FACING THE VOTERS: Rod Powell, NC Senate District 44

By Chuck Thompson | The Shelby Independent

After spending 30 years in the classroom, retired history teacher Rod Powell says he has spent much of his retirement doing anything but slowing down.

Now, the Casar resident is hoping to take that experience to Raleigh as he challenges the incumbent for North Carolina Senate District 44, which includes Cleveland and Lincoln counties and part of Gaston County, including Cherryville.

Powell, who holds a master’s degree in teaching, moved to Mooresville in 1997 before eventually settling in Casar, where he has lived for approximately 10 years. His path toward a political campaign, however, began with a combination of personal experiences, community involvement and a growing concern about the struggles he sees among working families.

Powell has been a Democrat since his days at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1984. He eventually became chair of the Cleveland County Democratic Party, a role that helped bring him into closer contact with residents and the challenges they face.

“When COVID hit, we were able to stay in Casar and quarantine, but then we were ready to get out when it ended and began volunteering and became heavily involved in the Democratic Party and became chair,” Powell said.

He and his wife have since remained active in a variety of volunteer activities, including the Washington Outreach Ministry.

“My wife and I say we’re really bad at being retired because we stay so busy,” he laughed.

For Powell, however, those activities have become more than a way to fill his time. They have given him an opportunity to hear directly from people about what is happening in their lives.

“You really get a chance to talk to people,” he said. “People talk about having to work two jobs just to get by, and that’s what really moved me to run for this district office because I’ve been able to get out and see what is going on and see the ones suffering and really struggling.”

His interest in healthcare policy is also personal. Powell’s first wife died of cancer. He began dating his current wife in 2016, and the two married in 2017. He said those experiences helped open his eyes to the challenges people face when navigating healthcare.

“I see what people are going through, and I simply want to help people,” Powell said. “I worked with kids and parents, and if you’re working with people, you care for people. That’s what drives me to be a Democrat, wanting to help people.”

Why the state Senate?

Powell said he believes the smaller size of the state Senate could provide an opportunity to develop relationships with fellow lawmakers and accomplish more through cooperation.

He also believes voters in District 44 deserve a meaningful choice in their representation.

“People need a choice here in District 44,” he said. “He hasn’t had any real competition, and I’m out here working and really trying to represent people.”

Powell acknowledges that challenging an incumbent who is well-liked will be difficult. He said he recognizes that his opponent, Alexander, has a good reputation among many people, but believes the two differ in their priorities.

“It’s hard to say anything bad about him because he’s a nice guy, but our priorities are different,” Powell noted.

For Powell, those differences begin with public education. Having spent three decades teaching high school, Powell said public education is among the issues closest to his heart.

He sees public schools as institutions that bring together children from different financial, racial, ethnic and educational backgrounds, giving them an opportunity to learn alongside one another.

“Public schools are like the glue that bring everyone together,” he said.

If elected, Powell said he wants to fight for adequate funding for public schools, including the resources needed to address student behavior, disabilities and other challenges teachers encounter in the classroom.

Powell noted teachers, sometimes, serve a role that extends well beyond instruction.

“For some students, the teacher is the only stable adult in a child’s life,” he said.

He believes the state needs to take a closer look at how education funding is distributed, including money generated through the North Carolina Education Lottery.

He also supports ending the state’s private-school voucher program and redirecting that money toward public education.

“If they want to send their kids to other schools, that’s fine, but let’s end that program and bring that money back to our public schools,” Powell said.

Powell believes vouchers risk creating a greater divide between students from wealthier families and those from lower-income households. He argues that the result could be greater separation based on financial circumstances, even when race is not the primary dividing line.

He sees that as another fundamental difference between his approach to education and that of his opponent, Sen. Ted Alexander.

(Rod Powell continued below...)

Artificial intelligence in education is another area where Powell believes the state should establish broad guidelines while allowing local school boards to make decisions based on their communities’ needs.

He said different counties and regions have different educational challenges and levels of performance, making a one-size-fits-all approach less effective.

Powell said affordable childcare is another issue he hears about regularly from families across the district.

“I see young couples and even grandparents struggling with childcare,” he said. “People are having a hard time finding quality, affordable childcare.”

One encounter in particular helped bring the issue into focus.

Powell recalled visiting a restaurant in Kings Mountain where a worker had brought her child to work. The child sat at a table and played on a laptop while the mother worked.

Powell said he spoke with the woman about the difficulties she faced in finding and affording childcare. The conversation stayed with him.

For Powell, that encounter illustrated how childcare costs can affect working parents and the choices they must make simply to earn a living.

He said he would like to see continued state funding to help offset childcare costs for families. He also wants to address wages in the childcare industry, arguing that better compensation could help attract workers and ensure they receive the training needed to care for children properly.

Powell considers childcare part of a broader category of what he calls “kitchen table issues” the financial and social concerns families discuss at home because they affect everyday life.

Affordability, he said, is central to his campaign.

Powell said he supports providing relief to North Carolina motorists through the temporary suspension of the state’s gas tax, which was scheduled to end Nov. 30.

However, he questioned the timing of the action and whether consumers would receive the full benefit of the tax relief.

“We needed relief from those gas prices. That was the right move to suspend that,” Powell said. “But what concerns me is the timing. Why right now? We could have done that earlier, but we didn’t.”

Powell said he would have supported the suspension and an amendment proposed by Sen. Chaurdhary that he said was intended to ensure the savings were passed along to consumers.

He questioned what would happen if gas stations failed to pass along the full savings, noting that prices appeared to be declining but not necessarily by the full 41 cents.

Powell said he would support stronger scrutiny of potential price gouging and consumer protections. He also questioned whether state officials were doing enough to investigate wrongdoing in light of other cases involving fraud.

The amendment was ruled out of order by Republican leadership and did not become part of the measure, according to Powell.

Transparency in state government is another concern. Powell criticized the lack of a live video feed of state Senate proceedings, contrasting it with the North Carolina House, where proceedings are available for the public to watch.

“There’s no live video feed, and we need to see, as residents, what is going on in the Senate,” he said. “It gets in the way of transparency and accountability.”

Powell said residents should be able to follow the work of their elected officials and see how decisions are made.

Healthcare is another issue Powell said would be a priority if he were elected to the Senate.

He said his focus would be on helping people obtain care, making healthcare easier to access and reducing unnecessary obstacles, particularly for older residents.

Powell will turn 65 at his next birthday, a milestone that has made the challenges facing older Americans especially relevant to him.

“Senior citizens, especially, don’t need more red tape to get through to get to healthcare,” he said.

For him, healthcare is not simply a question of policy or political debate. It is about whether people can get the help they need when they need it.

“If you’re struggling to make ends meet, if you’re struggling, policy isn’t as important as people and someone listening to you and your problems,” Powell said.

Powell said he believes political debates over labels such as socialism and communism, as well as disputes over transgender issues, can distract from problems he considers more pressing.

He rejects the suggestion that he is a socialist or communist.

“As a history major, I know communism is a totalitarian system and is not what we are or should be,” Powell said. “That’s why we need to stop focusing on labels and focus more on people as individuals.”

Powell also addressed the debate over transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. He said he believes the issue has become a source of division at a time when other concerns deserve greater attention.

“I think we have other things that are so pressing for us,” he said, not directly answering the question.

Powell acknowledged that these issues generate strong opinions, but argued that lawmakers should not lose sight of the financial, educational and healthcare challenges facing families.

Although Powell is running as a Democrat, he said he believes effective government requires lawmakers to work with people who do not share their political views.

Powell said he would be willing to work with Republican lawmakers, including Paul Scott and Caroline Eason, when opportunities arise to advance issues important to the district.

“We all want the same thing in our own way,” he said. “We may not agree on everything, but we all want the best for our residents.”

Powell said compromise and cooperation are necessary parts of the legislative process. He wants to build relationships with lawmakers across the aisle, participate in committee work and find practical solutions to problems affecting District 44.

Powell is quick to acknowledge that he is not a career politician and has not spent years working inside the state legislature.

He said some people may question his motivations for running, but he insists his campaign is driven by a desire to help the people he has come to know through his work and volunteer activities.

“I am definitely not an experienced politician,” Powell said. “Some say that I might be trying to just advance myself, and that’s simply not true.”

He emphasized that he lives in Casar, away from the political circles of Raleigh.

“I may not know what is happening in Raleigh, but I know what is happening in District 44 from living here and talking to people,” Powell said.

He wants to take the experiences he has heard about firsthand from families struggling with childcare to residents concerned about healthcare and teachers working to meet students’ needs and use them to inform decisions in Raleigh.

After 30 years in education, Powell said he sees public service as another opportunity to work for people and address problems that affect their lives.

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Chuck Thompson is a reporter and columnist for The Shelby Independent.

THE SHELBY INDEPENDENT.