Ahmid Kargbo

[{"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>Ahmid Kargbo 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 Kargbo'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-bio-390857-2026-02-10\" id=\"heading-bio-390857-2026-02-10\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse-bio-390857-2026-02-10\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse-bio-390857-2026-02-10\" role=\"button\"><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-right pull-right\"></i><i class=\"fa fa-chevron-down pull-right\"></i>\t\t\t\tWho are you? Tell us about yourself.\t\t\t</a></p></div><div aria-labelledby=\"heading-bio-390857-2026-02-10\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse-bio-390857-2026-02-10\" 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\tI am the proud son of West African immigrants and lived in Raleigh until I moved when was nine years old. I have lived in Huntersville ever since, where I attended Hopewell High School. While in college, I enrolled in the Year Up program, which launched my journey into corporate America, where I worked for three years. But even at a Fortune 500 company, I could not buy a home, and neither could many of my coworkers. After being laid off in late 2024, I decided to go back to school for urban planning and history. When I looked at the candidates in the upcoming election, I didn't see anyone pushing forward any policies that were meeting the severity of the moment, so I decided to run!\t\t\t</span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse-key-message-390857-2026-02-10\" id=\"heading-key-message-390857-2026-02-10\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse-key-message-390857-2026-02-10\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse-key-message-390857-2026-02-10\" 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-390857-2026-02-10\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse-key-message-390857-2026-02-10\" role=\"tabpanel\"><div class=\"panel-body\" style=\"max-height: 500px; overflow-y: scroll;\"><div class=\"answers-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><ul><li>I am running on a platform of economic populism with policies such as Medicare for All, free public college, and the Green New Deal. We need to challenge the power of billionaires and corporations with wealth taxes, providing a public option for telecommunications, and nationalizing utility monopolies like Duke Energy. Transformative populist policies are needed to match the scale of the problems facing Americans.</li><li>I am the only candidate in favor of abolishing CBP, the DHS, and ICE. These rogue agencies are acting like secret police, intimidating and murdering citizens in the street. These agencies were created from the dissolution of the US Customs Service, after 9/11, in the image of the war on terror. We should abolish these agencies and reform them in the image of humane immigration enforcement. Tribunal-style commissions must be held to prosecute the leaders of these illegal operations and the masked thugs who support them.</li><li>While none of the other candidates are putting forward bold policies, only Brent Caldwell does not there is a genocide happening in Palestine currently. America needs leaders with the moral clarity to call out the corruption and death caused and funded by our leaders, and Brent Caldwell is by far the worst candidate. Americans are yearning for leaders who have the moral clarity to call out the destruction funded by our country, and we cannot keep electing leaders who deny what the majority of the party can see as a clear genocide we must stop funding.</li></ul></span></div></div></div></div><div class=\"panel panel-default\"><div class=\"panel-heading\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse1-390857-2026-02-10\" id=\"heading1-390857-2026-02-10\" role=\"tab\"><p class=\"panel-title\" style=\"font-size: 14px;font-weight: 600;\"><a aria-controls=\"collapse1-390857-2026-02-10\" aria-expanded=\"false\" class=\"collapsed\" data-parent=\"#accordion\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" href=\"#collapse1-390857-2026-02-10\" 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=\"heading1-390857-2026-02-10\" class=\"panel-collapse collapse\" id=\"collapse1-390857-2026-02-10\" 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\tZoning! Most major metropolitan areas are primarily single-family zoned, which artificially limits the supply of homes and leads to unsustainable infrastructural costs. Across the union, people of all ages complain about the cost of housing but are unfamiliar with the tools of local government that affect prices. There is a strong desire to return to the traditional \"Main Street\" vibe, centered around mixed-use transit-oriented design.\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>Kargbo'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><strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\"><em>Economic Populism Is The Only Way</em></strong></h3><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Medicare For All</span></h3><p>With America spending over $5 trillion a year on healthcare, the common man is absolutely fed up with our multi-payer insurance system allowing predatory insurance companies to extort Americans who desperately need healthcare to live. <strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT,</strong> and it will be protected as so moving forward into the 21st century, especially in the richest country ever. We don't need moderate positions like a public option which still allows private corporations and middlemen to price-gouge Americans. We saw as an insurance CEO was murdered in NYC and the world cheered for a man's demise, because of the collective suffering insurance companies socialize to the American people while privatizing hard earned taxpayer dollars for a private mega-yacht(s). The evil on display by the Republican Party to cut ACA subsidies and have no healthcare plan to bail out the average American so they can give a tax break to their rich donors is the epitome of cruelty and selfishness. Tens of thousands of Americans are poised to die this year due to losing health insurance, we cannot allow this system of greed to continue and ensure every American has the right to healthcare.</p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Free Public Education</span></h3><p><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\">All of college debt is $2 trillion, and that may sound extraordinarily expensive until it is contrasted to the </span><strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">$8 trillion spent on the Wars on Terror from 2001-2021.</strong><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\"> The idea that \"free public education is too expensive\", when we have spent more than 4x that amount on useless wars with our taxpayer dollars than to prioritize and clear college debt, a paradigm shift is needed to reconsider the priorities of our nation and reconcile on why young people feel so left behind as college costs have far outpaced inflation in the last century. This would also put heavy pressure on private institutions to lower costs as most will not be able to justify a $50,000/semester tuition when properly funded, free, and high quality public education exists in every state in the country.</span></p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">High Speed Rail and Regional Rail</span></h3><p>The United States of America is a country defined by rail. Towns like Richlands and Saluda were designed to have easy train access connecting them to every major metropolitan area in their region, such as Asheville and Wilmington, and the greater Union. We could transform and bring our infrastructure into the 21st century by developing true high speed rail (220mph) and regional rail (110mph) systems to revolutionize transportation in the country as a whole. <strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">For my constituents, a line from Asheville to Wilmington on the 74 corridor is my ambition, just like it existed in the past century.</strong> This would change a 5-hour drive to a 2 hour trip. Charlotte to Raleigh is also a necessary route, cutting a 2 hour 30-min drive to a 50-minute cruise. The potential to revolutionize the tax base of our rural areas and return to the basis on which they were designed, instead of being off the interstate and losing on vital dollars for its residents. We must move away from oil, the technology of the 20th century, and modernize our public transportation and society to avoid the conflicts of resources we have been engaged in for decades.</p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">End the Genocide in Palestine and Military Industrial Complex</span></h3><p>As a society we condemn genocide, with many people descended from refugees who fled persecution from oppressive forces such as the Jews during WWII. The atrocities being committed by Israel as an apartheid state against Palestine for decades, with US funding, have to come to an immediate end. October 7th was a tragedy, but the Israeli government acts like it isn't a colonial state and hasn't committed mass genocide against mostly innocent children who are completely ignorant and innocent of the geopolitical realities of extermination facing them everyday. When Netanyahu (a war criminal) says, “Any future Palestinian state would be a platform to destroy Israel\" this is the language used to justify colonialism and should not be taken seriously. <strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!</strong> I won't tolerate corporate media's agenda to try and demonize efforts against imperialism. The military industrial complex's role in sending arms into the hands of destructive forces is unequivocally evil and must be broken up and nationalized to end the human rights violations supported by taxpayer dollars. The Pentagon hasn't passed an audit in its entire existence, and it cannot tell you how it spends its over $800 billion, while the Trump Regime wants to cut billions from childcare and SNAP \"fraud\" instead. The Pentagon and other military adjacent sectors will be rein in to fully serve American civilian interests, and stop profiteering from war across the globe, making our country less safe.</p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Reinvest in Public Media</span></h3><p>The attacks on public media are unprecedented, and the cuts to funding must be not only reversed, but we must amplify the funding to the now defunct Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It deserves an immediate $10 billion subsidy (we gave $20 billion to Argentina) and strengthen it from partisan attacks by making it a fully taxpayer-funded public corporation. <strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">It's shameful that public media is being attacked for the fact that it is not state media,</strong> and we must preserve its independence to ensure reliable news coverage and family-friendly our children can enjoy.</p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Abolish and Prosecute DHS &amp; ICE</span></h3><p><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\">This administration has prioritized giving ICE over $150 billion (more than most countries' militaries) over the next 5 years and has turned them into a militarized private army. They have been flaunting their aggression and lawlessness for years, but it has reached a new peak under the Trump Regime. The murder of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in broad daylight will serve as a catalyst to unmask all of these thugs and have a tribunal-style commission. We'll put them under oath and send them to prison to where they belong. The members at the top of the Regime such as Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller will be prosecuted as well, Trump is worried if Democrats win the midterms he will be impeached, and he's damn right to have concern for his freedom as well. Trump v. The United States will be reversed in my natural lifetime, even if I don't live to see it! </span><span style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">JD Vance said, “The precedent here is very simple. You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That’s a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity\", </span><strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">qualified immunity must be stripped from federal agents and police officers and codified into the constitution so they cannot abuse their powers anymore and would have the exact leniency a civilian would get for crimes and murder(s).</strong><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\"> These agencies are an extension of the War on Terror abroad that has come home to cause terror domestically. We must destroy these rogue agencies, prosecute their leaders, the masked cowards, and reform our immigration process and system entirely.</span></p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Asset, Capital Gains, and Wealth Tax on the Wealthy</span></h3><p>We all know billionaires are the main source of income inequality through their ruthless exploitation of the middle class through methods such as tax breaks the middle class has to pay on their behalf, wage-thefting and underpaying employees, laying off workers for AI, and suppression of labor movements and incessant avoidance of paying taxes. We must force them by law to pay taxes and close loopholes the ultra rich use to save billions. Representative Khanna but it best when he said its an \"anti-revolution tax\", as the American people are absolutely fed up with billionaires drastically worsening wealth inequality by hoarding the wealth owned by the workers, this new gilded age must come to an end by putting a leash on billionaires by limited their abuses of the tax code, and taxing them at 1950s levels to stimulate the economy. <strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">I ENCOURAGE</strong><strong> </strong><strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">EVERY SINGLE BILLIONAIRE TO LEAVE AMERICA IMMEDIATELY.</strong> We will seize your assets and exponentially profit from the productivity of the American worker and return the wealth back to the working class! We do not want you here, and if you return, you will have an immediate patriotic tax applied. </p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Reward Municipalities For Zoning Changes</span></h3><p><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\">While Congress and agencies at the federal level do not have the ability to control the zoning codes at the local level, they can massively influence by rewarding municipalities with subsidies for building communities that generate profit and increase their tax base through mixed-used transit-oriented design. In North Mecklenburg, the Lake Norman Regional Economic Corporation did a study in 2002 and showed it cost </span><strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">$1.15 to service the suburban lake towns vs the $1 collected in property tax. This is massive subsidy for infrastructure costs the towns simply cannot bear.</strong><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\"> We must change how we build our cities to be more profitable by loosening our zoning rules that are restrictive and forcing Americans to pay unaffordable property tax bills to service their towns. Antiquated property tax assessment rules also allow mansions to sell for millions and have their assessed tax rate 20% less than what it was sold for, leading to a massive property tax break for the rich, but a homeowner who's family has lived in a community for generations only sees their bill go up, with some bills quadrupling within only a few short years. America must change how it builds its infrastructure and zones its municipalities for the economic security of our nation.</span></p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Repeal the Faircloth Amendment and Supercharge Public Housing</span></h3><p><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\">Since the 1990s the supply of public housing in America has been steadily dwindling, due to the Faircloth Amendment of the Housing Act of 1937, limiting the amount of public houses from never being able to pass their 1990 numbers due to the </span><strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">\"underserving poor\"</strong><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\"> not deserving quality, affordable homes. Passed by bipartisan support in Congress, the condemnation of the working poor is a travesty that has been normalized by both sides of the political spectrum. Many people just want to live in dignified, affordable homes that allow for flexibility, whether it's going to be short or long term. Not everyone wants to be a house owner, and some people live lives that require constant traveling, which doesn't allow for settling down. This would help with the main problem of supply, easing the housing crisis and competing with landlords to increase the standard quality of a home. Building these homes intelligently is also important. Placing them along public transit corridors will be vital to making them desirable and accessible to high quality jobs. </span></p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Nationalize Artificial Intelligence</span></h3><p><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\">Artificial Intelligence is clearly a technology of the future we must invest in, and the United States is already adopting its capabilities in nearly every aspect of society, whether helpful or not. </span><strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">It poses massive potential but also existential risks if unregulated.</strong><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\"> In a few short years we've already seen how far this technology is progressing and how it is already taking jobs and spreading disinformation through hyperrealistic generated images and videos. It also poses an environmental risk, poisoning our drinking water and spiking everyone's electric bill. We must never give private mega-corporations the ability to purchase massive data-centers and charge the taxpayer for their massive electric consumption, especially when they are billionaire oligarchs who already steal from the working class. The use of AI to undress mostly women and children is horrific and must be immediately banned and turned into criminal violations. The use of AI in war by companies like Palantir, which have contracts with the government, must immediately come to an end, and CEOs like Alex Karp must face investigations for flaunting crimes against humanity as solutions for the future. We cannot hide from this technology; it is already here, and it will be ubiquitous in the future. The question is, how do we balance its productivity with its destructive potential, and the solution is to democratize the technology and have it work for the working class. </span></p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Nationalize Utilities</span></h3><p><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\">Duke Energy is a regulated monopoly that controls over 90% of the investor-owned electric utilities in North Carolina and is a regulated monopoly that is imbedded into the fabric of N.C politics. With the economic and political capital this giant holds over the state, Duke Energy lobbies to ensure that it can be as profitable as possible at the expense of North Carolinians' financial security. With bills passed through the Republican legislature, such as allowing Duke Energy to increase the price of services before actually providing them, are all the reasons why </span><strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">we should turn these monopolies into public goods that serve the people instead of chasing profit margins.</strong><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\"> Historically, publicly owned companies like the Tennessee Valley Authority have provided transformative services to rural communities in the South at market rate cost with no profit motive in mind, only to provide as many residents of an area with electricity. People are more important than corporate profits, and we must show that by trustbusting ruthless monopolies. A revolution in renewable energy in the near future is necessary to provide an abundance of resources.</span></p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Codify the \"Montana Plan\" and National Public Matching Fund</span></h3><p><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\">Money in politics has been one of the worst and subversive measures to our democracy, as it allows corporations, rich donors, and lobbyists to hold more influence over our politicians by exploiting the wealth inequality in society. They fund politicians campaigns and lifestyles, in return for political favors. The Supreme Court said corporations have \"protected speech,\" but they are also entirely fictional bodies that have powers, not biological organisms with fundamental rights like human beings. </span><strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">This means we can codify into the constitution the ability to strip away artificial entities from spending any money in our elections,</strong><span style=\"color: rgb(68, 68, 68);\"> removing the rogue Supreme Court from the equation on how to fairly determine how money can be spent in our elections. A national public matching fund (similar to NYC) would drastically increase the chances of candidates from lower socioeconomic backgrounds being able to more fairly compete in elections, versus incumbent fossil fuels with millions on hand.</span></p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Repeal the \"Mickey Mouse Protection Act\"</span></h3><p>Intellectual Property is one of the most important concepts of the world, protecting the originality of ideas, which promotes innovation and amazing inventions. A corporation like The Walt Disney Company has benefited from works within the public domain, such as Cinderella, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, White Fang, Snow White and uses its billions and influence to prevent others from doing so by twisting the laws of copyright to protect the profits of mega-conglomerates. <strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">The original IP law gave a company 14 years and one 14 year renewal before returning to the public domain;</strong> that is what we must revert to in order to allow sciences and the arts to thrive and strip power from corporations that are hoarding IP and profits that should belong to the public.</p><h3><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 204);\">Public Option for Telecommunications</span></h3><p>Let's be honest, no one has any brand loyalty to AT&amp;T, T-Mobile, or Verizon, and we can agree that when Sprint disappeared, prices only increased due to a lack of competition from mergers and acquisitions. <strong style=\"color: rgb(66, 165, 255);\">A public option would put immense pressure on for-profit telecommunication companies to lower prices and provide better services,</strong><strong> </strong>instead of price gouging and to deliver below to mediocre service. These companies are also holding back the United States from achieving future technologies like 6G because ultimately they do not care about innovation, only profit, and a publicly owned option would force them to innovate, so we can have transformative technologies of the future at competitive costs.</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\">— Ahmid Kargbo's <a href=\"https://kargboforcongress.com/issues\" 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\nAhmid Kargbo completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kargbo's responses.\nExpand all | Collapse all\nWho are you? Tell us about yourself. I am the proud son of West African immigrants and lived in Raleigh until I moved when was nine years old. I have lived in Huntersville ever since, where I attended Hopewell High School. While in college, I enrolled in the Year Up program, which launched my journey into corporate America, where I worked for three years. But even at a Fortune 500 company, I could not buy a home, and neither could many of my coworkers. After being laid off in late 2024, I decided to go back to school for urban planning and history. When I looked at the candidates in the upcoming election, I didn't see anyone pushing forward any policies that were meeting the severity of the moment, so I decided to run! Please 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? I am running on a platform of economic populism with policies such as Medicare for All, free public college, and the Green New Deal. We need to challenge the power of billionaires and corporations with wealth taxes, providing a public option for telecommunications, and nationalizing utility monopolies like Duke Energy. Transformative populist policies are needed to match the scale of the problems facing Americans. I am the only candidate in favor of abolishing CBP, the DHS, and ICE. These rogue agencies are acting like secret police, intimidating and murdering citizens in the street. These agencies were created from the dissolution of the US Customs Service, after 9/11, in the image of the war on terror. We should abolish these agencies and reform them in the image of humane immigration enforcement. Tribunal-style commissions must be held to prosecute the leaders of these illegal operations and the masked thugs who support them. While none of the other candidates are putting forward bold policies, only Brent Caldwell does not there is a genocide happening in Palestine currently. America needs leaders with the moral clarity to call out the corruption and death caused and funded by our leaders, and Brent Caldwell is by far the worst candidate. Americans are yearning for leaders who have the moral clarity to call out the destruction funded by our country, and we cannot keep electing leaders who deny what the majority of the party can see as a clear genocide we must stop funding. What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Zoning! Most major metropolitan areas are primarily single-family zoned, which artificially limits the supply of homes and leads to unsustainable infrastructural costs. Across the union, people of all ages complain about the cost of housing but are unfamiliar with the tools of local government that affect prices. There is a strong desire to return to the traditional \"Main Street\" vibe, centered around mixed-use transit-oriented design.\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 Kargbo's campaign website stated the following: Economic Populism Is The Only Way Medicare For All With America spending over $5 trillion a year on healthcare, the common man is absolutely fed up with our multi-payer insurance system allowing predatory insurance companies to extort Americans who desperately need healthcare to live. HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT, and it will be protected as so moving forward into the 21st century, especially in the richest country ever. We don't need moderate positions like a public option which still allows private corporations and middlemen to price-gouge Americans. We saw as an insurance CEO was murdered in NYC and the world cheered for a man's demise, because of the collective suffering insurance companies socialize to the American people while privatizing hard earned taxpayer dollars for a private mega-yacht(s). The evil on display by the Republican Party to cut ACA subsidies and have no healthcare plan to bail out the average American so they can give a tax break to their rich donors is the epitome of cruelty and selfishness. Tens of thousands of Americans are poised to die this year due to losing health insurance, we cannot allow this system of greed to continue and ensure every American has the right to healthcare. Free Public Education All of college debt is $2 trillion, and that may sound extraordinarily expensive until it is contrasted to the $8 trillion spent on the Wars on Terror from 2001-2021. The idea that \"free public education is too expensive\", when we have spent more than 4x that amount on useless wars with our taxpayer dollars than to prioritize and clear college debt, a paradigm shift is needed to reconsider the priorities of our nation and reconcile on why young people feel so left behind as college costs have far outpaced inflation in the last century. This would also put heavy pressure on private institutions to lower costs as most will not be able to justify a $50,000/semester tuition when properly funded, free, and high quality public education exists in every state in the country. High Speed Rail and Regional Rail The United States of America is a country defined by rail. Towns like Richlands and Saluda were designed to have easy train access connecting them to every major metropolitan area in their region, such as Asheville and Wilmington, and the greater Union. We could transform and bring our infrastructure into the 21st century by developing true high speed rail (220mph) and regional rail (110mph) systems to revolutionize transportation in the country as a whole. For my constituents, a line from Asheville to Wilmington on the 74 corridor is my ambition, just like it existed in the past century. This would change a 5-hour drive to a 2 hour trip. Charlotte to Raleigh is also a necessary route, cutting a 2 hour 30-min drive to a 50-minute cruise. The potential to revolutionize the tax base of our rural areas and return to the basis on which they were designed, instead of being off the interstate and losing on vital dollars for its residents. We must move away from oil, the technology of the 20th century, and modernize our public transportation and society to avoid the conflicts of resources we have been engaged in for decades. End the Genocide in Palestine and Military Industrial Complex As a society we condemn genocide, with many people descended from refugees who fled persecution from oppressive forces such as the Jews during WWII. The atrocities being committed by Israel as an apartheid state against Palestine for decades, with US funding, have to come to an immediate end. October 7th was a tragedy, but the Israeli government acts like it isn't a colonial state and hasn't committed mass genocide against mostly innocent children who are completely ignorant and innocent of the geopolitical realities of extermination facing them everyday. When Netanyahu (a war criminal) says, “Any future Palestinian state would be a platform to destroy Israel\" this is the language used to justify colonialism and should not be taken seriously. FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE! I won't tolerate corporate media's agenda to try and demonize efforts against imperialism. The military industrial complex's role in sending arms into the hands of destructive forces is unequivocally evil and must be broken up and nationalized to end the human rights violations supported by taxpayer dollars. The Pentagon hasn't passed an audit in its entire existence, and it cannot tell you how it spends its over $800 billion, while the Trump Regime wants to cut billions from childcare and SNAP \"fraud\" instead. The Pentagon and other military adjacent sectors will be rein in to fully serve American civilian interests, and stop profiteering from war across the globe, making our country less safe. Reinvest in Public Media The attacks on public media are unprecedented, and the cuts to funding must be not only reversed, but we must amplify the funding to the now defunct Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It deserves an immediate $10 billion subsidy (we gave $20 billion to Argentina) and strengthen it from partisan attacks by making it a fully taxpayer-funded public corporation. It's shameful that public media is being attacked for the fact that it is not state media, and we must preserve its independence to ensure reliable news coverage and family-friendly our children can enjoy. Abolish and Prosecute DHS & ICE This administration has prioritized giving ICE over $150 billion (more than most countries' militaries) over the next 5 years and has turned them into a militarized private army. They have been flaunting their aggression and lawlessness for years, but it has reached a new peak under the Trump Regime. The murder of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in broad daylight will serve as a catalyst to unmask all of these thugs and have a tribunal-style commission. We'll put them under oath and send them to prison to where they belong. The members at the top of the Regime such as Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller will be prosecuted as well, Trump is worried if Democrats win the midterms he will be impeached, and he's damn right to have concern for his freedom as well. Trump v. The United States will be reversed in my natural lifetime, even if I don't live to see it! JD Vance said, “The precedent here is very simple. You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That’s a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity\", qualified immunity must be stripped from federal agents and police officers and codified into the constitution so they cannot abuse their powers anymore and would have the exact leniency a civilian would get for crimes and murder(s). These agencies are an extension of the War on Terror abroad that has come home to cause terror domestically. We must destroy these rogue agencies, prosecute their leaders, the masked cowards, and reform our immigration process and system entirely. Asset, Capital Gains, and Wealth Tax on the Wealthy We all know billionaires are the main source of income inequality through their ruthless exploitation of the middle class through methods such as tax breaks the middle class has to pay on their behalf, wage-thefting and underpaying employees, laying off workers for AI, and suppression of labor movements and incessant avoidance of paying taxes. We must force them by law to pay taxes and close loopholes the ultra rich use to save billions. Representative Khanna but it best when he said its an \"anti-revolution tax\", as the American people are absolutely fed up with billionaires drastically worsening wealth inequality by hoarding the wealth owned by the workers, this new gilded age must come to an end by putting a leash on billionaires by limited their abuses of the tax code, and taxing them at 1950s levels to stimulate the economy. I ENCOURAGE EVERY SINGLE BILLIONAIRE TO LEAVE AMERICA IMMEDIATELY. We will seize your assets and exponentially profit from the productivity of the American worker and return the wealth back to the working class! We do not want you here, and if you return, you will have an immediate patriotic tax applied. Reward Municipalities For Zoning Changes While Congress and agencies at the federal level do not have the ability to control the zoning codes at the local level, they can massively influence by rewarding municipalities with subsidies for building communities that generate profit and increase their tax base through mixed-used transit-oriented design. In North Mecklenburg, the Lake Norman Regional Economic Corporation did a study in 2002 and showed it cost $1.15 to service the suburban lake towns vs the $1 collected in property tax. This is massive subsidy for infrastructure costs the towns simply cannot bear. We must change how we build our cities to be more profitable by loosening our zoning rules that are restrictive and forcing Americans to pay unaffordable property tax bills to service their towns. Antiquated property tax assessment rules also allow mansions to sell for millions and have their assessed tax rate 20% less than what it was sold for, leading to a massive property tax break for the rich, but a homeowner who's family has lived in a community for generations only sees their bill go up, with some bills quadrupling within only a few short years. America must change how it builds its infrastructure and zones its municipalities for the economic security of our nation. Repeal the Faircloth Amendment and Supercharge Public Housing Since the 1990s the supply of public housing in America has been steadily dwindling, due to the Faircloth Amendment of the Housing Act of 1937, limiting the amount of public houses from never being able to pass their 1990 numbers due to the \"underserving poor\" not deserving quality, affordable homes. Passed by bipartisan support in Congress, the condemnation of the working poor is a travesty that has been normalized by both sides of the political spectrum. Many people just want to live in dignified, affordable homes that allow for flexibility, whether it's going to be short or long term. Not everyone wants to be a house owner, and some people live lives that require constant traveling, which doesn't allow for settling down. This would help with the main problem of supply, easing the housing crisis and competing with landlords to increase the standard quality of a home. Building these homes intelligently is also important. Placing them along public transit corridors will be vital to making them desirable and accessible to high quality jobs. Nationalize Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence is clearly a technology of the future we must invest in, and the United States is already adopting its capabilities in nearly every aspect of society, whether helpful or not. It poses massive potential but also existential risks if unregulated. In a few short years we've already seen how far this technology is progressing and how it is already taking jobs and spreading disinformation through hyperrealistic generated images and videos. It also poses an environmental risk, poisoning our drinking water and spiking everyone's electric bill. We must never give private mega-corporations the ability to purchase massive data-centers and charge the taxpayer for their massive electric consumption, especially when they are billionaire oligarchs who already steal from the working class. The use of AI to undress mostly women and children is horrific and must be immediately banned and turned into criminal violations. The use of AI in war by companies like Palantir, which have contracts with the government, must immediately come to an end, and CEOs like Alex Karp must face investigations for flaunting crimes against humanity as solutions for the future. We cannot hide from this technology; it is already here, and it will be ubiquitous in the future. The question is, how do we balance its productivity with its destructive potential, and the solution is to democratize the technology and have it work for the working class. Nationalize Utilities Duke Energy is a regulated monopoly that controls over 90% of the investor-owned electric utilities in North Carolina and is a regulated monopoly that is imbedded into the fabric of N.C politics. With the economic and political capital this giant holds over the state, Duke Energy lobbies to ensure that it can be as profitable as possible at the expense of North Carolinians' financial security. With bills passed through the Republican legislature, such as allowing Duke Energy to increase the price of services before actually providing them, are all the reasons why we should turn these monopolies into public goods that serve the people instead of chasing profit margins. Historically, publicly owned companies like the Tennessee Valley Authority have provided transformative services to rural communities in the South at market rate cost with no profit motive in mind, only to provide as many residents of an area with electricity. People are more important than corporate profits, and we must show that by trustbusting ruthless monopolies. A revolution in renewable energy in the near future is necessary to provide an abundance of resources. Codify the \"Montana Plan\" and National Public Matching Fund Money in politics has been one of the worst and subversive measures to our democracy, as it allows corporations, rich donors, and lobbyists to hold more influence over our politicians by exploiting the wealth inequality in society. They fund politicians campaigns and lifestyles, in return for political favors. The Supreme Court said corporations have \"protected speech,\" but they are also entirely fictional bodies that have powers, not biological organisms with fundamental rights like human beings. This means we can codify into the constitution the ability to strip away artificial entities from spending any money in our elections, removing the rogue Supreme Court from the equation on how to fairly determine how money can be spent in our elections. A national public matching fund (similar to NYC) would drastically increase the chances of candidates from lower socioeconomic backgrounds being able to more fairly compete in elections, versus incumbent fossil fuels with millions on hand. Repeal the \"Mickey Mouse Protection Act\" Intellectual Property is one of the most important concepts of the world, protecting the originality of ideas, which promotes innovation and amazing inventions. A corporation like The Walt Disney Company has benefited from works within the public domain, such as Cinderella, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, White Fang, Snow White and uses its billions and influence to prevent others from doing so by twisting the laws of copyright to protect the profits of mega-conglomerates. The original IP law gave a company 14 years and one 14 year renewal before returning to the public domain; that is what we must revert to in order to allow sciences and the arts to thrive and strip power from corporations that are hoarding IP and profits that should belong to the public. Public Option for Telecommunications Let's be honest, no one has any brand loyalty to AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon, and we can agree that when Sprint disappeared, prices only increased due to a lack of competition from mergers and acquisitions. A public option would put immense pressure on for-profit telecommunication companies to lower prices and provide better services, instead of price gouging and to deliver below to mediocre service. These companies are also holding back the United States from achieving future technologies like 6G because ultimately they do not care about innovation, only profit, and a publicly owned option would force them to innovate, so we can have transformative technologies of the future at competitive costs. — Ahmid Kargbo's campaign website (February 13, 2026) Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source."}]