A Passion for Service

Kimberly Hardy: My bachelor's my master's and my doctorate are all in social work. I am passionate about the calling that we have to serve because that's really what it is. I see my run for this office as a progression of my social work advocacy, just at the policy level. 

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JD Wooten: Hey everyone, welcome back to Carolina Democracy. I’m JD Wooten, and today we’re joined by Dr. Kimberly Hardy who is running to represent North Carolina House District 43 in Cumberland County. We had a great chat about her experiences as a school social worker, and now as a professor training the next generation of social workers, and why her campaign for the State House is a natural progression of her passion for service. Of course, we also talk about some of her great ideas for the future of North Carolina, which even include solar powered street lights as a way to simultaneously improve community safety, invest in renewable energy, and create new jobs. It’s great, I hope you enjoy hearing our chat as much as I enjoyed having it!

 But first, here are some things that caught my attention this past week. Reuters first reported last week that the Chair of the Surry County Republican Party threatened to have a local elections director fired or have her pay cut if she didn’t help him illegally access voting equipment. According to the State Board of Elections, the Republican Leader was aggressive, threatening, and hostile. To be clear, under North Carolina law, it is illegal to provide access to voting machine to unauthorized individuals. It is also a felony to threaten or intimidate an election officer. This is what happens when a political party fully embraces conspiracy theories and normalizes violence to subvert democracy. Make no mistake, these are very real threats to our democracy and they are not in some other state, they are right here in North Carolina. 

 Another North Carolina Republican, Mark Meadows, continues to be in the news, and this past week saw the focus mostly shift away from his apparent voter fraud and back to his text messages from the period around the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection. The evidence is abundantly clear that at least a sizeable portion of the modern GOP is actively fighting against democracy, and an even bigger group is tolerant to or at least apathetic to such efforts. We’ve known that for a long time. But unlike in the past, today it has become a flagrant authoritarianism that embraces some of the most fundamental tenants of fascism. 

 I realize that last part may sound harsh, or even alarmist, but here’s the basic definition of fascism: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.” Another leading definition: “a form of far-right, authoritarian, anti-democratic, anti-liberal ideology, with ultranationalist undertones, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.” A central feature of fascism throughout history has been a reframing of the dialogue into an us versus them narrative, or a focus on “others” as demonized groups responsible for the problems in society.

 This is a favorite tactic of the GOP, and has long been a campaign ploy, but which has now transcended into defining all aspects their policy. Perhaps not surprisingly, the far-right media plays into and feeds this narrative with a vigor that is fundamentally dangerous to democracy. A new series from the New York Times entitled “American Nationalist” takes a deep dive into Tucker Carlson of Fox, and reached the conclusion that “Night after night on Fox, Tucker Carlson weaponizes his viewers’ fears and grievances to create what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news. It is also, by some measures, the most successful.” 

 We cannot be complacent to protecting our democracy. But also a caution -- we cannot give in to the temptation to demonize all conservatives, otherwise we’re no better than the fascist-flirting authoritarians on the extreme right. Traditional conservatism as a moderating political force has an important place in American history and leads to vital deliberation and pragmatism in policy making. For that reason, a healthy conservative party serves an important function in a healthy democracy. But right now, we do not have a healthy conservative party. This is not a party that’s saying hey wait a minute, how are you going to pay for that grand progressive vision of yours? Or what’s the impact of that social policy going to be on businesses and the economy, and do we need to rethink how we implement those policies to avoid unintended consequences? I’m not defending conservative foot dragging or naysaying, but I am saying it forces us to confront realities and constraints in a way that leads to better policy making over the long term.

 It’s critical that we don’t lose sight of the big picture of what we’re up against. There is an extremely dangerous anti-democratic element within the Republican Party right now, and until Republicans sort that out for themselves, the only reasonable thing left for everyone else to do is vote against them. As long as the Republican Party is a home to and safe space for those with extreme, authoritarian, fascist, anti-democratic tendencies, we must work to defeat Republicans at the polls to force them to confront the rot within their own party. Electoral defeat is likely the only way to force them to re-evaluate and to stop tolerating and harboring those who are actively seeking to undermine our democracy. And those of us fighting for democracy have to keep showing up to do the hard work of protecting democracy, which includes voting!

 And on that note, now for the fun part. It’s election season, and early voting is underway! I went out on the first day of early voting and cast my ballot in-person. It was a beautiful, sunny day in the Triad and I walked over to vote during my lunch hour. I couldn’t have asked for a better stroll. I hope each and every one of you has such a pleasant voting experience if you haven’t already. Here are your reminders for primary election deadlines -- in person early voting runs until May 14th. For mail-in absentee voting, the North Carolina Absentee Ballot Portal is open and you can request a mail-in ballot now. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is May 10th, but please don’t wait that long. Finally, the primary election is on May 17th, and polling places should be open from 6:30am to 7:30pm. Links will be in the show notes for the absentee ballot portal.

 Ok, now it’s time for my interview with Dr. Kimberly Hardy, hope you enjoy!

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 JD Wooten: With me today is Dr. Kimberly Hardy, a Professor of Social Work at Fayetteville State University and a renowned expert on the role of religion and spirituality in social work and creating stronger, healthier communities. Dr. Hardy is running to represent District 43 in the North Carolina House. Welcome Dr. Hardy.

 Kimberly Hardy: Thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. 

JD Wooten: Absolutely. I can't wait to dive into all the great stuff you're doing out there in District 43, but before we do, what's your first memory of politics or getting involved in politics? 

Kimberly Hardy: Actually it's funny because my first memory was actually captured by the newspaper. The first time I ever got to vote, the local newspaper captured a picture of me walking over to the electioneering folks and grabbing all the different things, because I wanted to know who's running, what are they running for? What is it all about? And I still have that copy of the newspapers so many years later because it's the beginning of what has led all the way up to this right now. And fortunately, it got captured on camera, on the front page of the paper no less.

JD Wooten: Wow. That's amazing. So I have had other people tell me their first memory was something involving family voting. Sometimes it was going with a parent as a child. I have yet to have anybody telling me that they managed to get it documented in earned media. 

Kimberly Hardy: Right. 

JD Wooten: Congratulations, early start. Foretold great things to come. So as I understand it, you knew at a very early age that you felt called to serve others and help those who are struggling. What can you tell us about those early experiences and what led you down that path? 

Kimberly Hardy: So I was, I thought that I wanted to be a broadcast journalism major. Then I thought I wanted to be a clinical child psychologist. I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, but my allergy to cats math and science. All it kept me from being able to do that. And so but I do remember that I was always focused on what was going on with people around me. I had some friends who didn't grow up quite as fiscally fortunate as I was. And I remember. Seeing what life was like for them and asking my parents about that. And, you know, is there something I can do to help and things like that. So I, I've always sort of been very aware that there is suffering in the world. In fact, my, my dad, when we would get a little bit too big for our britches, my dad, who was a police officer at the time, he would drive us into areas where he patrolled and where he worked. And he would show us that 20 minutes, 30 minutes from here are people whose lives are very different from yours. And you need to be grateful for what you have and not take that for granted. And so that really started the wheels spinning. 

 I was born and raised in the Maryland area. And so there was a gentleman in DC named Mitch Snyder and he was a huge advocate for the homeless. And by this point I've left community college. The news hits that Mitch Snyder has passed away. I didn't know about him until that. And because now the news is all sorts of stories about his wife and his advocacy, and it was not too far ahead of Halloween. And I thought, I wonder what children who live in homeless shelters do for Halloween? You know, like they don't get to trick or treat. They don't get to have like a regular normal kid experience for Halloween. And so I just started as the secretary, I would just started asking coworkers like if they could bring in candy. And so me and my friends would go to the homeless shelters and pass out candy. And that just turned into these other activities to the point where I started my own little organization called A Worthy Cause. And we just did whatever was necessary to help people in the homeless shelters in DC. So that was one of the first things I remember doing. Homelessness is really the thing that really got me into social work. That's kind of my earliest start in that space. 

JD Wooten: Brilliant. So you ended up choosing to pursue a career in social work initially as a school social worker. And now as a professor and educator training, the next generation of social workers, how did those experiences you just described lead into making it, you know, kind of that professional career that it became?

Kimberly Hardy: You know, it's funny. I didn't even know the social work was something you could major in. I didn't know that that was a major, I thought it was like a job title. But my mom was like, no. When I transferred to Morgan State for my undergrad, I said, I'm going to major in either psychology or sociology. And she's like, well, if they have social work, maybe take that too. And so I took basically the intro version of all three of those classes. And I was like, oh my God, like this there's a whole career for people who feel like I feel and who want to do what I want to do. And so when I got there, I just thought this is it. My bachelor's my master's and my doctorate are all in social work. I am passionate about the calling that we have to serve because that's really what it is. You will talk to most social workers and they tell you, they felt called to this work. Just like people in ministry will tell you they've had a calling in, in their lives. And so living in the faith space I've just integrated the two in my research area, but also in practice, it's very important to have a perspective of helping at all three levels of practice. There's the individual child and their family, and then there's the community they live in. But once you start to see your client's faces change, but the problems never do, then you understand that it's the macro level, the policy level, that really needs your assistance. And so working with the homeless shelters informally, just volunteering there, is what made my mom say I think maybe you want to be a social worker. And so when I took one of the classes, I just knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And I see my run for this office and being in Raleigh as a progression of my social work advocacy, just at the policy level. 

JD Wooten: Well, you've heard it here, ladies and gentlemen, if you are thinking about going back to school, or you're in school, sometimes those introductory classes can open whole new avenues and doors and windows, you never knew possible. 

Kimberly Hardy: That's exactly right. That's why one of the classes I teach in FSU is intro to social work. I know how pivotal the intro class can be. 

JD Wooten: So anything else listeners should know about your background before we turn to all the great political topics we'll cover? 

Kimberly Hardy: Let's see, I'm one of three, the only girl, middle child. Both of my parents were actually in law enforcement. My mom was a federal special agent with the state department and the department of interior. And my dad retired from the DC police. So I have an understanding of what that looks like on both sides. All of the men in my family are military. In fact, my older brother was stationed right here at Bragg in the 82nd. My dad and my younger brother were in the Marine Corps. And so I have a very special space in my heart for people who serve. And so social work is service. Elected office is service. The police, that's service. My family just has a history of doing what's necessary to help people who are in vulnerable moments, no matter how those moments play out.

JD Wooten: I love it. Thank you to all your family members and for yourself are continuing that service to the community and those around you. So now into the politics, this isn't your first rodeo. You also ran in 2020, and you had a heck of a campaign raising nearly a million dollars from over 14,000 contributors I believe. How was that experience? 

Kimberly Hardy: It was amazing. I was running against a six-term incumbent and won in that primary. And so it's really interesting cause you have no idea what to expect going in. You're just full of idealism and energy and we can do this, let's make it happen. It was a lot of fun, but it was also very enlightening. I learned a lot of things that one only learns going through the process about voters. There is a granularity to this. Sort of a candidate only perspective or, or even maybe a campaign only perspective. And so I was very wonky around politics and very activist. But when you get into it and you start to understand it at levels that aren't usually talked about on the news or you start to understand how the issues, the issues really are the same across party lines because whatever policy is implemented is going to affect everybody who's impacted. But you know what I'm saying? Like, so if minimum wage goes up, it goes up. It doesn't just go up for one party or the other. And so you start to realize that there is this divide on ideology that is not real. It's constructed for political purposes, and particularly for one party over the other. And so you know, while I'm out there trying to campaign on issues that are affecting all of us: expanding access to healthcare, women's reproductive freedom, like things that affect people, regardless of party, there are folks whose reticence to, to hear those arguments is rooted primarily in partisan ideology and things that are quite actually lies. 

So there's things that you learn about that process that you don't really get to see because you don't have to see it as anything other than a member of a campaign or as a candidate. But it was also incredible because the primary ended and a week later, the world shut down for COVID. But it brought me closer to donors, voters, and candidates who are in other parts of the state that I never would have had the opportunity to meet otherwise. All these amazing people that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet during a regular campaign cycle. So although it was a challenge trying to run a campaign online, there was some benefit that came out of it in terms of making connections with folks across the state who are like-minded and help you to remember what you're doing all of this for. 

JD Wooten: So, two immediate reactions. One on the ideology and divisions, I have yet to go to a gas pump that asked me if I was a Democrat or Republican first. 

Kimberly Hardy: Right? I don't pay a different price for groceries based on my party affiliation. 

JD Wooten: Exactly, we've got common, common problems that we need common solutions to. Wholeheartedly support that. Two, I'm glad to know I'm not alone. Maybe we should start a support group for candidates and recovering candidates. 

Kimberly Hardy: Yes. Recovering candidates anonymous.

JD Wooten: No, and I wholeheartedly agree. I think of them as sort of concentric circles that as you get closer and closer into the space, you experience new and different issues, and you experience even the same issues in different ways as you go from being, you know, an engaged person to a really engaged support volunteer, to an actual campaign staffer, to the candidate themselves. And by the time you get down to the candidate themselves, you're experiencing a lot of the same things as a candidate, as maybe your manager is.

Kimberly Hardy: Right. 

JD Wooten: As compared to anybody out there watching, but even you and your manager are experiencing things very differently. You know, it's not your manager's mugshot and name that's getting blasted all around town. It's a different set of experiences for sure. What I have found is it's a small club, but I'm always actively recruiting because it's not an exclusive club by design. Come on, join us. 

Kimberly Hardy: Yeah, exactly. Right. 

JD Wooten: So I'll ask this question a little differently than I would ask most candidates. Why are you doing it again? 

Kimberly Hardy: Right. Well, because it still needs to be done. First of all, it's a shame that we have to say things like we need people who are going to be able to hold the Governor's veto. Like it's a shame that it's a foregone conclusion that that's a big chunk of the work that's going to have to get done at the State House level. But it is true. We can't do that unless we have reliable Democratic voices. I use that language very intentionally. We need people who are going to go up there and they're going to be supportive of the ideals that the Democratic Party espouses and vote in that way. I'm very worried about what the state is going to look like if we don't get more progressive Dems in office. So it needs to be done. We have to take the State House back. We have to take Raleigh back from extremists. It's bizarre because the views of those sort of extreme electeds don't even really mirror the voter base of North Carolina. We have to get back to the way we use to govern in this state and be leaders nationally in progressive legislation and not pull so far to the right that it takes people's humanity away from them. So it still needs to be done, so I'm running for it again. 

JD Wooten: I love it. And I think that on issue after issue, we see across the state, when you disconnect an issue from a particular party and poll North Carolinians to see what's popular and what's not, it turns out the Democratic platform is a far more popular with North Carolinians than the Republican platform. 

Kimberly Hardy: Exactly. 

JD Wooten: Now, I also understand a factor in your decision making was the redistricting that's recently happened. So your district's just at least a little bit different. Anything you want to tell us about?

Kimberly Hardy: Yeah, it got way bigger and way more red than it was before. So it's still winnable for a Democratic candidate, but it looks pretty clear to me that they pulled in some of the spaces that they anticipate going toward the Republican Party and pulled out some of the spaces that traditionally lean Democratic. But it's still winnable, and so I'm going to fight for every single one of those votes in the primary and in the general. And I don't like that they did that with this intentionality toward nefariousness. I just, I wish that we could actually just have maps drawn fairly so that the word representative really means what it's supposed to mean, which is, this is someone that was selected by the people to represent them as opposed to the other way around. But it doesn't bother me that it's changed at all. It's not going to change the fact that my ideas are better than the incumbent’s ideas, and are designed to help more people than hers are. So it has changed, but the issues haven't, the solutions they need haven't, and so may the best woman win. 

JD Wooten: Absolutely. So they made your district a little more difficult. Great, we'll just fight that much harder. 

Kimberly Hardy: Exactly. 

JD Wooten: Yeah. Okay, so let's turn to your campaign platform. I know that you've talked about important things everyone needs for a good life, safe place to live quality, affordable healthcare, high quality schools, clean water. Let's kick off with the safer living environments. The list of things that we could do in North Carolina to create safer living environments, better living environments for all our citizens, I'm sure is absolutely daunting list if we looked at all of it, but I'm interested, what are some of the things that we can do in the very short-term immediate term to make a meaningful impact almost immediately? 

Kimberly Hardy: That is an outstanding question. All of them have been by the way, but I love this one in particular because, being a social worker means I have worked with children and their families who have come from pretty low income. Sometimes higher crime, and unsafe environments, everything from violence to lead paint. And clean water and things like that. So yes, we'll talk environmental in a second because I got some ideas about that, but here's the thing that's also very important that's important for safety. There are a lot of communities where it is very dark at night, so I think it would be important for us to, and communities here in Fayetteville have asked for this, to have more streetlights. But I would like them to be solar powered. And that does a couple of different things. One is, it is a green energy solution to a very real problem. It provides lighting and thus is a deterrent for crime. So I would love that. And then the creation of these would lead to better jobs for folks that are green energy jobs. So there's really no lose, lose to this thing. And so I think that's the thing that can happen. 

We also have an issue where there's not a lot for teens to do. Like, there'll be a park and rec center for little kids, but teens don't always, and I'm the mom of a teen. My son is 14 years old and I try to make sure I keep him involved in all sorts of stuff. He's doing things, but there aren't enough things for young people in our communities to do. And sometimes that means that they fill that space with choices that aren't really very good for them. I do think we should have more that we can provide for young people in terms of opportunities for growth and development, but also healthy, productive communities for them to live in that are safer.

JD Wooten: I love all of those, and having once been a young teenage man, I can vouch for the fact that keeping our young men engaged and active is a great solution for helping them to avoid other issues. And it turns out I didn't appreciate this at the time, but I think that was the entire philosophy of my U.S. Air Force Academy experience. Overwhelm them so much that they can't go do something stupid. At the time our schedule was just passed off as a training exercise, challenge us, make us learn to live with stress and priority, and sure we got all those lessons, but it was also a great way to keep a group of young go-getters, type A personalities who were less risk averse than the average person from doing some really stupid things in their free time because we didn't have any. 

Kimberly Hardy: You didn't have any, I love that. And you know, that's as a mom, you know, you run out of things because a lot of like summer camps, for example, go up to a certain age or grade. Then the high schoolers and the older teens, they don't have anything to do. And then think about it. Like I'm a professor, right? So my summers are available to me to do stuff with my son, take him places, do things, whatever. But for parents who still have to work 12 months out of the year, they're not able to be home with their, your teens and and there needs to be something in place to keep them occupied and busy, but also that stimulating. Right. And so that they, they go back into the next school year, ready for the next adventure and not just languishing over the summer break for three months and not doing anything. 

JD Wooten: Yeah. I have a nephew, who's a toddler. He listens to the podcast. Hey Henry. 

Kimberly Hardy: Nice, Hi Henry. 

JD Wooten: And I mean, he'll get in trouble even when it's not just his free time, but there comes a certain age, I think for all of us that if we do something stupid or taking risks that we don't need to be taking, way more often than not it's because we were filling some free time. So the more we can help people fill that with something productive, I wholeheartedly support that. So let's talk about affordable healthcare. I understand you support Medicaid Expansion, back to what we were saying earlier, as do the vast majority of North Carolinians. I believe you've also campaigned on the importance of a nurse in every school. I'd love to hear more on both or either of those. 

Kimberly Hardy: Well, they are connected. So when I was in K - 12, there was a nurse in my school building all day, every day, just like the teachers and other staff. Any of us got hurt. Any of us got sick. We had access to healthcare right there in the building. And you don't think about that at the time. But for some of these kids, they don't have access to health care that's accessible and affordable under any other circumstance because their parents work maybe two and three jobs, but because they don't have employer sponsored healthcare, they might not have access to Medicaid. And so we do know that half a million people in this state do not have access to Medicaid and they work every day harder than most because usually they're working two and three jobs. And so they are one child's broken leg or illness or a diagnosis away from not being able to pay the rent this month, or having to cut their grocery bill, especially when you consider how much the grocery prices are going up right now. So having someone there to attend to the basic health needs of a child, it's incredibly important.

So I really believe that we need to have a nurse in every school, whether we expand Medicaid or not. But we also need to expand access to Medicaid, because like I said, we have families in this state who are working very hard to pull together a 40 hour a week paycheck and make ends meet. And it really blows me away that people who have health care are making an intentional decision, not to expand that same coverage to their neighbor across the street, because you really don't know who it is that does or does not have that. It seems really disingenuous to be someone who has access to healthcare, voting against giving it to everybody in this state. And so we're a donor state, we're one of 11 states now that has not done this work. And that is absolutely ridiculous. And then here's the other thing, we're a donor state because funds that we pay into the Medicaid system all the time are now going out to other states. So you're expanding Medicaid. You're just not doing it in your own state. So we need to bring some of those funds back here and help the most vulnerable families in our community.

JD Wooten: It's amazing how all of these things end up tying together and all of that I think provides a great segue to the next thing I wanted to ask you about. So you've talked now about a nurse in every school. So staying in that same vein, speaking of other things we can do to improve education in North Carolina, I understand you also want to establish universal pre-K and rebuild our schools. Where do we start that process? 

Kimberly Hardy: We have a constitutional responsibility in this state to provide an education, a good quality education, free and fair to every child regardless. So the Leandro ruling came out when I was running the last time. I'm glad that we're putting Leandro back on the table because we are not abiding by our own state constitution when we're not providing children with a bare education. So there's a bunch of things we can do. For example, infrastructure wise, we want our children to become 21st century learners, so they can become 21st century leaders. We want them to be able to grasp every opportunity that's available to them and for those opportunities to be numerous. And so when we can't do that, when teachers are having to be super creative with the way they do it, only because they don't have the resources necessary, we can't do that when the teachers are working in buildings that are not up to standard and they don't have like smart boards and other technology. Or when the buildings themselves are decaying and falling apart. 

From the teacher's perspective, they got a little bit of a raise this time. That's great. But that's insufficient. We need to increase the starting salaries. We need to bring back tenure. We need to bring back the pay increases that you get for getting your master's degree, because that incentivizes our teachers to continue perfecting their craft and to have that be something that they're paid for fairly. I would love it if we got to the point where we became a destination for people leaving teacher education programs, so that the best and brightest come here to teach our children to be the best in their future as well. So there's infrastructure, there's technology, there's salaries. There's adding the support staff of the nurses, the counselors, and the social workers. Like these are all the things that we have a responsibility constitutionally, but also morally and ethically.

JD Wooten: Absolutely. And as an attorney, I will clarify and reinforce what you were saying, North Carolina has a constitutional mandate that as a state, we will provide a sound basic education. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a floor that is not aspirational. That is the floor. That is the minimum that the state owes is a sound basic education. And the courts have found time and time again, that we're not meeting that. We're not at the floor.

Kimberly Hardy: We're not at the floor. We're trying to get to zero, right? Like we're trying to move up to zero.

JD Wooten: Dr. Hardy, I know we're running a little short on time, but anything else from your campaign platform I missed that you want to mention?

Kimberly Hardy: Let's see, well, environmental issues are very important, especially for us here in Cumberland, particularly in an area that's actually been added to my district now, but the concern I've had for them predates that, in Gray's Creek because of Chemours and the Gen-X that's in the water. And we have got to do something to help those families. It's not just the drinking water, there's dermal exposure issues as well. So showering in water that's been contaminated is not good either. And so I think environmentally, we have to be very, very clear, like I said before, we don't have any more time. But I think for the most part, we talked about all the, all the really like key things that are most important right now. But there's so many issues. So I hope that people will be very discerning when they go to the polls and actually choose to vote in the interest of themselves and their community and their families and not the interest of the politicians who are telling them things that aren't true. 

JD Wooten: Absolutely. That is all brilliant. 

Kimberly Hardy: Thank you. 

JD Wooten: Dr. Hardy, most important question in the day, where can people go to learn more about you and ways to support your campaign? 

Kimberly Hardy: Oh, this is awesome. So I have a huge social media presence. So you can find me on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, but you can launch to all of those places from the website, which is kimberlyhardyfornc.com.

JD Wooten: Okay, everyone. You heard it, kimberlyhardyfornc.com. Go there, show some love, support Dr. Hardy and her campaign for District 43 out in Cumberland County. Dr. Hrady thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. It's been an absolute pleasure. 

Kimberly Hardy: Likewise, thank you so much for having me on. I really enjoyed it.

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JD Wooten: Thanks again to Dr. Hardy for joining us today. Visit kimberlyhardyfornc.com to learn more about Dr. Hardy, her race, and how you can support her. If you or someone else you know should be on the show, send me an email at jd@carolinademocracy.com. 

Finally, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you never miss an episode, and share this episode with a friend so that our guests reach the largest audience possible. Together, we can achieve a better North Carolina for everyone!