Republican Ballot: NC Treasurer - A.J. Daoud, Rachel Johnson, & Brad Briner

Get ready to unlock the intricacies of the North Carolina Treasurer Seat's Republican primary race between candidates AJ Daoud, Rachel Johnson, and Brad Briner. Step into the fray where the financial future of North Carolina hangs in the balance, with a keen focus on what each candidate's unique history and strategy mean for your wallet and our state's economic health.

This episode isn't just about the who, but also the how – how the North Carolina Retirement Systems (NCRS) might undergo transformative reforms with a new Treasurer at the helm. Don't miss out on this comprehensive political chess game where the moves made today dictate the fiscal future of North Carolina. Stay informed on the candidates, their platforms, and what it all really means as you prepare to cast your vote.

A.J. Daoud, Rachel Johnson, & Brad Briner

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February 15th-March 2nd

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 ELECTION DAY
 Tuesday, March 5th from 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM

Transcript

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 0:10

Hello friends, thanks for joining me and the NC Deep Dive. I am your host, Amanda Benbow-Lunn, and we are delving into the 2024 primary election. Each episode will cover a different race that will be on your primary ballot this election. When you go to vote, you will be handed a ballot based on your address and party affiliation. If you are unaffiliated sometimes also referred here as independent then you will have your choice of which party's ballot you would like to vote. Please note that you are only able to cast one ballot and that there are no primary ballots for the Green Party or the no Labels Party. Moreover, candidates for the general election in November who do not have a primary challenger will not appear on your primary ballot. They get a pass directly to the general election. Due to time constraints and the plethora of candidates, and my belief that having as much information as possible is of vast importance, our primary election segment will consist of me covering one race at a time, as time allows, and going over each candidate's website and what I can find on a simple Google search, in case it is easier for you to take in information this way. If you are short on time, you can check out our NC Deep Dives Voters Guide for the 2024 primary election, found pinned to our Facebook page or on this episode's show notes at www. ncdeepdive. com. It will be an easy way to access each candidate's website and research the candidates on your own. If that's a better use of your time. Without further ado, my friends, let's dive in. For this episode we are covering the North Carolina Treasurer Seat for the Republican primary. There are three candidates for this race AJ Daoud, Rachel Johnson and Brad Briner. We are going to start with AJ. His website is ajdaud. com. It says AJ Daoud for NC Treasurer. Thanks for stopping by and welcome to my campaign website. I'm AJ Daoud and I'm running to be your next treasurer in our state of North Carolina. I've met many of you over the years as I've traveled tens of thousands of miles across our state to support the Republican Party and conservative causes. For those who do not know me, please take a minute to browse this page. As always. If you have any questions or want to get in touch, please don't hesitate to contact me below and I'll respond promptly. He lists a Facebook and an X account. His website says searching out and ending public corruption.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 2:52

North Carolina native and lifelong businessman with an MBA, owner of a multi-million dollar business with locations throughout North Carolina, virginia and Ohio. Former NC Lottery Commissioner who oversaw a $4 billion annual budget. Being a fiscal conservative, he was responsible for exposing wasteful spending, returning millions back towards education. Former sworn law enforcement officer. There are some pictures of him with some others and it says Republican, with a family history of serving North Carolina in various leadership roles in NC GOP and plays on with political office of White House and prior Republican administration. Extensive experience with business and public auditing practices when executive with Dowd Jones Public Company. Passion to root out public corruption and protect taxpayer dollars. Easily accessible Reach out to me directly with questions or concerns. There's an area where you can donate and that is the extent to his website. He did not respond to my email and so he did not participate in the NC Deep Dive Voters Guide.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 4:00

Looking him up on ballotpedia, it says Daoud earned an associate degree from Miami Dade College in 1979, a bachelor's degree from Berry University in 1995 and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He began his career in public service working as a police officer and used his law enforcement credentials to become executive director of a nonprofit organization aimed at gang prevention called the local police athletic league. He eventually segued into the private sector as a small funeral home business owner in pilot mountain. He earned his MBA and consulted professionally with other funeral home business owners to help guide their expansion efforts. While pursuing his funeral home business and consulting career, Daoud also helped create a state organization connecting PALs in various cities, served as vice president at the national level and lobbied for missing and exploited children act. Dowd lends his time and energies as a member and or leader of several community service organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity in United Way. He serves as the chairman of the pilot mountain planning and zoning board and has worked on the mayor's downtown task force.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 5:10

In regards to his campaign finance for the 2024 election, starting January 1st of 2023 through December 31st of this year, he's had a total of $4,884 in contributions made by six unique contributors, one of which was himself. His total expenditures is $45,094 with six unique payees. He did loan the campaign $100,000 and it looks like he's paid himself back $40,000 of that, actually $42,000 of that. He did not complete the 2024 candidate connection survey on ballot pedia. He did answer the survey back in 2018. He was in 2018, he ran for North Carolina state senate but lost in the primary election to Vicki Sawyer. Some of those questions may be relevant to get to allow you to get to know him a little bit better, but they might not be quite as relevant.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 6:10

Moving on to Rachel Johnson, her website is rachel4nc. com and that's for spelled out f-o-r. Rachel4nc. com about Rachel putting her experience to work for North Carolina. Rachel is running for North Carolina Treasurer because Rachel wants the people of North Carolina to know their money is being wisely invested to safeguard our future. Rachel is a mother, a businesswoman and a taxpayer. Rachel ran a small family-owned business in Davy County in recent years. Earlier in her career Rachel worked in retirement services and has seen the peace of mind that comes from smart planning. She also spent time in the regulatory side of financial services and understands the importance of taking that extra step and working those extra hours to ensure your money is protected. And most recently, as a small family business owner, she signed the fronts of checks and knows how to promote our state investments, because a stable treasury promotes a growing economy and a growing economy means more and better opportunities for North Carolinians. There is a button to donate and that looks to be the extent of her website.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 7:19

Looking Rachel up on ballotpedia, her campaign finance information was unavailable as of January 30th. I did not see campaign finance information for Rachel on ballotpedia, so I went to the North Carolina State Board of Elections campaign document search and it looks like she's had a total contributions. Her total contributions has equaled $1,683.84, which is actually what she contributed for her filing fee to run for office. Other than that, it doesn't look like there's been any expenses or contributions that have been recorded, and this was for the 2023 year end form, so nothing has been reported for this year. Rachel did not complete the candidate connection survey for ballotpedia. Rachel did not respond to my email regarding the NC Deep Dive Voters Guide, and that brings us to Brad Briner for Treasurer. His website is bradbriner. com. It says Brad Briner Treasurer, conservative Republican investment professional profits, not woke politics. There is a YouTube or a video that you can watch and it's a picture of alphabet soup and it says profits, not politics, in the soup. Why is Brad the most qualified candidate? About Brad?

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 8:56

I was born in Dallas, texas, and grew up there as the youngest of four boys. The constants in our lives were our family, our church and being outdoors. All four of us were Eagle Scouts, and the Boy Scouts had an important influence on my life. I still believe in living by the Scout Law being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, lean and reverent.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 9:17

When I was five, my father lost his job in the recession in the early 1980s, so my mom went to work at a private school in Dallas. I was lucky enough to be able to attend there and that is where I first realized that I had a head for numbers. My dad began a career as an investor after that and we got to watch Wall Street Week with Lewis Ruckeser over dinner every week. Not exactly what the kids hoped to see, but it does explain how we all ended up in finance. One day in September 1989, my mom picked my brother and me up from school and we did not go home as usual. Mom's explanation was that something bad happened in the stock market and that my dad was very upset. So we went bowling, had some dinner, then got home late. That is when I realized how important financial markets could be in people's lives. So from about the age of 12, I have always known that I wanted to be an investor.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 10:02

From there, I was fortunate enough to get scholarships to attend boarding school in New Hampshire, Exeter, and then the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. On the Moorhead Scholarship I studied economics as I knew I wanted to attend business school for a master's degree. Eventually, during college, I was active in my fraternity, sigma Chi, and became a Die Hard Tarheel fan. Through the Moorhead program I was able to have some unforgettable summer experiences. I taught math in Boston to disadvantaged students one summer and interned at Goldman Sachs in New York the following one. I also was lucky enough to be able to take a semester off to travel in South America courtesy of the scholarship. When it came time to find a job, I thought I would go back to work at Goldman, but I had met a girl who was going back to get another degree at UNC. So when the opportunity came up to help invest the endowment for the university, it seemed too good to be true. Both personally and professionally, I spent five years there before heading off to business school at Harvard. Along the way, that girl became my wife, almost 22 years and four kids ago now.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 11:04

During my time in business school, my former colleagues from UNC decided to start a new business, and I joined them in doing that. The business was essentially the same thing as we had done for UNC, building billion dollar portfolios. Only this time our clients were large families. We were fortunate enough to have good success and I stayed there for seven years as one of the senior leaders of the firm. In late 2011, I got a phone call from a recruiter about helping to build Willett advisors. The scale of the asset base and the autonomy were incomparable, so I joined the firm with a condition that I could remain in North Carolina. I rose to become one of the heads of the firm and we experienced very strong investment results. During my time there, I was able to get involved with the Department of State Treasurer as a member of the Debt Affordability Advisory Committee with UNC and the Rams Club Global Education and recently, as a member of the Board of Trustees, helped my kids school the Durham Academy Finance Committee and my high school Exeter Investment Committee and then the Board of Trustees and joined the Board of a public company and the investment business Boston Omaha Core. All this added to my interest in using my investment and financial skills in service of the state of North Carolina, which ultimately led me to leaving my position at Willett to pursue this campaign for state treasurer.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 12:20

What Brad will do to fix the treasurer's office. This is a bit lengthy. Recent performance of the North Carolina recruitment system, the also known as NCRS. The state treasurer has three main jobs invest the state's retirement fund for our state employees and retirees, administer the state health plan and protect the state's AAA credit reading. Of those three core responsibilities, the state health plan tends to generate the most headlines, but it's the North Carolina retirement system that poses the greatest challenge for our next state treasurer. The single most important task for the winner in November will be to remedy the chronic underperformance of the retirement system.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 12:56

The retirement system has underperformed for decades and costs our taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Some quick math to prove my point. Ncrs has averaged a 6.2% annual return over the past 20 years. Similar sized but better managed plans in other states like Florida, texas, virginia and Wisconsin, to name a few, have averaged annual returns of 7.6%. Relative to those states, north Carolina has underperformed at a rate of 1.4% per year. In the past five years we have underperformed even worse than that 2.3% per year. Since NCRS currently manages about $112 billion. Underperforming by 2.3% per year translates to the foregone returns of about 2.8 billion every single year. That's roughly what North Carolina spends on highways and roads, and that's just compared to the average states. Had NCRS achieved the same results over the last five years as a leading peer such as the Virginia retirement system, there would be over $19 billion more in our pension plan today. That is enough to fully refund every income tax payment North Carolinians made in 2022 with almost 2 billion left over. We simply cannot afford to underperform.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 14:09

Why does NCRS underperform? So what's the problem? The retirement system has underperformed its target return since the 1990s. This is not a short-term problem or a result that may correct with the next upswing in the market. Rather, this underperformance over three decades reflects fundamental shortcomings in NCRS strategy. The central reason for underperforming the target is an irrational love for risk-free fixed income investments. Ncrs owns far more US Treasury bonds and bills than any of its peers. Part of this is a long shadow that Harlan Boyles, the state treasurer of North Carolina from 1977 to 2001, cast over his successors. He delivered consistently strong returns for NCRS during this time. However, as market conditions evolved and mostly as interest rates fell, the strategy of owning high-quality fixed income became less and less likely to succeed. Yet NCRS did not modify its strategy in the face of new facts. Another reason for underperformance is the fundamental misunderstanding of risk. While the risk of short-term loss is certainly one to consider, and is the only one currently being considered, it appears the risk of long-term underperformance of the target is the central risk we must manage. This concentration in treasuries is also why NCRS has so underperformed its peers.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 15:27

Ncrs is supposed to be managed to meet long-term pension liabilities running well into the next century. A fundamental principle of investing is that assets should be matched to liabilities. Money for a home purchase next month should not be gambled in the stock market. Conversely, a 20-somethings retirement funds should not be invested in cash and bonds. But NCRS has failed to match its long-term liabilities with investments that offer the highest risk adjusted return over the relevant time horizon. In recent years, this policy has meant that the NCRS was buying bonds that will pay our state as little as 1% per year until they are redeemed decades from now, for a system that historically relied on returns of 7%. Such as strategy dooms NCRS to failure. Indeed, the state recently reduced its expected return to 6.5%, a partial, ultimately insufficient, acknowledgement that NCRS cannot achieve the returns we need on our current course.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 16:23

Rather than lower the bar as your treasurer, I intend to improve performance as discussed. That begins with asset allocation, better match to pension obligations, reducing the risk of underperformance and increasing return. Improving performance also means maximizing net risk adjusted returns on each asset class in which NCRS invests. Historically, ncrs has fixated on fees paid rather than on investment results produced. I detest unnecessary fees and I have a long record in the private sector of working to achieve the lowest fees available from each provider, but what matters most are the returns NCRS achieves after all costs. Selecting managers solely based on low cost rather than on the net returns they deliver is a definition of a penny wise and a pound foolish.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 17:09

What can be done? One better governance. Ncrs is one of only three state pension plans that still have a sole trustee governance model. This essentially means that the state treasurer can make investment decisions without consulting with anyone else. As a general matter, small groups make better investment decisions than solo actors. That is why successful private sector investment firms have investment committees and why state pension plans have almost all followed suit. Of even more concern is that the sole trustee model is ripe for abuse. Of the three states New York, connecticut and North Carolina that still follow the sole trustee model, north Carolina is the only one not to have a former pension official serve time in jail for the corruption such power enables. In 2014, north Carolina commissioned a study on how to improve pension governance, which is linked. The central recommendation was clear, including a move to a fiduciary board model where multiple appointed professionals serve alongside elected officials to direct the pension. As the study explained, this provides continuity across administrations, involves those with specific professional expertise in pension governance and dramatically reduces the probability of bad acts. Moreover, each of the pensions shown above are governed in this manner, demonstrating the long-term performance characteristics related to better governance.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 18:28

Two of what can be done Change of investment strategy. There are two key ways we can generate better returns for North Carolina taxpayers, state employees and retirees. The first is better asset allocation. Today, 37% of the NCRS portfolio is invested in cash, united States treasuries and other investment-grade bonds. This makes no sense. As discussed, the NCRS portfolio is intended to fund liabilities that span many decades. Other asset classes will almost certainly provide higher returns over that time horizon. By contrast, low single-digit yields on cash treasuries and the like make it a certainty that, on its current course, the retirement system will fail to achieve its already reduced 6.5% required rate of return. In fact, in the last actuarial study of the plan, the consultant clearly stated that the current asset allocation strategy was highly likely to fail to meet the 6.5 return threshold. By contrast, other asset classes offer prospective returns that should enable NCRS to meet and exceed its target return. The inflation the Biden administration unleashed on America made it possible to buy assets such as real estate at prices that provide prospective returns higher than has been possible for many years.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 19:44

In a different vein, the ESG crowd has driven a lemming-like abandonment of sectors like traditional energy sector that, like tobacco a generation ago, creates compelling returns for the non-politicized investors who remain. Beyond these cyclical opportunities, we need to resuscitate the private investment program. While such investments entail higher fees to managers, they have historically delivered returns after fees that are substantially higher than those of any other asset class. This conclusion is inescapable whether one considers the last three years of returns, five years, ten years, fifteen years or twenty years. Despite these compelling returns shown at the right, alongside other asset classes, ncrs has substantially reduced its allocation to investments in recent years. I will reverse that. The second way to generate better returns is through better investment selection. Ncrs would benefit from adopting a few best practices from its peers Co investment Often an investment manager will identify an attractive private transaction that requires more capital than the manager is permitted to invest out of its funds. Fund participants are given the opportunity to co-invest with the manager at fees that are either substantially reduced or waived altogether. Other state funds regularly do so, lowering the effective fees they pay and achieving a more opportunistic deployment of capital.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 21:01

Historically, the retirement system has not Economies of scale. Our retirement system has historically allocated relatively small amounts of capital to many managers. Best practice is to identify those managers who are best and to allocate more to them. In addition to the higher pre-fee performance that results, this provides economies of scale, as it is easier to extract fee concessions when making larger commitments. Reduce constraints NCRS has imposed constraints on its managers that, while intended to reduce risk, have in fact increased risk while decreasing return. For example, while bonds rated below investment grade are individually risky, a diversified basket will typically outperform higher rated bonds over a full economic cycle. Moreover, because the factors that cause such bonds to rise and fall in price are different than those which drive pricing of investment grade bonds, a portfolio comprised of both investment grade and below investment grade bonds is less volatile. Current NCRS guidelines limit investments in bonds rated below investment grade and, in some cases, require rapid exit at fire sales prices. In conclusion, north Carolina's retirement system has substantially underperformed its peers, costing North Carolina taxpayers billions of dollars each year.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 22:17

We can and need to do better for our state employees, retirees and their families. Fortunately, the solutions are clear. North Carolina should adopt the structural reforms that were recommended 10 years ago, which 47 other states have already adopted. We must adopt an asset allocation that reflects the long-term nature of retirement system obligations and best practices and risk management. We should achieve superior returns within each class by focusing investments on top managers rather than spreading it around, and by using scale economies to abstract fee concessions. While the path forward is clear, much work will be required to implement it. While the path forward is clear, much work will be required to implement it.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 23:02

I believe that my background in finance, a deep interest in these topics which I recognize many find mind-numbing and a stubbornness in pursuing the right answers all make me the best candidate to fix our retirement system's problems. I hope you will agree and that I can earn your vote. I would be pleased to hear from anyone with constructive thoughts on how to make North Carolina's retirement system the best performing large pension plan in the country. For us to follow short of that objective is to cost the state future billions that could instead be devoted to services and tax cuts. Thank you, brad Piner.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 23:34

And that is the totality of his website. Looking him up on ballotpedia. It talks about him earning his bachelor's degree from UNC in Chapel Hill in 1999. Brynner has been affiliated with the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees, the Phillips Exeter Academy Board of Trustees and the Boston Omaha Corporation Board of Directors. For his campaign finance information for the 2024 election, which again started January 1st of 2023 and runs through the end of this year. He's had a total of $36,434 in contributions from 14 unique contributors. He's had a total of $1,354 in expenditures and four unique payees. He did loan his campaign personally $500,000.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 24:26

Brad did answer the candidate connection survey for ballot pedia, so there are a number of questions there if you would like more information. Brad did not respond to my email regarding the NC Deep Dive Voters Guide, so I don't have his responses there. I did find an article. Just doing a Google search of the candidates, I didn't find anything that seemed to be out of the ordinary for any of these candidates, but I did find this article from businessnccom that's entitled GOP Treasurer Candidates Differ on Investing State Money, and it talks about how the current state treasurer, dale Folwell, is stepping down as he seeks the Republican nomination for governor.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 25:07

His tenure has been marked by well-publicized campaigns to reduce fees paid by the state for investment management services, to force North Carolina hospitals to provide more transparency in their pricing and to stop the healthcare industry's rapid consolidation. Both Brad Briner and Rachel Johnson praised Folwell's efforts on healthcare. They had a questionnaire Johnson answered via email, Briner did a phone interview and AJ Daoud did not answer or respond to their questions. Johnson says she'll work with lawmakers to find common solutions that bring down the cost of healthcare. Briner praises Folwell's efforts to make hospital pricing more available to consumers, noting that he didn't understand the industry's antipathy to the concept. He says there seem to be current incentives for hospitals to get fined rather than publish their prices as required by law. He also said that Folwell has quote unquote done a great job running the Senate health plan, which represents more than 750,000 state employees, retirees and dependents.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 26:09

But the issue of the retirement system investing clearly divides Briner and Johnson. Brynner was a key overseer of billionaire Michael Bloomberg's personal investments for a dozen years before leaving his post in December. He notes the founder of Bloomberg LP has a net worth somewhat comparable to the asset size of the North Carolina pension funds. He contends Folwell's conservative investing approach is costing North Carolina's retirement system about $3 billion a year when compared to the performance of Virginia and other top performing state pension funds, which equates to about 10% of the annual budget. He's quoted saying I'm not advocating gambling. I'm talking about taking smart, sensible steps to achieve the 6.5% to 7% annual returns that the system requires.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 26:54

In her email Johnson says I will continue Treasurer Folwell's good work of protecting and improving the NC retirement system. She adds there's always a temptation in this role to flex and try to make a risky play. It's gotten a few folks in trouble over the years. The people of North Carolina deserve an experienced candidate who will enter the job completely independent of previous ties to Wall Street and the elites of New York finance. She pledged to answer quote only to the people of North Carolina. End quote Johnson's campaign website notes quote early in her career Rachel worked in retirement services.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 27:28

End quote it notes she has also quote spent time on the regulatory board of finances. Ran a small family owned business in Davy County end quote. She does not have a LinkedIn account, with little name recognition. Brynner says he expects to rely on digital media to get his message out before the March primary. Johnson says she's been traveling across the state for campaign events, noting she attended many GOP meetings in support of her husband's campaign, which he was a state superintendent of public instruction from 2017 through 21. He did not seek re-election and he lost a Republican primary for lieutenant governor in March of 2020. She endowed a small business owner and veteran GOP activist quote are not strangers to grassroots voters and we're not hoping to win this race by being a faceless keyboard cowboy. End quote, she said via email. So those are the only things of note that I really found doing the Google search Again. This is on the Republican ballot for NC treasurer and the three candidates are AJ Daoud, Rachel Johnson and Brad Briner, and you are eligible to vote for one of them.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 28:37

Democracy is the foundation of all we hold dear. We are better as a community, state and nation when we all take part in our civic duty by being informed and casting our vote. The candidates and offices on your ballot can have a major impact on our everyday lives and can have real consequences. They create and enforce our laws, invest in our future well-being, fund all the things like our schools and roads, ensure we have safe drinking water and food to put on our tables and advocate on behalf of those they represent, hopefully keeping in mind both the little and the big picture of it all.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 29:15

Early voting is now going on and will continue through Saturday March 2nd. Our closest early voting locations will be the WE Hunt Center in Holly Springs and the Hilltop Needmore Town Park and Preserve in Fuquay Varina. The main primary election will be held on Tuesday March 5th. If you vote that day, it's best for you to go to your designated polling place or else some of the races you are eligible to vote for may not show up on the ballot they have available to give you During early voting. Each area in Wake County has all the possible ballots for Wake County Election day. They will only have the ballot that corresponds directly to that particular precinct. Please remember you now need to bring your photo ID If you happen to forget or have had some extraordinary circumstance happen, you will have a few different options provided to you, but it will be best and easiest and most efficient to bring it with you If, for some reason, you haven't registered to vote yet, you may register and vote at the same time during early voting at any one of the sites. March 2nd will be the last day to register to vote for this primary election, and that brings this episode of the NC Deep Dive to a close. Make sure you check out all the other relevant episodes for the 2024 primary election at www. ncdeepdive. com, apple Podcasts, Spotify, audible or wherever you currently listen to your podcasts. I will be including helpful links for each candidate and voting in general on our website's show notes, including our NC Deep Dives Voters Guide for the 2024 primary election.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 30:52

We were blessed to have many candidates take the time to share their thoughts and speak to voters within Southern Wake County. The Voters Guide is arranged by party affiliation and organized in such a way to make it relatively easy to find the races or candidates you might be interested in. All candidates' websites are linked. If I was able to find one, I also consciously chose to arrange the Voters Guide starting at the end of the ballot. So often we are aware of the larger races, yet don't hear much about, or take the time to learn about the smaller races. As always, if you have any questions, concerns or topics you'd like to share. You may contact us via social media or our email at ncdeepdive@gmail. com. Thank you for engaging with this episode and becoming a more informed citizen. Democracy is a team sport. Together, we make democracy work and our communities a better place to work, play and live. Your vote matters, your voice matters. You matter. Until next time, my friends. Namaste the love and light in me sees and honors the love and light in you.