Senatorial Candidate Cheri Beasley Talks Climate Change, Healthcare Access and Voting Rights During UNC-Chapel Hill Town Hall
Video Credit: Willow Yang
US Democratic Senatorial Candidate Cheri Beasley’s introductory speech during last week’s on-campus town hall put healthcare access, educational accessibility and climate change at the front of her platform.
“I know you care deeply about climate change and environmental justice,” Beasley said during her introduction speech, receiving a chorus of whoops and applause from the majority-student audience.
The town hall, which was held in the Pit at UNC-Chapel Hill and directed at student journalists, is one of several events throughout Beasley’s campaign intended to connect to North Carolina college students. Last month, she met up with students at Elizabeth City State University to have a back-and-forth conversation about the prohibitively high cost of college.
The decision to connect with college students is a smart one. In the 2018 midterms, young voters turned out to the Orange County polls in record numbers. Interviews from that time suggest that knowing the candidates they were voting for is part of what spurred so many students to vote. Fresh off of a recent political loss, Beasley will need those connections.
Beasley lost her bid for reelection to the North Carolina Supreme Court in 2020. A subsequent voting recount following the election, requested by Beasley after a particularly close race, finished with her behind competitor Paul Martin Newby by only 401 votes.
The loss has done little to deter Beasley from politics; in fact, she has only expanded her ambitions. She is now in the running for a North Carolina US Senate seat in the 2022 midterm elections. If she secures the Democratic nomination in the primaries, she’ll be in an open seat race—incumbent Sen. Richard Burr is not running for re-election.
At the town hall, Beasley spoke frankly about issues close at hand for North Carolina. She covered the devastating effects of Tropical Storm Fred, which caused widespread flooding on the coast and was responsible for six confirmed deaths. It is the third such storm to hit N.C. in the last five years, following Hurricanes Florence and Matthew.
Beasley, a pro-choice candidate, also spoke about her opposition to the recent 6-week abortion ban law passed in Texas, which gives individual citizens the power to file suit against people they believe may have had an abortion in violation of the 6-week time limit, or those who have helped them—and gives them a hefty cash incentive to do so. Local activists have already raised the alarm for N.C., warning that similar measures could easily come to pass here if redistricting efforts skew in favor of conservative lawmakers.
Finally, Beasley spoke on voting rights. She referenced the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which she said gave her mother the ability to vote. For Beasley, an African American woman, the issue strikes very close to home: the Supreme Court narrowed the focus of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, paving the way for a new wave of Republican-backed voter suppression laws. Beasley urged the students of UNC to vote in spite of growing difficulties: “If your voting rights weren’t so important, people wouldn’t be working so hard to take them away from you,” she said to another round of applause.
Beasley’s ground strategy is paying off so far. In the second quarter of the year, her campaign reported raising $1.28 million through June 30th. Former North Carolina Governor Pat McRory, running on the Republican side, is the only one to match her at this stage.
Still, Beasley isn’t the only one hitting the ground running. Democratic State Sen. Jeff Jackson, though still trailing Beasley in donations, recently completed his initiative to hold 100 town halls in all 100 counties of N.C —in just 100 days.
Beasley is a candidate to watch, but she has a hard race ahead of her. With months left until the primaries, it is unclear if Beasley will maintain her fundraising lead, or if that will translate directly to popularity on the ballot.