Brent Caldwell

[{"question": "Ballotpedia survey responses", "answer_html": "<p>See also: <a href=\"/Ballotpedia%27s_Candidate_Connection\">Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection</a></p>\n<div class=\"row\"><div class=\"col-xs-10 col-md-6 col-xs-offset-1 col-md-offset-3\"><p><a href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia%27s_Candidate_Connection\"><img align=\"middle\" alt=\"Candidate Connection\" src=\"https://cdn.ballotpedia.org/images/8/88/Candidate_Connection_Logo.png\" width=\"90%\"/></a></p></div></div>\n<p>Brent Caldwell completed <a href=\"/Ballotpedia%27s_Candidate_Connection\">Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection</a> survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Caldwell's responses.</p>\n<p><span class=\"expand-all\">Expand all</span> | <span class=\"collapse-all\">Collapse all</span></p>\n<div aria-multiselectable=\"true\" class=\"panel-group\" id=\"accordion\" role=\"tablist\"><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse-key-message-379973-2026-01-05\" id=\"heading-key-message-379973-2026-01-05\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse-key-message-379973-2026-01-05\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse-key-message-379973-2026-01-05\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tPlease list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading-key-message-379973-2026-01-05\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse-key-message-379973-2026-01-05\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><ul><li>Cheaper Groceries. Higher Wages. Stronger Families.</li><li>Brent understands how inflation has strained working families. He will fight to lower the cost of living by opposing inflationary tariffs, cracking down on corporate price gouging, and strengthening antitrust enforcement against monopolies.\r\n<p>Brent is committed to protecting the dignity of work through fair wages, retirement security, and stable incomes. He supports tax fairness by closing loopholes for billionaires and large corporations, while opposing tax increases on middle-class families.\r\n</p>\nBrent will also work to give Americans more control over their time by expanding access to remote work and ensuring productivity gains from AI translate into higher worker pay.</li><li>A general feeling our politics is corrupted undercut American confidence at home and tarnishes our reputation in the world. ​​\r\n\r\nBrent worked as a fundraiser on statewide and Congressional campaigns and seen how fundraising has become the central focus of aspiring and elected leaders. This leads certain classes and special interests to have an outsized say in how our nation is governed.\r\n\r\nBrent supports capping individual campaign donations at no more than one percent of median household income and banning outside spending that drowns out the voices of district voters. He will also fight to outlaw partisan gerrymandering and ban insider trading by members of Congress.</li></ul></span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse1-379973-2026-01-05\" id=\"heading1-379973-2026-01-05\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse1-379973-2026-01-05\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse1-379973-2026-01-05\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tWhat areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading1-379973-2026-01-05\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse1-379973-2026-01-05\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\">\t\t\t\tBrent's personal policy priorities are a commitment to affordable housing, which comes from his time working at a homeless shelter before law school, and fighting corruption in American politics with campaign finance and electoral reforms.<br/><br/>\r\nAlso, he is personally passionate about ensuring small businesses stay competitive and at the heart of the American economy. His grandfather brought stability to the family with a Texaco franchise and later a fabric shop. This ability to earn one's way by owning a business has been key to the Caldwell story and the American way of life and must be protected.\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div></div>\n<div class=\"small\" data-nosnippet=\"\"><p><i><b>Note:</b> Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.</i></p></div>\n<div><div style=\"margin-bottom:1.5rem\"><h4>Campaign website</h4><p>Caldwell's campaign website stated the following:</p><div style=\"max-height:400px;overflow-y:auto;border:1px solid #ccc;padding:10px;margin:20px\"><blockquote style=\"margin:0px\"><h3 class=\"ql-align-center\"><strong>LIST OF ISSUES</strong></h3><h3 class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: rgb(28, 117, 189);\">Economy</strong></h3><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Brent understands how inflation, fueled by tariffs, the pandemic, and corporate profiteering, has strained families in North Carolina’s 14th District. He believes Congress must not cede responsibility to Trump’s failed trade policies and instead advance an economic vision that prioritizes working people. Brent is committed to protecting the dignity of work by ensuring fair wages, secure retirement, and livable incomes, while promoting technical training and making sure people can get a good job and not just a degree.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">He will support small businesses—the backbone of local economies—by ending tax breaks for outsourcing, improving access to capital, expanding broadband in rural areas, making childcare more affordable, and ensuring monopolists do not unfairly crush smaller competitors. Brent also emphasizes tax fairness, insisting that billionaires and mega-corporations pay their fair share while protecting the middle class from increases. His agenda seeks to strengthen workers, entrepreneurs, and families, ensuring economic security and opportunity for all.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Finally, Brent will also work to increase the control Americans have over one of their most precious resources - their own time. In Congress Brent will promote remote work and ensure that technological increases in productivity translate to higher worker wages.</strong></p><h3 class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: rgb(28, 117, 189);\">Stop Corruption in Public Life</strong></h3><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">The United States has rightly prided itself for being an example for democracies around the world but today a general feeling our politics is corrupted has undercut our confidence at home and tarnished our reputation in the world. ​​Brent worked as a fundraiser on statewide and Congressional campaigns and saw how fundraising has become the central focus of aspiring and elected leaders. This leads certain classes and special interests to have an outsized say in how our nation is governed.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">This has been aided and abetted by a Supreme Court that promotes for partisan purposes the false idea that the more money you have, the more speech you should have in the public debate. We must pass legislation in Congress to overturn Citizens United. The maximum donation in a campaign should be capped at no more than one percent of median household income in America, reducing it from the current $3,500 to $785. More importantly, outside money should not be allowed to overpower the voices of district voters.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Voters should choose their representatives, not politicians choosing their voters. Partisan gerrymandering should be ended as the Supreme Court has said is the only way it can be - with a Congressional ban on the use of partisan voting history when drawing districts.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Finally, Members of Congress must be banned from trading stocks while in office. Common people recognize they have too much inside information and too much sway over the economy for trading to be done fairly. Only a complete ban will restore the trust we need in a republic. </strong></p><h3 class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: rgb(28, 117, 189);\">America's Role in the World</strong></h3><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Coming from a long family tradition of military service including a grandfather and great-grandfather interred at Arlington National Cemetery and both parents being high-ranking military officers, Brent knows the awesome capability and reach America has around the world. American institutions are the backbone of a modern global order that has lifted billions from poverty, increased the recognition of human rights around the world, and pushed nations toward trade and away from conquest.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Brent believes America's greatest legacy will come not from its military might, but from its world changing achievements in political philosophy, space exploration, technology, and the sciences. From the Wright Brothers to the microchip to internet and now ChatGPT, America has contributed a world changing innovation every single decade for over a century.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Even so, America's tremendous potential is not yet fully realized. If we want the coming age to be consider the \"Great American Centuries,\" we must continuously prove ourselves worthy of the leadership role we seek to claim by living up to our highest ideals in our actions at home and abroad.​</strong></p><h3 class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: rgb(28, 117, 189);\">Housing</strong></h3><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Prior to law school, Brent worked at a homeless shelter in Burlington, North Carolina. Now a real estate attorney, he knows how vital housing stability is for Americans who need a platform on which to build their version of the American Dream. </strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Yet, across our communities, families are being priced out of their neighborhoods, young people are burdened with skyrocketing rents, and homelessness continues to grow. Housing should be treated as a cornerstone of human dignity — not a privilege reserved for the wealthy.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">We must invest in building and preserving affordable housing, promote growth, and strengthen programs to keep people in their homes. A focus on rapid, responsible growth and regulation of corporate landlords will ensure that profits do not come before people. Expanding access to capital for updating older properties, supporting community affordable housing initiatives, and increasing federal funding for housing assistance will preserve this cornerstone of the American Dream.</strong></p><h3 class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: rgb(28, 117, 189);\">Healthcare</strong></h3><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Just over a decade after Obamacare was implemented, the Kaiser Foundation reports a third of patients are having difficulty affording the medications they need, and/or have not taken their medication due to cost. And now, the federal government is cutting access to vaccines and medication supply options. Also, though Medicaid was expanded in North Carolina it is run by insurance companies that work for profit, and the cuts are coming. Twenty-six North Carolina counties don’t have a single OBGYN, and too many women are going without the prenatal and postnatal care they need. This is part of why the United States is the only industrialized country to have an increasing maternal mortality rate.​​</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">The 14th deserves a representative who will work to deliver safe standards and affordable health care for every citizen. In Congress, Brent will work to engage in strict oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure health policy is driven by scientists and not politicians. He will protect, improve, and build upon the Affordable Care Act with the addition of a public option to the marketplace to help control costs. He will support guaranteed coverage of preventive care services to every American, including preventative coverage such as yearly check-ups, dental, and eye care.</strong></p><h3><strong style=\"background-color: transparent; color: rgb(28, 117, 189);\">Artificial Intelligence &amp; The Future of Work</strong></h3><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Artificial intelligence and the automation of work are soon going to transform daily life. This year Morgan Stanley estimated there will be 1 billion humanoid robots in the workforce by 2050. We cannot predict every innovation that will come, but we can use our own recent experience to get an idea of how dramatic the change might be. </strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">But one generation ago at the turn of the millennium, there were no smart phones, no social networks, and not even Wikipedia. Same day delivery of goods, self-driving cars, and consumer level 3D printing were mere pipe dreams. Within one generation from now we will almost certainly see virtual AI agents that can do much office work and humanoid robots that can handle manual labor such as lawncare, construction, factory, and warehouse work.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">The last time America faced a comparable change in the technology of work we failed miserably. The invention of the shipping container allowed the mass offshoring of manufacturing. This devastated blue collar jobs and communities, giving room for despair, the opioid epidemic, and the decline of the American family, and opened us to surges of inflation like we saw in the pandemic while placing industries vital to national security in hostile nations. Rather than redress the human suffering we all saw developing, American elites blamed the workers while the tech and financial sectors allowed us to pretend our economy was still growing for everyone.</strong></p><p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">This time around we must listen to our neighbors if they say they are hurting and provide a strong social safety net to ensure we all gain from these momentous changes. If Americans have more time with their families and greater material security, we will have won. If America has the first trillionaire while 30% of workers are unemployed, we will have failed in tragic fashion.</strong></p></blockquote><div style=\"text-align: right; font-size: 0.9em; color: #555; margin-top: 0.5em;\"><p style=\"font-size:0.9em;color:#555\">— Brent Caldwell's <a href=\"https://www.caldwellforcongress2026.com/platform\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">campaign website</a> (February 13, 2026)</p></div></div></div><div style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0.5em;\"><i>Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.</i></div></div>", "answer_text": "See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection\n\nBrent Caldwell completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Caldwell's responses.\nExpand all | Collapse all\nPlease list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office? Cheaper Groceries. Higher Wages. Stronger Families. Brent understands how inflation has strained working families. He will fight to lower the cost of living by opposing inflationary tariffs, cracking down on corporate price gouging, and strengthening antitrust enforcement against monopolies. Brent is committed to protecting the dignity of work through fair wages, retirement security, and stable incomes. He supports tax fairness by closing loopholes for billionaires and large corporations, while opposing tax increases on middle-class families. Brent will also work to give Americans more control over their time by expanding access to remote work and ensuring productivity gains from AI translate into higher worker pay. A general feeling our politics is corrupted undercut American confidence at home and tarnishes our reputation in the world. ​​\r\n\r\nBrent worked as a fundraiser on statewide and Congressional campaigns and seen how fundraising has become the central focus of aspiring and elected leaders. This leads certain classes and special interests to have an outsized say in how our nation is governed.\r\n\r\nBrent supports capping individual campaign donations at no more than one percent of median household income and banning outside spending that drowns out the voices of district voters. He will also fight to outlaw partisan gerrymandering and ban insider trading by members of Congress. What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Brent's personal policy priorities are a commitment to affordable housing, which comes from his time working at a homeless shelter before law school, and fighting corruption in American politics with campaign finance and electoral reforms. Also, he is personally passionate about ensuring small businesses stay competitive and at the heart of the American economy. His grandfather brought stability to the family with a Texaco franchise and later a fabric shop. This ability to earn one's way by owning a business has been key to the Caldwell story and the American way of life and must be protected.\nNote: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.\nCampaign website Caldwell's campaign website stated the following: LIST OF ISSUES Economy Brent understands how inflation, fueled by tariffs, the pandemic, and corporate profiteering, has strained families in North Carolina’s 14th District. He believes Congress must not cede responsibility to Trump’s failed trade policies and instead advance an economic vision that prioritizes working people. Brent is committed to protecting the dignity of work by ensuring fair wages, secure retirement, and livable incomes, while promoting technical training and making sure people can get a good job and not just a degree. He will support small businesses—the backbone of local economies—by ending tax breaks for outsourcing, improving access to capital, expanding broadband in rural areas, making childcare more affordable, and ensuring monopolists do not unfairly crush smaller competitors. Brent also emphasizes tax fairness, insisting that billionaires and mega-corporations pay their fair share while protecting the middle class from increases. His agenda seeks to strengthen workers, entrepreneurs, and families, ensuring economic security and opportunity for all. Finally, Brent will also work to increase the control Americans have over one of their most precious resources - their own time. In Congress Brent will promote remote work and ensure that technological increases in productivity translate to higher worker wages. Stop Corruption in Public Life The United States has rightly prided itself for being an example for democracies around the world but today a general feeling our politics is corrupted has undercut our confidence at home and tarnished our reputation in the world. ​​Brent worked as a fundraiser on statewide and Congressional campaigns and saw how fundraising has become the central focus of aspiring and elected leaders. This leads certain classes and special interests to have an outsized say in how our nation is governed. This has been aided and abetted by a Supreme Court that promotes for partisan purposes the false idea that the more money you have, the more speech you should have in the public debate. We must pass legislation in Congress to overturn Citizens United. The maximum donation in a campaign should be capped at no more than one percent of median household income in America, reducing it from the current $3,500 to $785. More importantly, outside money should not be allowed to overpower the voices of district voters. Voters should choose their representatives, not politicians choosing their voters. Partisan gerrymandering should be ended as the Supreme Court has said is the only way it can be - with a Congressional ban on the use of partisan voting history when drawing districts. Finally, Members of Congress must be banned from trading stocks while in office. Common people recognize they have too much inside information and too much sway over the economy for trading to be done fairly. Only a complete ban will restore the trust we need in a republic. America's Role in the World Coming from a long family tradition of military service including a grandfather and great-grandfather interred at Arlington National Cemetery and both parents being high-ranking military officers, Brent knows the awesome capability and reach America has around the world. American institutions are the backbone of a modern global order that has lifted billions from poverty, increased the recognition of human rights around the world, and pushed nations toward trade and away from conquest. Brent believes America's greatest legacy will come not from its military might, but from its world changing achievements in political philosophy, space exploration, technology, and the sciences. From the Wright Brothers to the microchip to internet and now ChatGPT, America has contributed a world changing innovation every single decade for over a century. Even so, America's tremendous potential is not yet fully realized. If we want the coming age to be consider the \"Great American Centuries,\" we must continuously prove ourselves worthy of the leadership role we seek to claim by living up to our highest ideals in our actions at home and abroad.​ Housing Prior to law school, Brent worked at a homeless shelter in Burlington, North Carolina. Now a real estate attorney, he knows how vital housing stability is for Americans who need a platform on which to build their version of the American Dream. Yet, across our communities, families are being priced out of their neighborhoods, young people are burdened with skyrocketing rents, and homelessness continues to grow. Housing should be treated as a cornerstone of human dignity — not a privilege reserved for the wealthy. We must invest in building and preserving affordable housing, promote growth, and strengthen programs to keep people in their homes. A focus on rapid, responsible growth and regulation of corporate landlords will ensure that profits do not come before people. Expanding access to capital for updating older properties, supporting community affordable housing initiatives, and increasing federal funding for housing assistance will preserve this cornerstone of the American Dream. Healthcare Just over a decade after Obamacare was implemented, the Kaiser Foundation reports a third of patients are having difficulty affording the medications they need, and/or have not taken their medication due to cost. And now, the federal government is cutting access to vaccines and medication supply options. Also, though Medicaid was expanded in North Carolina it is run by insurance companies that work for profit, and the cuts are coming. Twenty-six North Carolina counties don’t have a single OBGYN, and too many women are going without the prenatal and postnatal care they need. This is part of why the United States is the only industrialized country to have an increasing maternal mortality rate.​​ The 14th deserves a representative who will work to deliver safe standards and affordable health care for every citizen. In Congress, Brent will work to engage in strict oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure health policy is driven by scientists and not politicians. He will protect, improve, and build upon the Affordable Care Act with the addition of a public option to the marketplace to help control costs. He will support guaranteed coverage of preventive care services to every American, including preventative coverage such as yearly check-ups, dental, and eye care. Artificial Intelligence & The Future of Work Artificial intelligence and the automation of work are soon going to transform daily life. This year Morgan Stanley estimated there will be 1 billion humanoid robots in the workforce by 2050. We cannot predict every innovation that will come, but we can use our own recent experience to get an idea of how dramatic the change might be. But one generation ago at the turn of the millennium, there were no smart phones, no social networks, and not even Wikipedia. Same day delivery of goods, self-driving cars, and consumer level 3D printing were mere pipe dreams. Within one generation from now we will almost certainly see virtual AI agents that can do much office work and humanoid robots that can handle manual labor such as lawncare, construction, factory, and warehouse work. The last time America faced a comparable change in the technology of work we failed miserably. The invention of the shipping container allowed the mass offshoring of manufacturing. This devastated blue collar jobs and communities, giving room for despair, the opioid epidemic, and the decline of the American family, and opened us to surges of inflation like we saw in the pandemic while placing industries vital to national security in hostile nations. Rather than redress the human suffering we all saw developing, American elites blamed the workers while the tech and financial sectors allowed us to pretend our economy was still growing for everyone. This time around we must listen to our neighbors if they say they are hurting and provide a strong social safety net to ensure we all gain from these momentous changes. If Americans have more time with their families and greater material security, we will have won. If America has the first trillionaire while 30% of workers are unemployed, we will have failed in tragic fashion. — Brent Caldwell's campaign website (February 13, 2026) Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source."}]