I have given up on the top of the ticket, and I’ve made that known here, quite a few times.

I will vote a third party candidate in protest of the sham the presidential race has become, and pray for God’s mercy, with a clear conscience.

What I will not give up on, however, is the North Carolina gubernatorial race. Governor Pat McCrory is the first Republican governor of the state in several decades, and he has done an astoundingly solid job in less than 4 years. He has earned my respect, and has definitely earned the right to another term.

When McCrory took office in January 2013, North Carolina had been ravaged by Democrat Bev Perdue.

Those of us who remember Perdue remember that the state was at 11% unemployment, and at that time, Perdue, like most Democrats, thought you could tax and spend your way out of it.

She raised taxes to the tune of over $1 billion, in order to pay for increased government spending. Those were taxes on corporate, individual, sales, tobacco, and alcohol.

She also attempted to levy taxes on digital good and online sales, but that was struck down by a federal judge.

Perdue also found herself fined $30,000 by the State Board of Elections and ended up under criminal investigation by both state and federal authorities for a failure to report flights and in-kind contributions from donors, that likely exceeded the campaign contribution limits.

What’s more, her predecessor, Democrat Governor Mike Easley was convicted of a felony in a related matter.

And the people of North Carolina suffered.

When the Democrat hold on Raleigh was broken and Governor McCrory took office, he was faced with a $2.6 billion debt to the federal government. Today, the debt is cleared and the state has nearly a half billion dollar surplus.

He did it with commonsense budget cuts, belt tightening, and reassessing priorities.

He hasn’t made everybody happy, but his methods have worked for the overall good of the state.

To outline some of Governor McCrory’s accomplishments:

• 300,000 new jobs in tech and manufacturing brought to the state since 2013
• Unemployment rate below national average, lowest in 8 years
• Unemployment reduced in all 100 NC counties
• NC wages growing faster than the national average
• $132 million middle-class tax cut in latest budget
• North Carolina has the fastest-growing economy in the country, with the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growing by 13.4% since 2013.
• North Carolina was ranked one of the most innovative states in the country in 2015, with more successful business startups per capita than most states.
• North Carolina has been ranked as one of the best states to do business in the country.

Then there’s the bathroom issue. Not everyone agrees that it was a good call, but many do. Governor McCrory has proven himself to be both fiscally conservative and socially courageous. It is, however, not the only bill he has signed.

In October 2015, he signed House Bill 318, ending sanctuary cities in the state, as well as requiring state and local government agencies to use E-verify, to check the legal status of job applicants.

In July 2016, McCrory signed into law a bill that prohibited sex offenders, deemed dangerous to children, from hanging out in places where children might gather, such as arcades, fair grounds, parks and libraries.

The voter ID law was recently overturned by activist liberal judges, and that should worry everybody.

With that in mind, I’m putting this out to alert voters in areas around the state to get involved in this campaign. Invest more than your well-wishes and a vote in November. Invest your time and a little shoe leather.

The McCrory campaign is putting together teams for September 10^th, 2016 to walk around certain neighborhoods, do the old-fashioned, knocking on doors, meeting the people face to face, and spreading the word about McCrory’s positive effect on our state.

If you’ve got a couple of hours to spare on Saturday morning, from 9am to about noon, teams will be gathering in Charlotte, NC (contact Justin Rice at [email protected]), Fayetteville, NC (contact Pablo Cueto at [email protected]), Greensboro and Winston-Salem, NC (contact Chris McCracken at [email protected]), Raleigh, NC (contact Johnathan Marchant at [email protected]), and the Wilmington, NC region (contact Pablo Cueto at [email protected] ).

My plan is to get off my duff and make it out to the gathering nearest me.

With the future looking dim on the federal level, I won’t be content to sit back and let my state suffer, as well. The first order of activism is to do something.

Hope to see some of you out there.