Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Debbi Fintak
Debbi Fintak (Democratic Party) ran for election to the North Carolina House of Representatives to represent District 16. She lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Fintak completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Fintak earned a B.S. from West Chester State University and an M.A. in educational theater from New York University. Prior to her retirement, Fintak worked as an educator from the elementary school level to the college level.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: North Carolina House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for North Carolina House of Representatives District 16
Incumbent Carson Smith Jr. defeated Debbi Fintak in the general election for North Carolina House of Representatives District 16 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Carson Smith Jr. (R) | 64.3 | 29,990 |
 | Debbi Fintak (D)  | 35.7 | 16,674 | |
| Total votes: 46,664 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Debbi Fintak advanced from the Democratic primary for North Carolina House of Representatives District 16.
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Carson Smith Jr. advanced from the Republican primary for North Carolina House of Representatives District 16.
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Debbi Fintak completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Fintak's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
As a retired educator of 38 years in Elementary, Middle, and High Schools, I understand the plight of North Carolina teachers. I've taught in a variety of places from Bucks County, PA, Cairo, Shanghai, and more. I have earned a Masters at New York University and a Bachelors of Science at West Chester University. We must raise salaries for NC teachers and aides. I retired when my daughter attended College at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since then my time is dedicated to Pender County. I feel it is important to stay involved within the community. Here are some ways that has happened:
-Six years as a Sea Turtle Rescue Volunteer including weekly beach walks in search of turtle nests, sitting with nests, and educating bystanders on the Rescue and
Rehabilitation Center.
-Willard Community Playground organizer, grant writer, and builder. Completed in 2017. -Climate Activist and anti-drilling activities -Three years as Pender County Democrat Chair -ERA Action Team
-NAACP member- We must increase pay for Educators, and Aides while funding greater school resources
- We must increase Expansion of Medicaid to give better healthcare to more residents and increase jobs for our counties.
- We must create policies that protect our counties with clean land and air. We must support no drilling or seismic testing.
As a retired teacher of 38 yrs who taught at all levels, I understand the plight of North Carolina teachers. Why must they work multiple jobs to make ends meet? We must respect our teachers for as professionals.
We must Create and Fund a first class public education system.
We must Raise teacher pay to the national average and reinstate incentives.
We must Increase funding for repair of our schools due to age and mold.
We must Expand Early Childhood programs.
LISTEN. I live in a District in which there is no practice of being transparent or listening to constituents. The practice of townhalls must return to allow residents to express concerns. Currently I am trying to meet and hear concerns by walking door to door to introduce myself and hear about issues.
When decisions are made I will come back and explain them.
RESEARCH. I will do my homework. If I do not know about policies or history I will research to find out. As a teacher with a Masters degree of 38 years, I've done this all my life. When you have the facts you can work toward policies that best benefit the people of my District.
The Trump rollbacks EPA protections eliminate protection for almost 1.7 million acres of wetlands, most of which lie in our coastal areas. Instead, we can expect natural flood protections to decline even as flooding increases.
Another challenge deals with our healthcare. High priority should always be the health of our families and communities. We must expand Medicaid . As taxpayers we are paying for it on a federal level but reap no benefits of the expansion . If NC votes to expand it will be at no additional cost to us . We benefit. We gain 336 jobs, 7700 more people covered, and 783,000 more dollars increase in revenue in the next 2 years. Why is your current representative voting no?
Let's also keep our eye out on the hospital sale which will raise fees. We must expand funding on Opiod education , treatment and recovery. Staff a nurse in every school.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 18, 2020
