Mark Crawford
Republican | North Carolina
Candidate Profile
Conservative (Conditional)
BIOGRAPHY
Name
Mark Crawford
Party
Republican
Election Year
2022
Election
Primary
Race
State Senate, Dist. 46
Incumbent
No
Links
EDUCATION
United States Military Academy, West Point, BS, 82
University of Florida, Gainesville, MA, 94
WORK & MILITARY
United States Army, Captain, 10+
United States Army Reserve/IRR, Major, 20
Coldwell Banker, Agent/Broker, 8
Western Carolina University, Instructor, 11
AFFILIATIONS
VFW, Life Member & former Post Commander, Buncombe County Veterans Council
Past Member and Officer of the Executive Committee, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, Past Chairman of Troop and Pack Executive Committee
Congressman Taylor's Veterans Advisory Council, Past Member, GOP
Past County/District/State Executive Committee Member, Montreat College, Multiple terms spent as a Member of the Board of Visitors
Montreat Presbyterian Church, Past Habitat for Humanity Coordinator, Two High School/Two Middle Schools in WNC
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
NC House of Representatives, 2001-02
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
NC House of Representatives, 2020
NC Senate, 2018
NC Senate, 2022
Race
Previous Races
ENDORSEMENTS
REPORTED BY CANDIDATE (1)
As of this writing, none of the main organizations have issued endorsements
SELECTED CONTRIBUTIONS
CONSERVATIVE
GIVEN BY CANDIDATE (16)
Committee to Elect Republican Women (2008)
Dan F. Soucek (2010)
David Curtis (2015)
Dodie Allen (2010)
Eric Burns Eric Tolman Burns (2020)
RECEIVED BY CANDIDATE (6)
George Cleveland (2010)
Harold Brubaker (2010)
Jim Davis (2020)
Julia Howard (2010)
Local, County, and District Republican Organizations (2020)
LIBERAL
GIVEN BY CANDIDATE (0)
RECEIVED BY CANDIDATE (1)
Service Employees International Union (2010)
OTHER INFORMATION
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Under what circumstances should abortion be allowed?
Hopefully, none....
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).
Strongly Agree
If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the US Supreme Court, how far are you willing to go to roll back North Carolina's statutory abortion law that allows abortion up to 20 weeks?
As far as necessary in order to be fully in line with the overturned decision.
I support 'aid in dying' laws which legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Disagree
Would you support a limitation on chemical abortion that protects women from taking abortion pills without the care and supervision of a qualified physician?
Yes
ECONOMY
The government should do more to close the gap between the working class and the wealthy.
Neutral
If the idea is to provide a helpful hand and allow those lacking to better themselves, then, as a Christian, I would support this. However, if it's just a redistribution of wealth (which never, ever works and simply harms those who have bettered themselves), then I would oppose it.
What changes, if any, should be made to the tax code?
The tax code needs to be simplified. Get so many of the extraordinarily harmful special interests out of the code!
Taxpayer-funded public education should be guaranteed through college.
Disagree
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.
Strongly Disagree
The requirement to force one to take actions in opposition to one's religious beliefs is tyranny!
Under what circumstances can government close churches?
If one actually believes in the Constitution and its Bill of rights, and I do, then the government should not be allowed to close churches.
What should be the relationship between the church and the state?
To use the wisdom of Jesus, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to GOD, what is GOD's."
HEALTHCARE
What most closely matches your view on healthcare: A) Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government with no private healthcare option. (includes "universal healthcare," "medicare for all," etc.) B) Healthcare insurance funded by the government should be available for all who want it, along with private healthcare options. C) Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. D)Tax-payer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be de-funded.
Healthcare by the federal government is not a power authorized in the U.S. Constitution under the Enumerated Powers (Article I, Section 8). If one were to actually follow the Constitution, the only viable/acceptable answer is the last one.
Under what circumstances (if any) should a government, school, or employer be allowed to require vaccinations?
My Stepdad was a victim of polio, and as the son of overseas missionary parents, I've seen the tragic effects of that, and several other horrendous diseases. There is a point in time in which I would hope that folks would use common sense in the use and choice to use vaccinations, but i believe that should ultimately be decided by the individual making their respective decisions on their own behalves.
EDUCATION
States should allow parents to use the Opportunity Scholarship Program to fund private school for their children.
Agree
Fundamentally, as both a former legislator, and as an educator with more than twenty-five academics years in some capacity in the classroom, I have yet to find an example of any student ever harmed by these Scholarships. Moreover, I suspects there are thousands in our own state who have fared very well with this.
In what situations does a parent not have the right to know what their child is being taught in public school?
There is no situation in which the parents should ever be "kept in the dark" by teachers, administrators and higher up bureaucrats.
When should parents be restricted from speaking in school board meetings?
If a parent has already committed a violent act against the school board and been convicted through the courts of a crime for that activity, then I could see this. Otherwise, to gag parents whose kids are in schools from speaking up before the school boards, is a travesty.
VALUES
Judeo-Christian values established a framework of morality which is necessary for our system of limited government.
Strongly Agree
I support adding gender identity as a specially protected class in non-discrimination laws.
Strongly Disagree
I agree with Critical Race Theory (CRT) which asserts that the institutions in the United States are fundamentally racist.
Strongly Disagree
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
At the age of 11, in my home church, I gave my life to the LORD.
ELECTIONS AND VOTING
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Strongly Disagree
The State of North Carolina, some years ago, appropriated $10,000,000.00 for the purpose of providing - free of charge - identification for voters who claimed not to have any. It takes two forms of ID to do something as simple as get a mailbox at the US Post Office. It takes multiple forms of identification to open a bank account. I find it hard to believe that anyone is living without something enabling them to receive mail or funds. The claim (of no ID) is just an attempt to cheat on voting.
What laws would you propose to change present voting practices?
I would propose the requirement to have a photo ID to vote. However, I should note that this was already passed by the people of the State of North Carolina, into its Constitution , but struck down by activist judges of the lowest ilk, who neither abide by our State or Federal Constitution, and whose understanding of the law(s), I suggest, is sadly lacking.
EQUALITY
Is racism a threat to domestic security in the United States? Why or why not?
I believe that racism is an offshoot of those who do not know the LORD. I do find that those who claim to find racism here, there and everywhere, are: most likely to view things from a racial divide and/or division by color; support racial division under the guise of "equity"; and, most likely to treat others of different races differently. I yearn for the day when we can all perceive and accept each other as GOD's creations, American citizens and fellow travelers on this path called life and when we can finally do away with all the "hyphenization" which does nothing but continue to separate us. Although there will always be those who seek to profit by threatening domestic security, I do not believe this is a threat unless ill-doers choose to make it so.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Which comes closest to your view? A) Stricter environmental laws and regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the economy. B) Stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost.
I'm not sure I'm closer to either view. I believe that we were directed to have dominion over the earth and its creatures (e.g. serve as stewards over all that the earth contains). I find that we, and all people of the world, have not been good stewards either through the ranges of pursuing the allure of wealth, nor in actually providing practical, reasonable and foresighted laws concerning the environment.
ABOUT YOU
What do you think is the general purpose of government?
To do and provide for the people/citizens only that which they cannot do for themselves (e.g. most of what is found in the Enumerated Powers - and nothing more, at the Federal level; at the State/local level, that which is authorized under the 10th Amendment of the Bill of Rights, again, and nothing more).
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and religious liberty, which of the following best describes you overall?
Conservative
I believe my voting record in the NC House of Representatives very much supports this.
Please provide publicly available information, including interviews and media reports, validating your answer to the previous question (other than your website).
Again, please feel free to check my voting record in the NC House of Representatives.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony or been penalized in either civil or criminal court for sexual misconduct? If so, please explain.
No.
What else would you like voters to know about you, including your legislative priorities?
I will, if honored with the opportunity to serve in the NC Senate, do my best to do that which is right, to follow (both) the State and U.S. Constitution, and work hard - not only on behalf of my immediate constituents of my District, but on behalf of all the citizens of North Carolina.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY
Police officers should be personally immune from prosecution for conduct consistent with departmental policy (qualified immunity) while on duty.
Agree
As long as an action/conduct is, as stated in the question, "... consistent with departmental policy...", then no officer, putting his/her life on the line for the citizenry, should ever be "thrown under the bus" by weaselly politicians or other bureaucrats, especially for doing those things which are consistent with departmental policies.
I support redirecting funds from police departments to mental health and community programs.
Disagree
If we are not already properly funding required and/or needful mental health and community programs - totally separately from funding the needs of the police departments - then every elected official in office who has allowed this to happen needs to be thrown out of office.
2ND AMENDMENT
What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?
We need to abide by the 2nd Amendment, just as fully as we abide by the freedoms of speech, religion, press, peaceful assembly and the right to ask redress of our government. Anything less than full support of each and every freedom and right as found in our Constitution's Bill of Rights, weakens all those freedoms.
Victims of gun violence should be able to sue firearms dealers and manufacturers.
Strongly Disagree
It is the criminal perpetrator who needs to be sued, completely and totally, because it was his/her action which undertook violence and caused the harm.
OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES
Would you support legislation that prohibits biological boys from competing on girls sports teams?
Yes
