able to buy a hand gun because every adult should be able to defend their home, as the vice president put it, “If somebody breaks in my house, they’re getting shot.”, and if the vice president says they can do it, than everyone who is an adult should be able to do it.  

13. Are there any issues this questionnaire has not addressed that you would like to address? 

I am tired of Franklin Street being not safe, I’m tired of the constant car break ins.  It has gotten so bad that a criminal stole the breadman’s truck with a firearm, a truck that has breadman’s logo on the side. We need local change and a return to a good foundation of governance from a neighbor in the town.  I ran saying I would not take money from anyone and I’ve kept that word, so I’m not bought out and do not owe anyone any ‘favors’ for political donations, because I hate that about politics. I also do not believe in running for office if in office, and would push to have the state constitution changed to reflex that, and if failing to do that, still follow with my ideals and not run while in office.

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