Steve McMillan: North Carolina cannot afford the Democrats, we must back President Trump

(Steve McMillan is a Wilmington resident, small business owner, and North Carolina chapter president of the America Winning Coalition.)

North Carolina has come too far under President Trump to risk a change of course. As President Trump said at his recent rally in New Hampshire, we don’t have to love him, but we don’t really have any choice other than to re-elect him.

The President’s strong performance and the Democrats’ acceptance of radicalism and socialism have left us with only one responsible choice — for the sake of ourselves and our families, we have to vote for President Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

President Trump has presided over strong economic growth, the lowest unemployment rate in generations, and the fastest wage increases in over a decade. He has accomplished all this while facing strong headwinds from Democrats eager to obstruct his every move, and he’s even been able to ensure that blue-collar workers benefit the most from his pro-growth economic agenda.

Mirroring these national economic conditions, North Carolina has made real strides. North Carolina’s GDP growth was at nearly 3 percent in 2018, and the state unemployment rate is down to 4.2 percent. In 2018, Forbes named North Carolina the best state in which to do business for the second year running, and Charlotte has been described as a boomtown. Meanwhile, North Carolina continues to recruit international corporations to the state, further boosting our economic prospects.

President Trump’s efforts to end the exploitation of American workers and businesses by foreign trade abusers are enhancing North Carolina’s prospects even further. A Chinese tire maker, for instance, recently announced plans to build a manufacturing plant in Edgecombe County that is projected to create 800 high-paying jobs. We have great talent, people, and infrastructure that few states can compete with.

While President Trump has created the conditions for North Carolina to flourish, though, the Democrats are intent on scaring corporations away by creating an environment hostile to American workers and investment, complete with onerous taxes on working Americans and burdensome regulations on American companies.

The Democrat presidential candidates are proposing environmental, healthcare, and welfare policies costing hundreds of trillions of dollars, and they view corporations as cash cows that they can shake down to pay for their pet projects.

At the same time, the Democrats want to undo the progress President Trump has made toward renegotiating outdated trade deals. They want to return to the globalist framework that rewards corporations for leaving the United States and hangs workers out to dry.

None of this would be good for North Carolina. We need a federal government that is friendly to business, so that businesses want to stay in the United States. We North Carolinians can handle it from there, because we already have the most business-friendly climate in the country.

With Democrats in charge of Washington, North Carolina would be battered by high taxes, wasteful spending, and stagnant growth, just as we were the last time they had a chance to impose their destructive agenda.

It turns out that President Trump was right: if we want to continue along our current path of prosperity, we really don’t have any choice other than to vote for him in 2020.

(Steve McMillan is a Wilmington resident, small business owner, and North Carolina chapter president of the America Winning Coalition.)