Bowline, Andy

Meet the Candidate

Party Legend

  • DDemocrat
  • GGreen
  • LLibertarian
  • RRepublican
  • UUnaffiliated

Running For:
NC Senate
District:
31
Political Affiliation:
D
Candidate Website:
https://andycantwin.com

Survey

Response Legend

  • YYes
  • NNo
  • UUndecided
  • WView Candidate Comments
  • −No response given by candidate
  • *Comment provided, see Candidate page

Question Response Comments/Notes
1. Should North Carolina parents who choose to educate their children in a non-public school be eligible to receive a state-funded scholarship grant to assist with the cost of tuition and fees? N* I'm a public school parent in Forsyth County. These grants now go to families at any income level, to schools with no testing requirements, no open enrollment, and no obligation to accept your kid. If we're spending tax dollars on education, taxpayers deserve to know what they're buying. Right now we don't.
2. Should the N.C. General Assembly authorize non-tribal commercial gambling casinos in North Carolina? N* When casino legalization was pushed in 2023, it wasn't debated openly... it was slipped into budget negotiations behind closed doors, written for specific developers, and only stopped because voters in both parties pushed back. I don't think we should build an economy on people's losses, and I really don't think we should do it in secret.
3. Should abortion be prohibited in North Carolina once a fetal heartbeat is detected? N* A six-week ban is a ban before most women know they're pregnant. I don't believe legislators in Raleigh should be making medical decisions for families they've never met... and I've seen through my own work how these laws play out: they don't reach the powerful, they reach women without money, without transportation, without options. Whatever your personal convictions, that's not a job for the state.
4. Should North Carolina voters be required to show a photo ID in order to vote in North Carolina? Y* Voters put this in our constitution and it's the law. What I care about is that it works the way supporters promised it would: free IDs that are genuinely easy to get, clear training on the exception process, and no one eligible turned away over paperwork. If the rules ever get used to make voting harder instead of verifying voters, I'm against it.
5. Should the N.C. General Assembly legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes? Y* This is a medical decision that belongs between patients and their doctors: for cancer patients, veterans with PTSD, people in chronic pain. The NC Senate has already passed this with votes from both parties. A tightly regulated, physician-supervised program is overdue, and it shouldn't keep dying in the legislature while people suffer.
6. Should state nondiscrimination laws include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" as protected classifications? Y* If you work hard and pay your rent, you shouldn't lose your job or your apartment over who you are. Most of North Carolina's biggest employers already have these policies because it's good business and basic decency. State law should catch up with where most North Carolinians already are.
7. Should biological male students who identify as female be allowed to participate on female sports teams? Y* I'll be honest that this one isn't simple for me. I understand the concern; I share some of it. But we're talking about a handful of kids statewide, and the NCHSAA was handling those cases one at a time before the legislature took over. The law we have now can only be enforced by letting someone question whether a girl is really a girl... and nobody is doing a gender check on my daughter before she competes. I'm not willing to villainize a few kids to solve a problem this rare. Case by case, with the athletic association. And the General Assembly can get back to teacher pay.
8. Should organizations that provide abortions be allowed to receive state funds? Y* Let's be precise about what this funds, because the law already prohibits state dollars from paying for abortion itself. What this money actually buys is cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing, and well-woman visits... often in counties where these clinics are the only affordable option. Defunding them doesn't stop a single abortion. It stops a mammogram referral for a waitress in rural NC who has no other clinic. Abortion is healthcare, these organizations provide healthcare, and cutting off the rest of it to make a point hurts real people.
9. Should North Carolina law allow a medical professional to assist another person in ending their life? Y* For terminally ill adults, with the safeguards every state that allows this uses: a terminal diagnosis confirmed by two physicians, repeated requests over time, mental competence, and the patient acting for themselves. This is the law in ten-plus states and it isn't abused; most people who get the prescription never use it... what they get is peace. Whether someone meets their end with hospice, with their faith, or with this option should be decided on their own, by that family and their doctor... not by the General Assembly.
10. Should a health care practitioner, who is present at the time a child is born alive after a failed abortion attempt, be required by state law to exercise the same degree of skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of that child as would be expected for any other child born alive at the same gestational age? Y* This is already the law. Harming any newborn is homicide in North Carolina, federal law recognizes every child born alive as a full legal person, and medical ethics require appropriate care for every patient. That's precisely why the legislation behind this question was unnecessary: it mandated what's already mandatory, in order to imply that doctors are doing something they aren't. The scenario it describes is vanishingly rare, and when families do face it (usually a fatal diagnosis and a baby who will live minutes) the question isn't whether care is given, it's whether that care is aggressive intervention or comfort in a parent's arms. That decision belongs to the family and their doctors. Not to a statute written for a press release.
11. Should North Carolina public schools be required to allow students to voluntarily participate in “released time” religious instruction during school hours—provided that it takes place off-campus, with parental consent, and at no cost to the public school unit? N* But not for the reason you might think. Released time is already legal in North Carolina, and school districts can adopt it right now if their communities want it. My kids' faith formation is my family's job, and I'd defend any family's right to the same. The question is whether Raleigh should mandate this for every district in the state... overriding local school boards, who somehow need a state law to manage their own bell schedules. I trust the parents and elected boards of Forsyth and Stokes counties to make this call. Legislators who say they believe in local control should too.
12. Should N.C. law (G.S. §90-21.5) continue to allow minors to consent to the treatment of venereal disease or other reportable communicable diseases, pregnancy (not including abortion), abuse of controlled substances or alcohol, and emotional disturbance, without parental consent? Y* As a dad, I want my kids to tell me everything and we work hard at being the kind of family where they can. But the law has to account for the kid who can't. This statute has been on the books for fifty years because the alternative is teenagers hiding infections until they spread, hiding pregnancies until there's no prenatal care, hiding addiction until it's an overdose. And sometimes, in the abuse cases, the parent is the reason the kid needs help. I'd rather every teenager in North Carolina get treated and then, hopefully, talk to their parents... than stay sick to stay hidden. This law doesn't replace parents, it just catches the kids who fall through.
13. Should churches and other qualified religious organizations continue to receive tax-exempt status? Y* Churches in Forsyth and Stokes counties feed people, run preschools and food pantries, host recovery meetings, and hold communities together in ways government never could. The tax exemption for religious and charitable organizations is older than the country and it's not going anywhere. This isn't a hard question.
14. Should a person’s religious beliefs influence the decisions they make while serving in public office? Y* Nobody serves in office with their conscience switched off, and I wouldn't trust anyone who claimed to. My values shape how I see every issue in this questionnaire. But the oath is to the Constitution, which protects my neighbor's conscience exactly as much as mine. So my convictions can tell me to feed the hungry, protect the vulnerable, tell the truth. What they can't do is become a statute requiring my neighbors to live by my beliefs. Guide the person, yes. Govern the neighbor, no.
15. Should the number of terms a state legislator may serve in the North Carolina General Assembly be limited? Y* The Founders assumed elections would be the term limit, but that only works when elections are competitive, and most legislative seats in North Carolina are drawn so they aren't. When the general election is decided the day the maps are signed, incumbency becomes a tenure system. The same leadership has run the General Assembly for well over a decade, and the longer power sits, the more it serves itself. I won't pretend to know the perfect number of terms... reasonable people can land different places. But "unlimited" is the wrong answer, and I say that as someone asking for the job.