We can eliminate poverty in America for good. That's why, as your senator, I will fight for a Universal Basic Income, ensuring that every adult in America receives a $1,000 monthly recurring check.
During his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize address, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: "There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it."
What was true then, is true now. There is nothing new about poverty and we do have the resources to get rid of it.
Dr. King championed a universal basic income because he knew it was the simplest and most effective approach to ending poverty in America.
At this moment, North Carolina families are facing multiple, converging crises — income inequality, generational poverty, and an economy that makes it increasingly difficult for working families and middle-class folks to get by. Now is not the time for small ideas or incremental reforms.
It's time for bold and substantive change. It is time to reimagine what our government is capable of and transform our society into the Beloved Community Dr. King dreamed of and fought for.
This is personal for me. Growing up in eastern North Carolina, I know what it means to just barely get by, and I know what it would've meant to have extra resources to put food on the table and pay rent.
For too long, communities like mine have been left behind. Our struggles have gone unnoticed, and our cries for help, unheard — that's why, when I get to Washington, I'm taking all of us with me.
Together, we can get cash into people's hands so they can survive and thrive. So they can escape cyclical, generational, and structural poverty. But I need you in this fight with me if we're going to pass a Universal Basic Income for all.
Thank you for joining me,
Erica