Local Limelight with Wake County Rep. Mike Schietzelt
Why it matters: Schietzelt, a Marine Corps veteran and attorney, is serving his first term in House District 35, which stretches across much of the northern part of the county.
We talked with Schietzelt for our latest Local Limelight conversation. The Q&A has been edited for Smart Brevity.
What made you decide to run for office? After being recruited by Republican House leadership, "I felt like I was a good fit for my district. I'm not an overwhelmingly ideological person," Schietzelt said.
"I don't feel like there are a lot of people advocating the needs for our suburbs."
🍖 Favorite place to eat in the Triangle? Backyard BBQ Pit and Hog Heaven Bar-B-Q, both in Durham.
🛣️ What do you think the Triangle is missing? A freeway connecting Raleigh to Wake Forest.
"There is a huge missed opportunity right now" with the state "dragging its feet" on expanding U.S. 1, Schietzelt said.
"Now we're talking about converting it into a toll road, which would unfortunately cut us off from some of the best opportunities we have in terms of economic growth."
💡 What's your first read in the morning? The Bible, or emails.
📚 Last great book you read? Ralph Ketcham's biography of James Madison and " Confident Pluralism" by John Inazu.
🎧 Go-to podcast? " Do Politics Better" or " Tying It Together" with Tim Boyum.
🎣 Favorite place to go for a long weekend? Banner Elk, or somewhere "I can sit around without Wi-Fi" to do a little hiking and fishing.
🐶 Do you have any pets? Atlas, who turns 14 in a few weeks.
🤓 How did you end up in the Triangle? Duke University's law school, which he attended after years of traveling the country as a professional trumpet player.
✍️ If you could pass any law, what would it be? Ratifying the Convention of States.
His non-serious answer: Everyone should watch the 1994 film "PCU," a comedy on political correctness.
⛳️ What's something you're looking forward to, unrelated to politics or your work? "Sleeping at some point," Schietzelt said.
But really: Getting out to play a round of golf.
🥹 How do you unplug at the end of the day? Putting the kids (he has four) to sleep.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
20 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Tariff ‘Mission Accomplished' hype is just that
On May 1, 2003, George W. Bush announced, 'Major combat operations in Iraq have ended.' He was standing below a giant banner that read, 'Mission Accomplished.' At the risk of inviting charges of understatement, subsequent events didn't cooperate. But it took a while for that to be widely accepted. We're in a similar place when it comes to President Trump's experiment with a new global trading order. 'Tariffs are making our country Strong and Rich!!!' proclaims Trump, making him not only the first Republican president in living memory to brag about raising taxes on Americans, but also the first to insist that raising taxes on Americans makes us richer. MAGA's mission-accomplished groupthink relies primarily on three arguments. The first is that Trump has successfully concluded a slew of beneficial trade deals. The truth is that some of those deals are simply 'frameworks' that will take a long time to be ironed out. But Trump got the headlines he wanted. The second argument is a kind of populism-infused sleight of hand. The 'experts' — their scare quotes, not mine — are wrong once again. The White House social media account crows, 'In April, 'experts' called tariffs 'the biggest policy mistake in 95 years.' By July, they generated OVER $100 BILLION in revenue. Facts expose the haters: tariffs WORK. Trust in Trump.' But the high-fivers are leaving things out. The most-dire predictions of economic catastrophe were based on the scheme Trump announced on April 2, a.k.a. 'Liberation Day.' Trump quickly backed off that plan ('chickened out' in Wall Street parlance) in response to a bond and stock market implosion. Saying the experts were wrong under those circumstances is like saying experts opposed to defenestration were wrong when they successfully convinced a man not to jump out a window. The third argument, made by the White House and many others — that tariffs are working because they're raising money — is a response to a claim no one made. To my knowledge, no expert claimed tariffs wouldn't raise money. The estimates of these revenues from Trump world are stratospheric. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expects somewhere between $700 billion and $1 trillion per year. Last month, the government collected $29 billion. It's likely this number will significantly increase as more tariffs come online and businesses run down the inventory they stockpiled earlier this year in anticipation of more tariffs to come. Normally, Republicans don't exult over massive revenues from tax hikes. But Trump's defenders get around this problem by insisting that money is 'pouring' and 'flowing' into America from someplace else. It's true that tariff revenue is pouring into the Treasury, but that money is coming out of American bank accounts, because American importers pay the tariff. Even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cannot deny this when pressed. So yes, tariffs are 'working' the way they're supposed to; the problem is Trump thinks tariffs work differently than they do. It's possible some foreign exporters might lower prices to maintain market share, and some American businesses might absorb the costs — for now — to avoid sticker shock for inflation-beleaguered consumers, but what revenue is generated still comes from Americans. Ultimately it means higher prices paid here, reduced profits for businesses here or reduced U.S. trade overall. Sometimes, when pressed, defenders of the administration will concede the true source of the revenues, but then they say the pain is necessary to force manufacturers and other businesses to build and produce in the United States. It's backdoor industrial policy masquerading as trade policy. That, too, might 'work.' But all of this will take time, no matter what. And, if it works, that will have costs, too. Manufacturing in America is more expensive — that's why we manufacture so much stuff abroad in the first place. If this 'reshoring' happens, our goods will be more expensive, and less money will 'pour in' from tariffs. It's difficult to exaggerate how well-understood all of this was on the American right until very recently. But the need to grab any argument available to declare Trump's experiment a success has a lot of people not only abandoning their previous dogma but leaping to the conclusion that the dogma was wrong all along. Maybe it was, though I don't think so. The evidence so far suggests that problems are looming. The dollar is weakening. Prices continue to rise. The job market is reeling. The stock market (an unreliable metric, according to MAGA, when it plummeted after Liberation Day) is holding on, thanks to tech stocks. The truth is we won't have real evidence for a while. It's worth remembering that Americans don't live by headlines and press releases and they don't live in the macro economy either. Declaring 'Mission Accomplished' for the macro economy won't convince people they're better off in their own micro-economies when they're not. @JonahDispatch
USA Today
20 minutes ago
- USA Today
What to know on Trump's DC takeover
Hi! Rebecca Morin here. I've been binging 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' to take a break from all the news – and it's fair to say I'm excited for the new episode this week. Is DC unsafe, like Trump claims? President Donald Trump on Monday said he wants to combat what he called 'bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse' in Washington, DC – deploying National Guard troops and having the federal government take over the city's police department. But crime data paints a much more nuanced picture of what's going on in the nation's capital. Washington does have relatively high rates of violent crime and murder among major cities in the United States, but it has a much lower violent crime rate than some cities Trump hasn't spotlighted, such as Memphis, Tennessee. Overall, crime in the city has been on a downward trend in recent years. The murder rate in DC is far below its historic peak, which at one point led to the city earning the moniker of "murder capital.' See a breakdown of the data. Who is running DC police? As part of Trump's new actions in DC, the president tapped his newly confirmed Drug Enforcement Administration chief Terrance "Terry" Cole to also head the Metropolitan Police Department, one of the nation's largest and most dysfunctional police departments. It was unclear how the police rank and file and the MPD's police union would respond to being run by the Trump administration. Why the pressure is on for Cole in his new position. Anger over Trump crackdown: Dozens of people in the nation's capitol took to the streets on Monday to protest Trump's actions. One protester, Donna Powell, told USA TODAY that the president is 'trying to piss people off.' See what residents said about Trump's new actions. A politics pit stop Lawmakers to push for Epstein files release Congress is on their annual one-month summer break. But when lawmakers make it back to the U.S. Capitol, one thing is already on their agenda: the controversy surrounding convicted late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Democrats and Republicans alike have been pushing for the release of all the Epstein files after a Justice Department report found that Epstein died by suicide and did not have a 'client list,' despite previous suggestions by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Epstein and Trump were once longtime friends. Members of Congress from both parties say they'll force more public debate on the issue when their recess ends after Labor Day. Inside lawmakers' plans to push for release of Epstein files. Why DC banned kindergarten 'redshirting' Jennifer Lilintahl, in Washington, DC wanted to delay her five-year-old from entering kindergarten. Her daughter, she said, wasn't ready to learn to read. Now her daughter is six-years-old and Lilintahl tried to enroll her in kindergarten, but DC Public Schools officials said she'd have to enter first grade because of her age. Delaying kindergarten for one year, a process known as 'redshirting,' is one of the latest issues for the growing parents' rights movement, which has been dominated by public school parents who want more control over what their children learn and where they go to school. Some parents argue their kids need the "additional year of schooling" in pre-kindergarten. But others say it creates an unfair advantage compared to families who don't have the resources to delay schooling. What to know about the debate. Got a burning question, or comment, for On Politics? You can submit them here or send me an email at rdmorin@
New York Post
20 minutes ago
- New York Post
Democrat Sherrod Brown will attempt to win back his Senate seat in 2026: report
Democrat Sherrod Brown will attempt to win back his U.S. Senate seat in Ohio in next year's midterm elections, according to media reports, in a race that likely would pit him against Republican Senator John Husted as Democrats fight to win back control of the chamber. The media site reported that Brown will jump into the contest, citing unnamed Ohio labor leaders familiar with his thinking. Brown was not reachable for comment. 4 Democrat Sherrod Brown will attempt to win back his Senate seat in Ohio, reports say. The Washington Post via Getty Images 4 Sherrod Brown will challenge Senator Jon Husted who is one of Ohio's senators. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Brown, 72, served for 18 years in the Senate before he lost to Republican Bernie Moreno last November in a 50.1%-46.5% vote. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and Ohio could become the site of one of a half-dozen most competitive races in next year's elections. Husted was appointed in January to temporarily fill the seat vacated by JD Vance when he became vice president. The winner of the November 2026 special election would serve the remainder of Vance's Senate term, ending in January 2029. Brown anchored his long congressional career as a dogged fighter for blue-collar workers in Ohio, which has suffered job losses as steel, automotive and other jobs moved abroad. 4 Sherrod Brown served in the Senate for 18 years before he lost his seat. Getty Images 4 Republican Senator Jon Husted was appointed to fill the seat vacated by JD Vance when he became the vice president. Bloomberg via Getty Images Once a battlefield state, Ohio has leaned increasingly Republican over the past decade. Last November, Republican Donald Trump handily defeated Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris 55.2%-44% in Ohio, where he remains a potent political force. Both Brown and Husted would be favored to win their respective parties' primary races next year. After his defeat last November, Brown founded the Dignity of Work Institute, aimed at improving pay and benefits for working-class people.
