Editorial Board
Republican Representative Dennis Riddell has served seven years in the 64th district seat in the North Carolina House. During his time in the Alamance County seat, Riddell has supported extreme policies, including voting in favor of Duke Energy’s increase on North Carolina residents’ power bills, eroding gun safety measures, and the NCGOP’s private school voucher program.
In the latest legislative session, Riddell voted against a proposed amendment to the state budget, which would have raised the minimum wage in North Carolina. Riddell also voted against a different amendment that would have established a universal free lunch system for North Carolina’s public school students.
On top of denying public school students a universal free lunch this legislative session, in 2023, Riddell was part of the GOP majority that voted to put more than $300 million into the private school voucher program.
According to a 2023 analysis from the Governor’s Office, the expansion of the private school vouchers would divert $4 billion in taxpayer money over the next ten years to pay for wealthy people to send their kids to unregulated and unaccountable private schools.
The following year, Riddell voted in favor of overriding Governor Stein’s veto of House Bill 10, an omnibus bill that featured a measure to funnel crucial public school funding to partially pay for private school fees and tuition. Riddell’s vote cost his district’s public schools, covering part of Alamance County, over 4 million dollars in funding.
Supporting Big Corporations
As the cost of living and electricity bills continue to hurt North Carolinians’ wallets, Riddell has voted to support big corporations like Duke Energy.
During the 2025 legislative session, Riddell voted in favor of overriding Governor Stein’s veto of Senate Bill 266, a bill supported by Duke Energy that gave the corporation legal permission to raise North Carolina residents’ power bills higher than ever to support new electricity demand and data centers.
According to an analysis from the Environmental Defense Fund, Senate Bill 266 shifted $87 million in annual payments from the state’s commercial and industrial customers to residential customers.
While North Carolinians are being forced to pay a higher electricity bill, Riddell’s campaign profits from his ties to the big corporate polluter.
Since 2016, Riddell’s campaign has received $20,000 in total from Duke Energy Corporation PAC. In January, Riddell’s campaign received $1,000 from Duke Energy Corporation PAC. The donation came during a time in which Duke Energy was under scrutiny for introducing increased rates on customers.
Riddell also voted in favor of House Bill 402, a harmful piece of legislation that halts environmental rulemaking, including putting limits on toxic PFAS and cancer-causing pollution of North Carolina’s drinking water sources.
“Lawmakers who passed this bill did not have the best interests of North Carolinians at heart,” stated Mary Maclean Asbill, director of the North Carolina Offices at the Southern Environmental Law Center, following state Republicans’ veto override of HB 402. “This new law marks an awful turning point for families and communities across North Carolina when elected officials in the state legislature ignore serious illnesses and deaths in favor of polluters’ profits.”
Riddle was also a sponsor of the bill that advocates say will remove safeguards and put communities at risk.
“This law will likely increase customer bills that North Carolinians pay monopoly Duke Energy, costing North Carolina $23 billion in additional electricity bill payments over the next few decades, and all but guaranteeing a more polluted and riskier future,” stated Asbill.
Alamance County Needs A New Leader
Since he’s held the seat, Riddell has sided with big corporations and his extreme Republican colleagues, rather than voting in the interests of families, students, and working Alamance residents.
In November, residents will have a chance to bring a new face to House District 64.
For the NC House District 64 seat, Riddell is facing off against Democratic candidate LeVon Barnes. Barnes is a public school teacher and coach who is running to make Alamance County affordable and ensure better futures for all who live in the local communities.
Barnes is campaigning to increase teacher pay, stop the voucher schemes that drain public dollars from local schools, secure disaster-recovery funds to rebuild roads and homes, and hold Duke Energy accountable for utility rate increases.
