Have you been hearing all the chatter about North Carolina’s 2022 midterm elections?

If not, we’ll give you a few buzz words to summarize:

Gerrymandered. Ambiguous. Voting Maps.

Long story short, there’s still much that can change between now and the primary elections (originally scheduled for March, moved to May by the NC Supreme Court, with subsequent legislation that could push the races into June).

Late last year, long time Democratic congressman David Price announced he would be retiring at the end of his term, leaving the newly drawn 6th Congressional District (and Democratic safe haven) up for grabs. Not surprisingly, Price’s announcement produced a rush of candidates eager to fill the void. While voters could still see a change to voting districts once the NC Supreme Court weighs the issue, there’s one candidate who plans to represent Cary voters in the US House of Representatives, no matter how the maps are drawn. Senator Wiley Nickel (D-District 16) has represented Wake County voters in the NC General Assembly since winning his first term in 2018, but if he wins the primary and general elections in this year’s US Congressional race, he’ll have a new office address in the nation’s capital.

As the local source for Cary news, The Pāpur invited Senator Nickel (also a Cary resident) to answer our questions, and provide our readers with a better understanding of the person behind the campaign signs you’ll see mixed among others throughout the year.

Born to a family of farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, Nickel has called many places home. His mother was a television news reporter, which resulted in moves to various media markets from Bakersfield to Ft. Worth, Nashville, Shreveport and Chicago. Following high school in Chicago, Nickel attended Tulane University in New Orleans before earning his law degree at California’s Pepperdine University.

Wiley met his future wife Caroline, a UNC-Chapel Hill biology major from Cary, NC, while the two were studying abroad in London. After graduating from UNC, Caroline moved to California, where she also studied law at Pepperdine.

Not too long after law school, armed with extensive experience working on political campaigns including Al Gore’s, Nickel took his first shot at elected office in 2006, running in California’s 12th State Senate district. While he would go on to lose that race to incumbent Republican Jeff Denham, we wanted to know what lessons he took from the defeat. Nickel says, “The biggest thing I took away from that, and learned, is that I really just needed to be genuine and authentic. Be myself…ignoring consultants who want you to be someone else.”

He transitioned from talking about his campaign loss, to highlighting his work with President Obama, where Nickel was an advanced staffer, noting that Obama was the same person on and off camera, and feels that’s what really resonated with voters. Nickel says he was able to take those lessons and turn them into State Senate victories in 2018 and 2020.

Wiley and Caroline decided to settle down, moving back to Caroline’s hometown of Cary in 2009, where they’ve been able to grow a family and pursue their respective law careers. Wiley a criminal defense attorney, and Caroline practicing real estate law.

Years after the 2006 campaign, vowing that he was done running for public office, what motivated Nickel to run again in 2018 ?

Easy question.

Donald J. Trump.

“When Trump won, that was really the decision point for me.” Nickel was pissing off everyone around him, complaining to friends, family, and anyone who would listen. He says it was a speech by President Obama at the end of his term, that really inspired him to stop complaining, and take action. “President Obama said, if you’re upset, grab a clipboard and start organizing…”

How does Senator Nickel feel about the current state of democracy in the wake of Trump’s term in office? We asked if its hyperbolic to suggest US democracy teeters on a knife’s edge? “No, no, this is a really dangerous time for American democracy, and this great experiment we have in self governance could very quickly come to an end if we continue in this direction…and I think there’s more on the line now, than there’s ever been.”

While most of Nickel’s policies won’t surprise those familiar with the Democratic platform, we spent a fair amount of time discussing good governance and coalition building, rather than splitting the proverbial, legislative hairs. Voicing his frustrations with Republican policy obstruction and a lack of serious alternative solutions, Nickel says he’s looking forward to sharing his message with voters, focusing on the important issues, and giving people a reason to get out the vote.

This past week, Democrats renewed their efforts to pass President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation after negotiations broke down with Senator Joe Manchin over its size and scope. Since this legislation has bubbled back to the surface, and intersects with Senator Nickel’s campaign for Congress, we requested a statement from his campaign:

"The policies proposed in the Build Back Better bill are tremendously popular among the American people, and would greatly benefit working North Carolina families. Build Back Better includes expanding Medicare to include vision, dental, and hearing. Build Back Better includes universal Pre-K. Build Back Better includes paid family leave. Build Back Better includes clean energy incentives. It includes tax breaks for middle-class families. There are a ton of bipartisan initiatives in this bill - things that people of both parties support.

We keep talking about the labor market and inflation - but the reality is that Build Back Better will help that. Give thousands of working parents universal childcare, and watch how many people are able to get back on their feet and back into the job market.

The fact is, we owe it to working families to keep moving forward and pushing for policies that will help people. I think that's incredibly hard in such a polarized environment as Washington, but this is a messaging issue right now. Working families that are worried right now about putting food on the table and making next month's rent need our help and support: that's the bottom line. I'd be supportive of any bill we can get passed that helps them with that."

-NC State Senator Wiley Nickel

Post Script

Senator Nickel met with us a few days after doing a local television news interview, that lasted 10-15 minutes. The Pāpur is admittedly a much smaller media publication, with a much smaller audience. That said, Nickel spent more than an hour fielding our questions and never seemed concerned about heading towards the door. While we don’t consider this an endorsement of Senator Nickel’s campaign, we feel comfortable publishing this article with its positive takeaways. As fellow members of the community, constituents of Nickel’s current office and the one he hopes to win, we invited him to an interview with no expectations or agreements. If the meeting had gone off the rails, that’s what we would tell you. We’re not afraid to call it like we see it. In this case, we met a candidate who was serious, thoughtful, and willing to engage.

Fore more information about Senator Wiley Nickel’s campaign for US Congress, you can visit his website here: Wiley Nickel for Congress