A North Carolina resident for 40 years and longtime community volunteer, Matt has organized charitable events, coached high school football, served as an assistant judge with the Moore County Board of Elections, and currently volunteers with the Moore Buddies mentoring program while supporting local projects through his woodworking.

Matthew Holway for NC House 78

Matt Holway has organized charitable events, coached high school football, and served as an assistant judge with the Moore County Board of Elections. He currently volunteers with the Moore Buddies mentoring program and supports local projects through woodworking.

Matt Holway has experience as an assistant judge with the Moore County Board of Elections.

2026 North Carolina General Election

Additionally, we should be making childcare accessible and affordable. We have a shortage of childcare options in our area--a waiting list of over 300 kids at one facility alone! Plus, parents should not have to choose between quality childcare and paying their rent, mortgage, or utility bill. Helpful measures may include, but are not limited to, tax incentives for those providing certified childcare services, tax incentives for companies that provide childcare benefits, and programs to provide need based childcare funding.

Parental Rights

Corporate buyouts of farms are bad for families with a deep tie to the land, and bad for the land itself and the products produced on that land (animal or vegetable) because of their typical practices (think monoculture).

Farms

We can pass targeted agriculture legislation to expand small-farm grants, and extend conservation tax credits.

Proposes tax incentives for certified childcare providers and employers offering childcare benefits, as well as need-based childcare funding.

Opposes corporate buyouts of farms and proposes expanding small-farm grants and conservation tax credits.

- Proposes tax incentives for certified childcare providers and employers offering childcare benefits, as well as need-based childcare funding.
- Opposes corporate buyouts of farms and proposes expanding small-farm grants and conservation tax credits.

Economy

Our Need: Ensure that the state agencies responsible for stewarding our natural resources and public areas are sufficiently supported and funded so they can protect us from data centers.

Data Centers & the Environment

We need to control irresponsible and backroom deals that allow profit-only considerations for development for things such as building expansions that destroy clean air or precious wetland ecosystems, or the immediate and likely permanent threat from data centers.

Advocates funding state natural-resource agencies and regulating development deals to protect air quality, wetlands, and public areas from data-center impacts.

- Advocates funding state natural-resource agencies and regulating development deals to protect air quality, wetlands, and public areas from data-center impacts.

Energy & the Environment

We should all have access to affordable health care, regardless of what we do, where we live, what we look like. Priorities for government spending need to encompass supporting The Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare, and accessible care even in rural areas.

Health Care

TWO—Limiting access to healthcare and keeping women from having control of their own bodies is demeaning, unjustified, and creates a separate class of citizenship that interferes with mental and physical health. Medical care and mental health decisions should be made by a person in relationship with those providing their care—insurance companies and the government should not be involved.

No government agency or insurance company should be telling parents what medical treatments their children should have access to. Medical and mental health understanding are evolving as the result of scientific study and families should have confidential relationships with experts who can direct them to help for their concerns.

Supports affordable healthcare, including the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare, and access to care in rural areas.

Opposes government and insurance-company involvement in patients' medical and mental-health decisions, including decisions about women's healthcare.

Opposes government agencies and insurance companies determining children's access to medical treatment.

- Supports affordable healthcare, including the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare, and access to care in rural areas.
- Opposes government and insurance-company involvement in patients' medical and mental-health decisions, including decisions about women's healthcare.
- Opposes government agencies and insurance companies determining children's access to medical treatment.

Healthcare

Arguments to get rid of Sunday voting are not rooted in religious fervor and a "need" to respect a sabbath. They are rooted in curtailing the votes of African Americans who traditionally do an excellent job of getting out the vote after Sunday church services, the "Souls to the Polls" effort.

Voting Access

Our Need: Every citizen of voting age has the right to and should be given the opportunity to vote. We are currently watching those in power try to dismantle our system by attacking voting rights.

We have to fight against messing around with mail-in voting (hurting especially those who have trouble with in-person voting like elderly, disabled, and folks without cars because we don’t have affordable public transportation from homes to most polling sites), and reducing the time available for early voting (hurting many working people), and demanding changing identification (meant to keep away anyone without certain kinds of connections or funds).

Municipal-level elections--those of town councils, school boards, etc.--have traditionally been nonpartisan throughout the U.S. Why the sudden push from higher levels of government to force local politics into partisan affiliations? Neal Jackson led this push, while I find it appalling.

Gerrymandering—redrawing districts and political boundaries to benefit incumbent politicians—is out of control. I don’t want to have a gerrymandered district where I got to pick the voters who are just like me. I want the voters to choose me because they’ve told me what they need and they can count on me to listen to them and work for that.

Government Priorities

And what's with the state stepping in to tell municipalities—formally and legally recognized entities by definition—how they should be run? My opponent has a long history of stepping on local municipalities and advancing a MAGA agenda of taking over the system rather than responding to the people who live here. That's bass-ackwards—communities should never be serving political agendas or the power brokers, but the other way around!

Opposes eliminating Sunday voting, which he says would curtail African American turnout through the Souls to the Polls effort.

Opposes eliminating Sunday voting, which he says would curtail African American turnout.

Supports voting access for every voting-age citizen and opposes restrictions on mail voting, early voting, and voter identification requirements.

Opposes requiring partisan affiliations in municipal elections.

Opposes gerrymandering and supports local communities making decisions rather than serving political agendas.

- Opposes eliminating Sunday voting, which he says would curtail African American turnout.
- Supports voting access for every voting-age citizen and opposes restrictions on mail voting, early voting, and voter identification requirements.
- Opposes requiring partisan affiliations in municipal elections.
- Opposes gerrymandering and supports local communities making decisions rather than serving political agendas.

Voting & Elections

I believe NC needs to demand minimum training standards, properly marked vehicles, unmasked officers, and visible personal ID for every type of law enforcement operating in our boundaries.

Human Rights

Filing charges, obtaining warrants, and making arrests for serious crimes are appropriate; the detention of people based on who they appear to be, even when they are clearly small children incapable of serious crimes, is immoral.

Our Need: Gun ownership is a right and responsible ownership is a must.

Gun Ownership

The Constitution allows all US citizens the right to bear arms, and the huge majority of Americans are smart enough to know that sensible regulations are in all our best interests. Acting as though there is no impact letting people buy guns on the spur of the moment, or making it easier for teens, those with certain mental illness, or domestic abusers to have guns, is just deciding gun manufactures have more right to make big(ger) profits than we have a right to safety.

We need to appoint/approve and elect judges that will hold all people accountable according to the law, not according to their financial power, and make sure the state legislature upholds the constitution. A one-party court will not do that—it does not reflect balance.

Courts

We also need to make sure that civil legal aid for people does not disappear! The Constitution mandates legal aid be available for criminal cases, and for 40 years we had a functioning system in NC (that did NOT rely on taxpayer money!) for civil cases, and the Republicans in NC have killed it.

Calls for privacy standards and rules before surveillance cameras are activated, and for deactivating Flock cameras until laws governing their use and data collection are established.

Our Need: We must assure our 4th Amendment right to privacy by establishing standards and rules BEFORE we activate any surveillance cameras. This will not hamper law enforcement —we still have all the standard strengths of our police and law enforcement groups to catch criminals, as they always have.

Flock Cameras

Out of an abundance of caution, flock cameras should be removed/deactivated until laws governing their use and the data they collect are fully fleshed out. We are not hampering law enforcement with such a move—we still have all the standard strengths of our police and law enforcements to catch criminals, as they always have.

Calls for statewide minimum training standards, marked vehicles, unmasked officers, and visible identification for all law-enforcement personnel.

Opposes detention based on appearance and supports charges, warrants, and arrests for serious crimes.

Supports gun ownership and what he describes as sensible gun regulations to promote public safety.

Supports judges who hold people accountable regardless of financial power, as well as maintaining civil legal aid.

- Calls for statewide minimum training standards, marked vehicles, unmasked officers, and visible identification for all law-enforcement personnel.
- Opposes detention based on appearance and supports charges, warrants, and arrests for serious crimes.
- Supports gun ownership and what he describes as sensible gun regulations to promote public safety.
- Supports judges who hold people accountable regardless of financial power, as well as maintaining civil legal aid.

Public Safety

Our Need: Ensure that our schools are properly funded, and that tax money designated for our public schools goes to our public schools.

Schools

ONE—We can’t continue to short-shrift our children and our own success by taking money away from public schools, and that means from our kids. NC used to spend an average amount of money per child on education; with Neal Jackson in office, our state has pulled so much money away from education that we now rank dead last in the country on what we spend per child, less than half as much as top spenders.

TWO—Public tax money needs to go to public schools. Neal Jackson, the incumbent, sponsored the decision to take public money designated for public schools—$1.1 BILLION over 8 years—and re-direct it for private school vouchers, what they call "Opportunity scholarships."

Understand that the vouchers have no “guardrails”: the people who can already afford private school get vouchers which send money to those rich schools, while the rest of us don’t get enough from a school voucher to begin to pay for a private school, so who benefits there? Where's the opportunity? Our public schools get screwed, making the gap bigger. In fact, vouchers do NOT increase parental choice, just exacerbate the difference between the Haves and the HaveNots.

No government—local, state, or federal—should be deciding what books their children can read. Think about it: when is the last time in history that it was The Good Guys banning books? Certainly I wouldn't hand War and Peace to an elementary school child (even ones as bright as mine were), and I wouldn't direct them to the racy-sounding passages in the Old Testament. That doesn't mean those books should be banned from school shelves--they have legitimate uses and places in literature, study, and so forth.

Material appropriate for a child is directed by parents, in concert with trusted teachers and librarians (which is why schools encourage parents to know those people). Frightened people who've "heard things" about a book should not have more of a say than you, the parent! Leave books on shelves for others who may need them, and have discussions within your family about what your children are interested in--parents and children will be closer as a result.

Supports fully funding public schools and ensuring that tax money designated for them is used for that purpose.

Opposes using public-school funding for private-school vouchers, which he says worsen economic disparities and do not increase parental choice.

Opposes government restrictions on books children can read and supports parents working with teachers and librarians on age-appropriate materials.

- Supports fully funding public schools and ensuring that tax money designated for them is used for that purpose.
- Opposes using public-school funding for private-school vouchers, which he says worsen economic disparities and do not increase parental choice.
- Opposes government restrictions on books children can read and supports parents working with teachers and librarians on age-appropriate materials.

Education

We can help farmers reduce their expenses by letting Washington know that unwarranted wars resulting in fuel and fertilizer shortages are unacceptable. We can help with labor shortages by allowing hard-working undocumented workers to stay in the country while their documents are being processed.

Further, North Carolina needs to pass laws to enforce that ICE completely stops sending people to concentrations camps—and what else can you call substandard warehousing of humans who are detained without legal representation or due process? That is unconstitutional incarceration.

Supports allowing undocumented workers to remain in the country while their documentation is processed to help address labor shortages.

Calls for North Carolina laws to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement transfers to detention facilities he says deny legal representation and due process.

- Supports allowing undocumented workers to remain in the country while their documentation is processed to help address labor shortages.
- Calls for North Carolina laws to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement transfers to detention facilities he says deny legal representation and due process.

Foreign Policy and Immigration

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Matt Holway

- Supports voting access for every voting-age citizen and opposes restrictions on mail voting, early voting, and voter identification requirements.
- Opposes requiring partisan affiliations in municipal elections.
- Opposes gerrymandering and supports local communities making decisions rather than serving political agendas.

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Isaac Brickman

Walter Ley

Neal Jackson

- Your State Representative participates in the legislative process at the state level. They are one of 129 members of the North Carolina House of Representatives. The North Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the North Carolina General Assembly (the state's lawmaking body).
- Your State Representative drafts laws, approves budgets, has oversight of the state executive branch, and debates and votes on proposed laws.
- In addition to drafting and voting on bills, your State Representative can serve on committees. This is important because many bills can be stalled in committee, preventing them making it to a vote.
- Your State Representative is responsible for representing your interests. They also are responsible for helping you navigate the state's services and bringing back resources to your district.
- State Representatives are elected to a 2-year term. There is no term limit.

Your representative and state lawmaker in North Carolina House of Representatives.