Adopted in Convention May 31, 2003

Preamble

1. We, the members of the North Carolina Republican Party, proclaim that our Party represents the views and values of the majority of North Carolinians.

2. The North Carolina Republican Party believes in the power and freedom of individuals, and we oppose all efforts to replace that power with undue governmental control.

3. Our nation was founded on faith in God, in family, in country, and in freedom for all. We believe that all efforts to modify or replace these core values erode the foundations of our society for future generations.

4. The United States is a democratic republic governed by elected representatives charged with honoring the original meaning and authority of the U.S. Constitution, and with protecting the inalienable rights of the American people as stated in the Bill of Rights.

5. The Republican Party is strong, principled and conservative, as defined in this, our Party platform, and we believe it is the party that should lead the state of North Carolina. We want to represent every facet of American society, not by patronage but by principle, and not by dividing interests but by serving the good of all.

6. Membership in the North Carolina Republican Party is open to all citizens residing in our state who share the values and beliefs expressed in this document. We believe that the Republican Party can lead by bringing North Carolinians together.

7. We believe that the promise of America is as true today as ever, and we recognize a duty to reach out and include all who share our values and convictions, making a special effort to welcome and involve those from groups not traditionally associated with our Party.

Article I: Family

1. We believe that our nation’s strength lies with the family. The family is where each new generation gains its moral anchor. It is the first school of good citizenship, the engine of economic progress, and a haven of security and understanding in an ever-changing world.

2. Republicans believe that a two-parent family, where a husband and wife live in harmony in one home, provides the ideal environment for raising children and is the best model for family life. We praise the courageous efforts of single parents who work hard to provide stable homes, and we recognize that single parents often succeed and two-parent families sometimes fail. We, therefore, oppose efforts to redefine the traditional family structure and offer the Republican Party as a refuge for everyone concerned about the breakdown of family life in America.

3. We believe that homosexuality is not normal and should not be established as an acceptable "alternative" lifestyle either in public education or in public policy. We do not believe public schools should be used to teach children that homosexuality is normal, and we do not believe that taxpayers should fund benefit plans for unmarried partners. We oppose special treatment by law based on nothing other than homosexual behavior or identity. We therefore oppose actions, such as “marriage” or the adoption of children by same-sex couples, which attempt to legitimize and normalize homosexual relationships. We support the Defense of Marriage Act. We also stand united with private organizations, such as the Boy Scouts, who defend moral decency and freedom according to their own long-held and well-established traditions and beliefs.

4. Today many children do not live in loving families free of abuse or neglect, and this must change. Government cannot legislate family love and compassion and should not preempt parental responsibility for children; however, parents should not abuse or neglect children and we support laws that balance parental rights with the protection of a child’s life, safety, and well-being. We support efforts to hasten and improve the adoption of foster children into permanent, safe, and nurturing homes. We also urge strong support for religious and community-based initiatives in the private sector that seek to promote healthy, nurturing families or that work to restore and rebuild dysfunctional families.

Article II: Economic Policy

1. The North Carolina Republican Party believes that the private enterprise system is both the most effective and most just economic system known to man. Economic freedom is essential to human liberty, and denying economic freedom goes against individual human dignity as well as the general social economic welfare.

2. Government ought to provide an unencumbered environment for individual initiative and private enterprise that creates jobs and raises personal income. Government regulation and taxation reduce and redistribute income rather than create it. We therefore support efforts to benefit all by rolling back the welfare state and removing the burden of excessive taxation. We also oppose needless bureaucratic rules and regulations that burden private enterprise and hamper economic growth.

3. Jobs and personal income both grow with expanding capital and never grow without it. Taxing capital gains takes away better job opportunities and better pay from working families. Therefore, we urge the elimination of the capital gains tax.

4. We support repeal of all laws that place an unfair tax burden on families. We urge Congress to make immediate and permanent all tax changes implemented in 2001 and 2003, including removing the marriage penalty and the death tax and maximizing the child tax credit.

5. We believe that the hard-working citizens of North Carolina pay taxes to local, state, and federal governments that exceed what is necessary or just. Currently we have the second-highest tax burden in the southeastern United States. We support any and all efforts to relieve this excessive tax burden, and we strongly endorse the principles contained within the Taxpayer Protection Act.

6. The best way to promote economic growth is to reduce the overall tax burden on North Carolina's businesses and individuals. It is unfair to recruit out-of-state business with tax incentives when North Carolina-owned businesses must bear the burden of full taxation.

7. When economic times are hard, government must, like private citizens, tighten its belt. Pork barrel spending is never right, and raising taxes to provide preferential treatment for some over others is especially repulsive when citizens are struggling to make ends meet during times of economic recession.

Article Ill: Individual Liberty

1. The Republican Party of North Carolina supports and believes the vision for America established by our nation's founders — the authors of the Declaration of Independence, the U. S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

2. Our forefathers gave individuals four ways to protect themselves against the power of the state: (1) the soapbox (freedom of speech); (2) the ballot box (the right to vote); (3) the jury box (trial by peers); and (4) the cartridge box (right to bear arms). The Republican Party stands against efforts to erode these methods of self-determination.

3. We urge both the U.S. Congress and the N.C. General Assembly to pass legislation ending the ever-increasing, incessant, and calculated collection and dissemination of personal information on law-abiding citizens. We believe cataloging and cross-indexing personal information such as fingerprints, Social Security numbers, and financial credit by agencies of government and businesses — completely unrelated to criminal activity — is contrary and destructive to our individual and collective freedom and privacy.

4. We believe that the state must not control or interfere with our freedom of religion and the voluntary expression thereof. We oppose efforts to remove every mention of God from our schools and from our Pledge of Allegiance. We oppose efforts of state-funded colleges and universities to discriminate for or against any religion; and we believe publicly funded universities should not promote any religion through required reading assignments or courses.

5. Individual liberty and redistribution of wealth by coercion of law are simply not compatible, and we oppose restricting the former for the sake of the latter.

6. Republicans believe in equal opportunity and impartial treatment before the law regardless of wealth, social status, race, or gender. We believe that government must vigorously enforce individual civil rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and by the Constitution of the State of North Carolina.

7. Government should treat all citizens fairly and should assure equal opportunity for all without regard to race, religion, gender, or national origin. We oppose all forms of invidious discrimination. We also oppose efforts to include sexual orientation as a category for preferential treatment status under civil rights statutes at any level of government.

8. We are committed always to be a conservative voice for citizens who want to guard the rights, liberties, and values upon which this great nation was founded.

9. We strongly support the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees the right of free and law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. We oppose any government effort to restrict the ownership, sale, purchase and “lawful carry” of firearms by law-abiding citizens.

Article IV: Sanctity of Life

1. The North Carolina Republican Party believes strongly in the sanctity of all human life.

2. We believe that unborn children have constitutional rights to life and liberty and therefore urge the Supreme Court to overturn its decision on Roe vs. Wade. We also support the adoption of a constitutional amendment establishing that human life begins at conception. We stand with the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose efforts to mandate legalized abortion or to fund local, national, or international organizations that provide or promote abortion services. We also oppose the idea that abortion is ever an acceptable method of birth control.

3. We oppose the heinous procedure known as “partial-birth abortion,” and urge the North Carolina General Assembly to pass legislation prohibiting this procedure. Furthermore, we urge members of the Republican Party of North Carolina to support financially, or with in-kind contributions, only those candidates or nominees who support measures to end so-called "partial-birth abortions."

4. We support and strongly encourage positive alternatives to abortion, such as adoption. We believe that biases against intact, caring families should be eliminated from adoption laws and tax codes. We believe that adoption should be encouraged through significant tax credits, insurance reforms and legal reforms.

5. We oppose the erosion of parental rights and responsibilities by agents of the state when it comes to pregnant minors still legally dependent on their parents. Informed consent and parental consent should be prerequisite to any minor receiving family-planning services.

6. We support all developments in biomedical research and technology that enhance and protect human life. But we oppose any new development that does not treat all human life as a precious gift of God, or that does not treat every individual human life as a locus of unique and irreplaceable dignity no matter how weak, immature, or dependent.

7. We oppose all procedures in research and medicine that involve the intentional destruction of innocent human life except to save a mother’s life. We also oppose the cloning of whole human beings, the use of human embryos in research for purposes other than advancing their own health and safety, as well as all forms of active euthanasia.

8. We urge the recruitment and support of candidates who will work hard to protect all innocent human life.

Article V: State Government

1. The North Carolina Republican Party encourages our state legislature to be efficient, effective, and responsive to the people in keeping with the spirit of self-government by a citizen legislature. The General Assembly should be a part-time citizen legislature and should not become a year-round preserve for fulltime professional politicians.

2. Legislative session limits must be accompanied by measures to ensure that all policy decisions are made by elected legislators and are never made by unelected state employees or legislative staff.

3. Government should encourage citizens to pursue happiness through honest, hard work and should not be in the business of subverting the rewards of honest labor. Therefore, we oppose any expansion of legally sanctioned gambling, including a state lottery.

4. We believe that a state lottery turns government into a bookie, succeeds only on the basis of false advertising, capitalizes on broken dreams and personal irresponsibility, and places the burden of taxation most heavily on those who are least able to afford it. Our state collects more than enough money from its citizens and has no warrant to even consider state-supported gambling.

5. We oppose passing unfunded mandates at any level of government. We support needed programs, but we call on government bodies to fully fund all programs they establish or require.

Article VI: Election Laws

1. The ballot box is the only true protection citizens have against tyrannical abuse of power by the state. The Democrat Party has used insidious practices that deny the majority of North Carolinians the honest representation they deserve. Unable to win elections in a fair fight, it has relied upon franked mail, dividing special interests, calling special elections, gerrymandering, and manipulation of voter registration laws.

2. We believe that our laws should do everything possible to protect against voter fraud. In particular, we urge the N.C. General Assembly to pass legislation requiring registered voters to produce government-issued photo identification before voting.

3. Voters should select government officials and government officials should not select voters. We therefore support reasonable, compact, congressional districts and legitimate single-member legislative districts that do not split counties in accordance with the North Carolina State Constitution. When the legislature does not follow state and/or federal law when drawing legislative districts, legal action should be pursued.

4. We recognize the independence of the judicial branch of government, and oppose attempts to breach that independence by plans to appoint state judges rather than elect them. The right to control our state judiciary through regular, direct elections is one of our most valuable rights.

5. We believe that the voters of North Carolina will make the right choice at the ballot box when they have full and timely information on candidates' campaign finances as required in the Full Disclosure Act. Proper reporting, not public funding, is the answer to campaign finance reform.

6. We support the rights of referendum, recall, and initiative whether by statute or constitutional amendment. Current ballot-access laws in North Carolina are meant to limit debate. These laws must be eased to ensure greater citizen participation and influence. The Republican Party is not afraid of the people's voice. We also believe that the public is not well-served by nonpartisan judicial elections. We urge the General Assembly to require the party affiliation of judicial candidates to appear on the ballot.

7. We will follow the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act as the law of the land; however, we feel the law is unconstitutional. We strongly urge Congress to repeal this act that limits free speech and makes lawful campaign finance reporting nearly impossible.

Article VII: Education

1. The Republican Party of North Carolina believes strongly in the value of maintaining a good system of public education. Good public education is impossible unless parents, not the state, have control over where their children will be educated.

2. We believe that education reform must be real and therefore oppose posturing that never achieves results. Choice and competition have served the state well in higher education and we believe choice and competition should be used to improve public education at primary and secondary levels as well. We oppose regulatory attempts to deny learning options for our children. For these reasons, we support tuition tax credits for public, private, or religiously affiliated schools. We support charter schools and we urge the legislature to remove the cap that limits the number of charter schools in North Carolina. We believe parents are the best judges of what kind of schooling is best for their children. If parents desire to educate their children at home, there should not be any additional legal restrictions on their ability to do so.

3. Our current system of top-heavy, bureaucratic, centrally planned public education is failing to ensure the quality of education our children need and deserve. Therefore, consistent with the Tenth Amendment, we support measures that separate North Carolina schools from the federal government. We support keeping all North Carolina education dollars in North Carolina to enhance the quality of public education in our own state — without going to maintain unneeded bureaucrats at the national level.

4. Incremental change of this failing system, augmented by higher taxes, higher spending, and smaller family budgets, while pretending to support reforms, will not meet the needs of North Carolina's future citizens. Unless dramatic improvement of student performance occurs, we will condemn our children to a dark age of low hopes, low dreams, low skills, and low wages.

5. Real education reform means local control of curriculum, budget, textbook selection, and personnel in the public schools. We support zero-based budgeting in all public school districts. We also believe parents must have complete access to all information concerning curriculum and activities used in educating their children, and we believe parents must have access to all materials used for teacher development in the public school system.

6. Real reform must also include defining academic performance standards, cutting administrative waste, and establishing part-time and alternative teacher certification. Our students must have the best possible academic teachers in the classroom, and not just teachers who have teaching degrees. Teachers should be paid, retained, and promoted based on the quality of their work, not on the length of their service; to that end, we support abolition of the Teacher Tenure Act.

7. The students of North Carolina are better served through academic achievement than by the ideological indoctrination inherent in outcome-based education. All children should be able to read and write at grade level and all high school graduates should be proficient at the twelfth grade level rather than at the eighth grade level currently allowed by the state. We believe that the “No Child Left Behind” law has the correct goal of requiring schools to educate all children to grade level. Social promotion should be eliminated because it hurts children by promoting them when they are not ready for the next grade.

8. All schools, including public schools, should encourage patriotism and knowledge of the traditional values of Western civilization upon which our republic is based. We oppose using tax dollars, or fees assessed on students at our public universities, to fund liberal attempts at social engineering contrary to the foundations on which our nation rests. We support daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in our schools, and we believe every classroom should display an American flag and a copy of our national motto — “In God We Trust.”

9. Republicans oppose mandatory sex education in public schools and believe sex education should not be included in any public school program without obtaining prior approval from parents or guardians. Where sex education is included, we support teaching abstinence until marriage as the expected norm for acceptable sexual behavior. National studies have shown that the majority of Americans agree with this approach, and our national experience shows that the practice of abstinence until marriage is the most effective way to prevent teenage pregnancies, absentee fathers, abortion, and sexually transmitted diseases. It is also the most effective way to create healthy relationships and healthy self-esteem among young people.

10. We also oppose the provision of school-based social services, including school-based clinics and mental health programs, which attempt to bypass parental authority and responsibility.

11. Just as discourse on public policy relies on moral principles based on spiritual convictions, so also learning must rely on moral principles supported by our deepest convictions. We believe that America must be neutral toward religion itself. But mindful of our country's Judeo-Christian heritage and rich religious pluralism, we also support the right of students to engage in voluntary prayer in school and the right of others to pray as well at public occasions such as commencement exercises. We also strongly support equal access to school facilities.

12. North Carolina has traditionally provided affordable higher education to its citizens. However, we believe that taxpayers should not be required to fund higher education for illegal immigrants.

Article VIII: Justice

1. One of the first duties of government is maintaining law and order, thereby allowing citizens freedom to pursue the blessings of life and liberty.

2. Law-abiding citizens often live in constant fear of crime in their neighborhoods and schools. By better allocation of resources and tax dollars, the crime rate can be reduced and the state can insure the rights of innocent people and victims, as well as the legitimate rights of the accused. We support the principle of victim’s rights, including restitution and notification.

3. We believe that the death penalty does deter crime. But we also believe crime calls for punishment that is directly proportional to the wrong perpetrated against its victims and against the moral order. Therefore, we believe that the death penalty is the right punishment for premeditated murder, whether or not it serves to deter other criminal acts. We call for legislation to restrict the time and number of endless death sentence appeals that make a mockery of the law.

4. Drug and alcohol abuse are major problems in North Carolina. We support effective educational and treatment programs to address these problems. We call for stiffer punishment for drivers who drive while impaired by drugs or alcohol. We oppose decriminalizing or legalizing drugs that are currently illegal. Drug users must face stiffer penalties for contributing to the demand that makes the drug trade profitable. We applaud new laws that have lengthened prison terms for persons convicted of selling illegal drugs.

5. We are repulsed by the rise of gratuitous violence and pornography in literature, music, and the electronic media. Therefore, we support mandatory labeling on commercial products of this kind, and we oppose using tax dollars to support these offensive materials. We also vigorously endorse constitutional laws to control obscene materials that degrade everyone or exploit anyone — particularly women and children.

6. We endorse new laws that stiffen penalties for abducting, exploiting, or abusing children. We oppose domestic violence and spousal abuse. We support community organizations that work with the justice system to provide efficient and effective solutions for family members facing domestic violence and abuse.

7. We also support the construction of more military-style boot camp prison facilities with less attention to inmate comfort and more direction toward security, labor, and education. Prison labor should be used for construction of the facilities when possible. All inmates should be required to work and pay for their incarceration, including reasonable payment for health and dental care.

8. As more individuals have abandoned responsibility for their children, the cost of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to responsible citizens has increased. We support efforts to force "dead-beat" parents to meet their financial obligations.

9. We support tort reform, including a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering awards; reform in the collateral source rule; limiting fees to attorneys; allowing more of the award for the victim; and structured payments of awards, not a one-time payment.

Article IX: Environment

1. We affirm our continuing commitment to being responsible stewards of our God-given natural heritage that contributes so much to the quality of life in North Carolina. In this spirit, Republicans believe that we all have a duty to protect air quality, water quality, productive forests, and abundant wildlife.

2. In general, we believe that extending and enforcing private property rights protects the environment better than increasing government regulation. To the extent government regulation is needed, it should not proceed without first proving that the ecological benefits of new regulations warrant the cost.

3. When government takes the economic value of property by environmental regulatory action, it should compensate landowners in proportion to their loss. We also recognize that local economies and local levels of government are both adversely affected when land is removed from the local tax base by environmental “set-asides” for conservation or easements.

4. We believe that environmental policy decisions should be based on sound science, not trendy pseudoscience. We should be more concerned with results than intentions, and policy makers should provide flexibility in environmental regulations.

Article X: National Policy

1. We support our President in all phases of the war against terrorism, including preventing rogue nations from having or obtaining weapons of mass destruction. We also support our troops as they fight our enemies. Americans owe our continued freedom and security to the deeds of these brave men and women.

2. The most important responsibility of the federal government assigned in the U.S. Constitution is “to provide a common defense” for the states and the nation. We believe that our borders must be made more secure and opposing “racial profiling” in absolute terms is neither wise nor moral if imposed blindly at the expense of national security. We caution against raising unnecessary alarms, but we also believe it is the duty of every citizen to be wary and to always remain vigilant for the sake of freedom.

3. America's defense must come second to none. The Republican Party of North Carolina opposes any attempts to weaken our national defense. We support efforts to: (1) restore the ban against known homosexuals in the military; (2) prevent women from being assigned to front-line combat roles; (3) restore the American armed forces to full combat readiness; and (4) prohibit deployment of U. S. troops under United Nations or any other foreign command.

4. We believe a “one-world” government and a “one-world” economy are threats to the sovereignty of the United States. Furthermore, we oppose any foreign effort to influence our elections process and our ability to self-govern.

5. We believe American participation in the United Nations, or any other form of international cooperation, must never sacrifice the constitutional sovereignty of the United States. Therefore, we oppose relinquishing U.S. freedom and independence to any organization or agency claiming authority to impose and enforce global regulations or standards upon the United States of America. We believe the United States must act to preserve our national security whether or not our actions are endorsed by the United Nations.

6. The North Carolina Republican Party recognizes the need for legally binding treaties between nations, but we only support treaties that preserve American freedom and independence and are consistent with serving the common good of our people. Therefore, we strongly support efforts by President George W. Bush to revise or withdraw from any treaty that compromises our constitutional sovereignty, that undermines national defense, or that hinders American companies from competing internationally on a free-market basis.

7. As Republicans, we support a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. We support spending cuts and tax reduction as the right means to balance the federal budget and eliminate our national debt.

8. We support requiring individuals to work in return for public assistance. Because citizens who work should be free to spend their money as they see fit, all spending restrictions on workfare workers should be abolished. Advances in technology now make it possible to administer gradual removal of welfare benefits so that one can gain more from working in the private sector than staying in a workfare program. Our nation needs to change from a welfare state to an opportunity society, and we believe that gradual withdrawal is the right approach.

9. We share President George W. Bush’s commitment to keep faith with both the past and the future by saving Social Security. We oppose annual raids on the Social Security trust funds, and we support protecting these funds by balancing the federal budget apart from Social Security reserves, which are all entirely dedicated toward meeting future obligations. We support innovative solutions offered by President George W. Bush that will strengthen Social Security by offering today’s workers more choice and control over their own retirement security, but in ways that do not harm anyone already on Social Security or anyone who is now close to being eligible for Social Security benefits.

10. We believe that all Americans need access to high-quality healthcare at affordable prices with a range of options from which they can choose what is best for their own needs. We also believe that government should do nothing to harm the quality of healthcare in the private sector. Therefore, we support President George W. Bush’s efforts to enhance available healthcare by balancing public policy with private-sector enterprise and personal responsibility. We do not believe that free healthcare should be provided to illegal immigrants.

11. We agree with President Bush that government actions on healthcare must always complement and never supplant the private sector, always support and never hinder individual and family responsibilities, and should always take the least intrusive option. We support medical savings accounts as a good innovation because they combine personal responsibility with access to affordable healthcare.

12. We believe the only honest and correct approach to the interpretation of our constitution and laws requires keeping faith with their original intent. We call on Congress, the President, and the courts to abide by the Tenth Amendment's constraints on federal power, and to oppose and reverse federal encroachments upon all powers and rights the Constitution of the United States has reserved to the states, or to the people.

Conclusion

1. As North Carolina Republicans, we are proud to be citizens of the United States of America — a nation that has become the greatest in history because it is a nation built on the promise of freedom and opportunity for all. We pledge eternal vigilance in guarding the freedoms and opportunities now enjoyed by every citizen of the United States.

2. We open the arms of the North Carolina Republican Party to welcome every citizen who shares the beliefs and values stated in this, our Party platform. We invite all North Carolinians to join the ranks of the Republican Party of North Carolina, a mighty fortress for the conservative values and vision that make us a nation that is good as well as great. We believe that the values of the Republican Party as espoused in this platform embody the American Dream that brought our forefathers to this land, that draws people from all over the world to our shores today, and that is the vision that allows our citizens to continue making the United States of America the best and brightest nation on earth.

3. May we always enjoy the heritage and bounties with which we are now so richly blessed in the state of North Carolina.

2003 Platform Committee

Bob Jackson, District 1

No nominee, District 2

Jim Edsall, District 3

Lorrie Dollar, District 4

Bill Miller, District 5

Earl Payne, District 6

Joyce Fernando, District 7

Bill Babb, District 8

No nominee, District 9

Nancy Meek, District 10

Michelle Cox, District 11

Nancy J. R. Wells, District 12

Tracie Jordan, District 13

Renee Russell, Member at Large

Doug Fincannon, Member at Large, Chairman

Martha Jenkins, Member at Large