Sean Ewing, current member of Mebane’s City Council, said that running for North Carolina State Senate is the right thing to do. Between his working relationship with other legislators and personal record getting bills passed in his position, he believes he is the right person to be a voice for people.
Ewing is a Democrat running for North Carolina State Senate District 25. He said as a Mebane councilman, he has not only learned how government works, but also how to work across different councils to help serve people both within his district and outside of it.
“If someone has, let's say a Mebane address, but they're actually out of city limits, … that means I need to work with the county elected officials and the county government to help resolve the issue for the person or point the person towards the county commissioners,” Ewing said. “Same thing with our surrounding sister cities and towns — so Haw River, Graham, Burlington, Green Level.”
Health care is one of Ewing's top issues, and he said that, if elected, he wants to expand Medicaid eligibility — as North Carolina is one of only 12 states which have not adopted the expansion.
“There's a real, real legitimate opportunity right now to get Medicaid expansion passed in the North Carolina General Assembly,” Ewing said. “I hope we can lean into that as much as possible and find common ground with everyone to get that passed.”
Ewing also said, while he identifies as socially liberal, a main priority for him is to find common ground with everyone involved. This includes not being afraid to work across the aisle. He also said his own Democratic party affiliation does not determine everything about his own campaign.
Ewing, an electrical engineer by trade, said protecting the environment and clean energy are also significant platforms for him.
“I have a really strong focus in electric vehicles as well as clean technologies,” Ewing said. “Not only just helping out the environment, but also, how can we bring new jobs for these green technologies to North Carolina? We have a novel opportunity to invest in solar, … and many other clean green and clean technologies to quote-unquote fuel our electric vehicles.”
Ewing said continuing to grow the economy is crucial to his campaign and has been through his time on city council as well. He said Mebane has done a good job growing its economy and bringing jobs to the area, and he wants to continue that growth and ensure new companies come to the area, resulting in more jobs.
“How do we make sure that the people that have been here for generations are able to get into these jobs?” Ewing said. “I want to make sure that the people that are already here have a great opportunity to get better paying jobs.”