Bridging the Political Divide: Strategies for Unity in the 9th Congressional District—Conceding to Tyranny is not an Option

🇺🇸 Fellow Americans — We Must Not Concede 🇺🇸

My name is Lent Carr, and I’m running for the U.S. House of Representatives in North Carolina’s 9th District because I believe in one unshakeable truth: healthcare is a human right, not a luxury reserved for the wealthy and well-connected.

Right now, we are watching a dangerous spectacle unfold. A government shutdown orchestrated by the MAGA-Republican Congress under Donald J. Trump — and enablers like Richard Hudson who claim to represent our district — is threatening to undermine the health and security of millions of hard-working Americans.

Here are the facts:

   •   Benefits for essential programs such as Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Social Security Administration continue during a shutdown, but non-mandatory health-related supports — community health centers, telehealth waivers, some public-health staffing — are already being destabilized.  

   •   If the enhanced tax credits that support health-insurance premiums on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace are allowed to expire, average annual premiums for subsidized enrollees would more than double — a 114% increase from roughly $888 in 2025 to about $1,904 in 2026 for those eligible for subsidies.  

   •   Insurers across the country are proposing median premium increases of 18% next year (2026) for Marketplace plans — the steepest jump in more than five years.  

   •   Without aggressive legislative intervention, millions more Americans could become uninsured. One estimate: about 3.8 million people would lose Marketplace coverage if premium subsidies are eliminated.  

   •   In North Carolina and beyond, community health centers (which serve low-income and underserved populations) are facing financial peril: nearly 34 million patients nationally rely on these centers, many of which now face funding shortfalls tied to the shutdown and cuts.  

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What happens if we concede?

   •   Families will skip care, delay diagnosis, or go without necessary treatments. That means more preventable deaths — on a scale we haven’t witnessed since the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

   •   Insurance-premium hikes will push millions further into financial distress. Every middle-class household that must choose between food, rent, and healthcare is a red flag for our national moral compass.

   •   Our district’s elected official (yes, I’m looking at you, Congressman Hudson) will have already bowled to the billionaire-oligarch agenda: permanent tax breaks, corporate healthcare windfalls, and deregulation at the cost of everyday people.

   •   The shutdown becomes a strategic weapon, not just a breakdown of process, when it’s used to force cuts to Medicaid, end expanded eligibility, and deny healthcare coverage to immigrants, children, and low-income workers.  

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Here’s what I propose — and what I will introduce as legislation when I’m in Congress (elected 2026):

    1.    Protect and expand Medicaid — no rollbacks of eligibility, no extra burdens on enrollment, and full funding for community health centers in underserved areas.  

    2.    Extend and increase premium tax credits for the ACA Marketplace — ensure no American pays more than a manageable share of income for quality health insurance.

    3.    Cap premium increases, enforce accountability on insurers and hospital systems, and reduce administrative overhead that drives up cost.  

    4.    Declare healthcare a right, not a privilege — legislation that positions it alongside public education, safe infrastructure, and clean air as a non-negotiable service of government.

    5.    Protect rural and underserved clinics — many are at risk of closure or service reduction. We must ensure continued funding, staff retention, and telehealth access.  

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My promise to you:

I will stand with you — regardless of party — because this isn’t about red states or blue states, it’s about real people, real lives, and fundamental dignity. I am a scholar, I am an authority, and I get it. I know the data. I know the mechanisms. I know the lobbyists and the oligarchs. And I will fight them.

But more importantly: I will fight for you.

If you are tired of giving in, tired of watching your healthcare costs soar while the ultra-wealthy get away with permanent tax giveaways, tired of your health being collateral in a political game — join me. Share this message. Talk to your neighbors. Organize. Let every voice be heard.

Because we will not concede. We will not surrender our health. We will not be silent while our fellow Americans suffer.

Together, we can build a future where healthcare is guaranteed — not gambled on.

Will you stand with me?

— Lent C. Carr II