[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] - Let's welcome to the State Lines set the candidate for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ticket, Senator Rachel Hunt.

Good to see you, Ms. Hunt.

- Thank you.

Good to see you.

- I ask all the candidates on these Council of State races because so many new voters are moving into the state and people are turning 18 years old.

Who are you and what's your background?

And who's Rachel Hunt?

- Yes, well, first of all, I am the daughter of former governor and Mrs. Jim Hunt.

As many of y'all know, he was the education governor 16 years and four before that as the lieutenant governor.

I was raised in Wilson County, North Carolina on a farm.

We worked in cucumber and tobacco fields all through high school and elementary school and middle school.

So my parents are huge believers in hard work.

They still are.

After that, I did some volunteer work.

I was the resident manager at a battered women's shelter.

And I went to law school after college and then did domestic law, helping families, you know, with mediation and divorce.

- You entered politics in 2018 for the first time.

- That's right.

- But you grew up in politics under former governor Jim Hunt.

- Yes.

- How did you make it until 2018 without getting involved in politics?

- Well, I saw how hard my father worked.

It was, you know, 70, 80, 90 hours a week.

And I decided that once I got married and had children, I was not gonna enter politics until they were out of the house because of the amount of time it takes to do the job well, so that's why I waited.

- Well, coming out you went to the house.

You moved to the state senate.

With that kind of experience, you could pick a plethora of races to enter.

You chose lieutenant governor.

Why is that the right fit for you and your candidacy at this time?

- It's the right fit because I wanted a combination of legislative because I felt like I understood how the legislature works, having served in both houses, and executive functions.

And I'm very excited to get out of the legislature because being there during the minority and super-minority status has been very frustrating.

So I'm excited to move on, to move to the lieutenant governorship.

And I decided that we had to have a woman at the top of the ticket this year because of the fall of Roe v. Wade.

- Okay, looking at the lieutenant governor's race, it's just below the governor and of course the presidential race on the ballot.

And I've asked your opponent this.

How do you elevate this position to bring yourself to the forefront of voters' minds with so much going on nationally and even in this state with the governor's race?

- Right, well, you know, Mark Robinson has done an incredible job of elevating his status because he has spread his message of hate and divisiveness all over the state and actually this country.

So people now know who the lieutenant governor of North Carolina is.

I would do the same thing if I'm elected, to spread word about truth and what people need to know and listen to them all over the state.

And that person is the second in command.

We've just seen Kamala Harris now become the well, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party for president.

The lieutenant governor is the same for the governor.

If something ever happened to the governor or if the governor's out of the state, the lieutenant governor is the second in command.

So actually it's a very important position.

- What do you think's the greatest strength of being a lieutenant governor in North Carolina?

'Cause over the years, they have stripped away a lot of the power that lieutenant governors in the '60s and '70s once had.

- That's right, you know, when dad was governor in 1972 or lieutenant governor in 1972, he appointed all of the senate committees.

That was an incredible amount of power.

That is gone now.

But the lieutenant governor still has power and has flexibility and the bully pulpit to go all over the state and talk to people about what matters.

And that is what I'm planning to do.

- So if you have the bully pulpit everywhere you go as lieutenant governor and that means you give one speech and you have to leave and go home that night, what are you talking about to that group of people in front of you?

- Well, it depends on what that group of people needs and wants.

So if we are talking to farmers, you know, I just started a Farmers for Hunt committee.

We just had a large rally in Wilson County.

Those folks want to know that I understand farming, that I understand about tariffs, that I understand what's going on with the corn crop this year, how they've lost so much of it because of the drought, that I understand what's gonna happen with the climate, with floods and resilience.

So those people need to hear that.

I've also started a group of people that are working in the childcare area.

And I've gone all over the state and held roundtables with Democrats and Republicans that work in that area and listen to what's going on there and what they need.

So I will be flexible according to what people need and want and I will be listening to them.

That's what they want.

They want someone who listens and that offers solutions.

- In rural areas, you will notice voters in North Carolina especially will elect a Democrat and they'll vote for a Republican.

So a Trump voter may support Rachel Hunt.

How do you navigate that?

Because you get on a stump speech, you go after the Republicans and gerrymanderings on your website.

But you're asking those very same people who you'll need them to cross over and vote for you.

How do you thread that?

- Right, well, I generally will talk about Mark Robinson and Hal Weatherman, my opponent, together, because they have exactly the same viewpoints on issues.

I usually don't mention President Trump, except to say I was first elected in 2018 in a district that he won by nine percentage points in 2016.

So I obviously knew how to talk to his voters because I got a lot of their votes.

And I think it's just talking to people about issues.

You know, people need a lot of things.

They need economic development.

They need good-paying jobs.

They need childcare that's affordable and excellent.

And they need their children to have good education in our public schools.

That is everyone's needs, not just Democrats.

So we need to be able to talk to everyone.

- How close is North Carolina to achieving the goals that you set out, especially for public education because it is an important topic for every candidate.

How close are we to fully funding education, pre-K, giving teachers what they want in terms of salary and all the other issues that always arise every four years?

- Right, we unfortunately have fallen far behind.

We are 48th in per-pupil spending.

Our teachers are leaving in the droves.

We have a 10,000-number teacher shortage right now.

People really need to pay attention to what's happening in public education.

And the legislature is not doing what they are constitutionally regulated to do by funding public schools so that each child gets a sound basic education.

So we have got to recommit ourselves to public schools.

This voucher situation has been a disaster for public schools.

That money could be going to pay teachers and other staff and to make sure that people have, you know, the funding for things like textbooks that they need.

Instead, it's going to, you know, give money to people that don't need it oftentimes in these private schools.

Millionaires now can get voucher money.

- As you go forward and if you are elected, you obviously aren't shying away from the issues, you're a senator, but how loud should this office be of lieutenant governor?

I've watched Walter Dalton, the Democrat.

I've seen Dan Forest come in and govern and be there daily.

And then Mark Robinson's a brand.

He's a populist.

He gives a good stump speech.

He's a personality.

Which one of these, where do you fall on all this?

- So first of all, I would definitely preside over the senate.

That is the number one job of the lieutenant governor, to show up and preside.

Now that I've been in the senate, I understand how things work and I have people I can work with.

That's the number one thing.

I would always attend my boards and commissions that I'm on, State Board of Community Colleges, State Board of Education, Energy Policy Board.

But that still leaves room to be flexible, to go around the state, to appear at, you know, people's functions that they would love to have the lieutenant governor at.

But also just to listen to them.

And people need to know who the lieutenant governor is and that she is doing something for their family.

That is what I want people to know, that I want this state to be the best place to live, work, and raise a family.

- How do you think your relationship would be with the Republican majority in the senate?

I think statistically it's not that Republicans, they will probably lead the senate now that votes a super-majority or not.

Does super-majority versus majority affect how you speak, how you govern, and how you handle yourself in the senate chamber every day next year if you're elected?

- Yes, so you know, I've been there now.

I know who's in charge.

I know, you know, what their intentions are, what they're interested in.

And I disagree with them on the issues.

I mean, they know that.

Everybody knows that.

But there are ways to work together civilly and there several issues that we do agree on and we need to push through those.

But we also need to make sure our side, as the minority, and we probably still will be in the minority.

- We being Democrats.

- We mean being Democrats have a fair opportunity according to the rules of the senate to speak as long as we're supposed to be able to, you know, whatever other rules would help everyone equally.

That's not being done right now.

Things are really shifted towards the Republicans.

So we need to fix that.

- With your experience, what top issues would you like to see the senate, since you're presiding, what issues would you like to see them tackle in a realistic fashion?

What do you think can get done that gives the Republicans what they're gonna have but does maybe steal a few victories for Democrats in the minority position?

- Well, I think number one is the childcare crisis.

The childcare system in this state is broken.

We could do so much for every single family by fixing that.

We need to look at the cost model that we're using and we need to make sure that we are treating, you know, childcare workers like they are taking care of our most precious asset, our children, which they are.

You know, they need to get benefits and they need to get good pay.

So we could do a lot with that from the state.

And I think, you know, we have an Early Childhood Caucus in the legislature.

It's Democrats and Republicans that understand the issue and are interested in it.

We need parents to please contact your legislators and tell them you need help with this, you know there is money available in the state for it, and we've got to solve this issue.

- In regard to that, it was federal money, a federal stimulus to get us through the Covid pandemic, that infused our daycare industry.

And now that money was always temporary and it was always going away for the most part.

Now it seems like the state legislators are they feel as though it's their problem.

Why not lean on Congress as opposed to using it to batter each other in the General Assembly because none of you passed the Covid bill.

- Right.

So I think we should do both.

I think we would love to have federal money that may or may not come but we have no control over that except for contacting our congressman.

But we can do a lot in this state.

I mean, we can fully fund Smart Start and other really great, you know, things started by my dad.

And that would help everybody.

And so we cannot just say Congress can handle it.

We also have to lean on businesses.

You know, I would really like to see the chambers of commerce in the state contact the state legislators and say, "Listen, like the state chamber did, "this is affecting our bottom line in North Carolina.

"Our economy is dependent on workers.

"And if they don't have childcare, they can't come to work."

- You have 45 seconds.

How will you affect the tone in Raleigh if you're elected lieutenant governor and standing up on that dais every day, at least Tuesdays through Thursdays when they're in session?

- Yes.

Well, listen, I've always been a moderate.

I have worked in areas.

My districts have always been majority unaffiliated, then Republicans, then Democrats.

I work for everyone in North Carolina, regardless of their political affiliation.

That is what I will continue to do.

I will work for issues that help everyone in this state, especially women, children, and families.

Those are the people that I'm serving.

And that's what I will do when I'm lieutenant governor.

- How many miles you traveled so far?

- Oh, a million.

I don't even know.

We did, you know, 2,000 one week.

And I mean, it's a huge amount.

- You could do 100,000 miles.

It's a question I always ask the Council of State folks because they're running and you got to get your name up there.

And whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you travel a lot of miles and see a lot of people.

So thank you for your service.

We're on a bipartisan basis, anyone that wants to run.

We appreciate you.

- Thank you.

- Rachel Hunt.

Nominee of the Democratic ticket for lieutenant governor.

Thank you for joining us on the show.

- Thank you.

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