Can't Win. Yet.

Andy Bowline

For NC Senate District 31

I can't win. I'm running anyway.

In 2024, Republicans won District 31 by 25 points. That means before a single vote is cast, this race is already decided. Not by you. By the politicians who drew the lines.

I'm running because you deserve a choice. Because someone should show up. Because democracy isn't a spectator sport, even when the game is rigged.

The System is Working. Just Not For You.

Here's a fun fact: 81% of North Carolina's state legislative races in 2024 were either uncontested or uncompetitive. That's not democracy. That's theater.

Both parties gerrymander. Both are wrong. But right now, in North Carolina, one party controls the map. And they've drawn districts to guarantee outcomes, not to represent you.

District 31 covers all of Stokes County and chunks of Forsyth County. It was carved up to be safe. Unassailable. Unchallenged. Your state senator doesn't need your vote. They already have their seat. And that means they don't need to listen to you.

Meanwhile, the General Assembly Can't Even Do Its Job

North Carolina is the only state in the nation without a state budget for 2025. The fiscal year started in July. Teachers' salaries are frozen. Healthcare providers are cutting services. Schools don't know what funding they'll get.

Republicans control both chambers. They can't agree with themselves. While they fight over tax cuts, you are paying the price.

This is what happens when politicians don't have to answer to you.

What's Actually At Stake

🗳️

Gerrymandering

Politicians should not pick their voters. Full stop. NC's General Assembly has rigged the maps to guarantee supermajorities, and that supermajority has been busy accumulating power instead of governing. They answer to map-makers, not you.

When voters elected a Democratic governor by 15 points in 2024, the legislature responded by stripping his powers before he took office. They buried the changes in a hurricane relief bill and gave the public one hour to review 130 pages. That's not governing. That's a power grab.

🏫

Public Schools

Your kids' schools are being starved. Teachers are leaving. Class sizes are growing. And your tax dollars are being funneled to private schools with zero accountability.

The Opportunity Scholarship voucher program will cost $6.5 billion over the next decade. 92% of that money is going to families whose kids were already in private school. The expansion passed without any increase in teacher pay. NC ranks dead last in per-pupil spending. 28 rural counties have zero or one private school to even use a voucher at.

This isn't "school choice." It's a wealth transfer.

💰

Follow the Money

Corporate profits are up. Your bills are up. Your wages? Not so much. That's not an accident. It's a choice.

Duke Energy made $4.4 billion in profit last year. A 61% jump. Then the General Assembly passed a law shifting $24.8 million in energy costs off industrial users and onto residential customers. Your electric bill is subsidizing corporations.

Hospital systems across the region are posting record profits. Staff wages haven't kept up. Wait times haven't improved. Your bills haven't gone down. The money's going somewhere. Just not to patients or the people who care for them.

Tax breaks and incentives go out the door, but nobody checks whether the jobs showed up, whether wages improved, whether you saw any benefit at all. No clawbacks. No audits. No receipts.

🏥

Healthcare

You shouldn't have to choose between your health and your bills. Healthcare should be a right, not a reward for having the right job.

Medicaid providers are cutting services because the state won't fund them properly. Reimbursement rates were slashed because the legislature can't pass a budget. People are losing access to therapy, pharmacy benefits, and primary care. You deserve a healthcare system that actually works — and that means expanding Medicaid, not pretending the status quo is fine.

"Can't Win" Isn't Giving Up. It's Showing Up.

Look, I know how this sounds. Running in a district this lopsided is like bringing a pizza to a gunfight. But hey, people are hungry.

Here's what happens when nobody shows up:

When We Don't Run

  • Voters feel abandoned. If nobody's on the ballot, why bother voting?
  • The winner faces no accountability. Uncontested means unquestioned.
  • We lose ground everywhere else. Lower turnout affects every other race on the ballot.

When We Show Up Anyway

  • Higher turnout that helps Democrats up and down the ticket
  • A bench of candidates ready for when the maps finally get fair
  • Trust in communities that feel forgotten by both parties
  • A message that every voter matters, even in "safe" districts

And here's the thing about those "safe" Republican voters: you're not being represented either.

Your state senator doesn't have to earn your vote. They don't have to show up to town halls. They don't have to answer your questions. The map already did their job for them.

The legislature you elected can't even pass a budget. Teachers are waiting on raises. Healthcare is getting cut. And they're too busy fighting each other to fix it.

Isn't that kind of insulting?

Andy Bowline ← this guy

Who Is This Guy?

I'm Andy Bowline.

I live in Winston-Salem with my wife (a kidney doctor, which means she's used to dealing with stubborn problems) and our two kids, a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old who are, frankly, more politically aware than I was at their age.

Right now I'm a stay-at-home dad, working on projects from home. Before that, I co-founded a health tech company here in Winston-Salem. Before that, I wrote code, helped nonprofits get organized, and worked in medical research. I've been in rooms where complicated problems get solved, and I've been in rooms where nothing gets done because no one's accountable. I know the difference.

I'm not a career politician. I don't have consultants. I don't have a PAC. I'm just a guy who moved here in 2009, watched the state legislature accumulate power while doing less and less for actual people, and decided that someone should at least show up to say: this isn't working.

Republicans won this district by 25 points in 2024. I know the math. But math only works this way because politicians drew the lines. You deserve someone who has to earn your vote, not someone whose seat was guaranteed before the campaign even started.

What's He About?

Government is how you and your neighbors choose to live together: pool some resources, follow some rules, look out for each other. That's the deal. Somebody forgot.

If a policy helps corporations more than people, I'm skeptical.
If it puts politicians between you and your doctor, I'm opposed.
If it protects the powerful at the expense of everyone else, I'll fight it.

Rigged maps. Stripped powers. Fewer voices at the table. That's not the deal. That's somebody rewriting it.

This Only Works If You're In

In an "unwinnable" district, every bit of help hits harder.

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This is going to be a weird, fun, maybe-slightly-hopeless ride. Come along.