WS Chronicle

Charlie Wallin

Guest Columnist

Many in Winston-Salem are still stinging over the loss of Alma Adams as your representative and having her replaced with Virginia Foxx. I want you to know that I am the best person to beat Virginia Foxx in November and continue the work that Alma Adams started.

There are serious issues to be dealt with in Washington, and I believe that she is out of touch with the people of this District. We need someone who  knows what it is like to work 40-plus hours a week and try and make ends meet and provide for a family.  We need an everyday person who represents the hard working people of this District, and the only person in this race that fits that description is me.

Our district has the highest rate of poverty in the state, and because of that, we also have the highest rate of children going to bed hungry.  I want to make sure that our children are fed.  I want to stimulate the economy in a way that brings real living wage jobs back to this District. Poverty is a real issue not only in this state but especially in this District. Winston-Salem is now the most poverty stricken city in North Carolina. Wilkes County has almost 50 percent of its children who qualify for free or reduced meals at school.  In a nut shell, we have serious problems in the real wages we are paying people in this country. We have to work with leaders in Winston-Salem and Wilkes and other cities in the District to recruit not just industry and jobs but real wage jobs from companies who are going to invest in the long-term future of the cities and districts.

I want to make education more affordable and keep student loan rates under control.  We need to be investing in our children and setting them up to succeed and not fail. Graduation rates in the county are slowly beginning to rise, but reading at grade level in the lower grades is faltering. There is still a big disparity in closing the achievement gap between African-American and white children.  When elected to Congress, I will work to get schools the help they need without interfering with the local school boards and their ability to teach as they see best for their children.

When elected, I want to do everything possible to shore up Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. We have to rein in the drug companies and the insurance industry. This vicious and endless cycle has to be stopped.

The legal system is in need of help as well. We need to be fair in our justice and do our due diligence in our investigations and we need to do better about reforming the true criminals and helping them get the services they need.  I want to restore our focus on mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence to help end the real problems that lead to violence in this country.

When elected, I will bring my business experience and my community service experience to the table. Over the last 16 years, I have built relationships and earned the trust of the district, and I look forward to representing the fine people of the Fifth.

Charlie Wallin lives in Boone with his wife and daughter.  He is the assistant director of Appalachian State University Food Services.  He has been active in the community and in the Democratic Party for the last 16 years, and in 2015 he was elected Chair of the Fifth District. He cur-rently serves on the State Democratic Executive Committee and Council. He served eight years on the Planning Board. He is an active volunteer at Parkway School and OASIS.