Erin Paré has been representing Wake County in the state legislature since 2020 – one of only two Republicans in Wake’s 19-member delegation. Before becoming a politician, Paré made her career in Washington, DC as a corporate lobbyist.
In her years as a corporate lobbyist, Paré routinely put special and foreign interests over American consumers, workers, and businesses. She fought to make it easier for corporations to send American jobs to China – and North Carolina workers paid the price, with nearly 120,000 jobs sent to China because of Paré’s efforts.
Paré also lobbied on behalf of Big Pharma in her time at the lobbying firm Valis and Keelen, LLC. When the FDA tried to pull a dangerous drug – shown to reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics vital to human health – off the market, Paré’s firm was paid to fight back and keep it on store shelves to protect their bottom line.
It’s no wonder then that in her six years as a legislator, Paré has continued to fight for corporations over everyday people.
Paré sits on the Energy Committee, but has used her position to side with Duke Energy rather than working families. While electricity bills have jumped nearly 30%, Paré took thousands of dollars from Duke Energy’s corporate PAC and then voted to allow Duke to raise rates even further across the state for North Carolina families.
What’s more, Paré has taken tens of thousands of dollars from private school special interests, including the founder of a private school, and repeatedly voted to divert millions from public schools to fund vouchers for tuition at unaccountable private schools.
Pare’s vote means that North Carolina’s public schools – already at the bottom of the country in funding – will need to do even more with even less, all while some of North Carolina’s richest families get handouts to send their children to exclusive private schools.
Wake County has a better option. This year, Erin Paré is running for reelection against Democrat Winn Decker. Decker, the son of two public school teachers, has spent his career focused on strengthening public schools for everyone. In the state House, Decker would be committed to lowering everyday prices for working families, keeping our communities safe, and ensuring our workforce is ready for a changing economy.
