Budd, Manning Offer Contrasting Views In NC 13th District Race

North Carolina's race for the 13th District has been one of the state's most closely watched congressional contests this year. It's drawing millions of dollars as Republicans hope to keep the seat the Democrats believe they could flip.

The race features first-term Republican incumbent Ted Budd verses Democratic newcomer Kathy Manning, a former immigration attorney and well-known fundraiser.

Democrats targeted the 13th District early. They tagged Budd as vulnerable in part because he had the smallest margin of victory of any North Carolina Republican in the 2016 House races. That doesn't mean the race was close. It really wasn't. In fact, he won by double digits.

Kathy Manning entered the race at a partisan disadvantage in a district drawn by state legislative leaders to favor Republicans. She says the congressional boundaries are unfair to voters.

“The districts were drawn with - as the court said - surgical precision,” she says. “In a state that has more registered Democrats than Republicans, we have only three Democrats in Congress and ten Republicans. I think that's clear evidence that there was political gerrymandering, and I think that's wrong.”

Budd says lawmakers were within their rights to draw the maps that way.

“We dealt with it for over 140 years as Republicans, now we've got it. The people of the state changed out their state legislature in 2012, and I think that's fine. Political gerrymandering is constitutional, and we have a new Supreme Court, if that gets challenged, we'll take a look.”

The district was redrawn for the 2016 election and includes urban parts of Greensboro and High Point and extends to the I-77 corridor that includes Statesville and Mooresville.

So, let's look at where they stand on the issues. First up is healthcare, which polling indicates is a top issue for voters here.

Budd supported an Obamacare repeal-and-replace measure that was narrowly defeated in the Senate last year. Republican leaders have indicated they might take another look at repeal if the GOP does well enough in the election.

Budd says he'd consider voting again to repeal Obamacare depending upon how the legislation was written, but he'd want to make sure pre-existing conditions were still covered.

“Health care is on all of our minds no matter where you are in the political spectrum, so this is something that I would want to take a look at in the 116th Congress,” he says.

Manning says she was moved to enter the race after battling with her insurance company over the cost of a prescription drug her youngest daughter needed for a chronic illness. She says the out-of-pocket cost would have been $10,000 a month, and she didn't see how average families could afford that.

“The issue isn't how many people we can take health insurance away from, the issue Congress should be digging into is how can we make healthcare more affordable, and how do we bring down the outrageous cost of prescription drugs,” she says.

And then there's that historic tax reform bill from last year. It was the signature legislation of the 115th Congress - and it passed without support from Democrats.

Budd calls the measure a success. He likes to tell the story of a local furniture manufacturer that was able buy $1 million worth of industrial equipment to grow the business, and credits that to the tax reform measure.

“It's stories like that all across the district, all across the country, that has driven unemployment down to where we haven't seen it since the late 1960s.”

Manning says tax reform was needed, but what passed wasn't fair to middle-class people.

“One of the concerns that I have and so many people across the district have is that the bill actually gave massive tax cuts to large corporations and the ultra-wealthy,” she says. “And the result is it's blowing up the deficit.”

The candidates also differ on the fate of the country's safety net for the poor and elderly. Last month, GOP leaders indicated that cuts in social programs may be needed to combat a spike in the federal deficit. Manning says that has led to fears across the district.

“My opponent's leaders have been quite clear about the fact that they think it's time to go after Social Security and Medicare to correct the deficit they created with the massive tax cut,” she says.

Budd says people at or near retirement age won't face any immediate cuts, but it will take a bipartisan approach to make sure those programs are financially safe for the future.

“So what we have to do now is one, grow the economy, and the second is make it a more efficient program, make sure there's not waste in that particular system of Medicare and Social Security,” he says.

Despite the tone of the race, which has been noted for its nastiness on both sides, Budd and Manning agree that it's important for political leaders to set a positive tone. That includes how they feel about President Trump's messaging. Both say they'd like to see him scale back his caustic rhetoric, which has come under increased scrutiny after two acts of right-wing domestic terrorism just weeks out from the election.  

Also on the ballot in the 13th district are Robert Corriher of the Green Party and Libertarian Tom Bailey.