North Carolina
After the only hospital in town closed, a North Carolina city directs its ire at politicians
By Amanda Seitz and Allen G. Breed | Associated Press
WILLIAMSTON, N.C. — Weeds have punctured through the vacant parking lot of Martin General Hospital’s emergency room. A makeshift blue tarp covering the hospital’s sign is worn down from flapping in the wind. The hospital doors are locked, many in this county of 22,000 fear permanently.
Some residents worry the hospital’s sudden closure last August could cost them their life.
“I know we all have to die, but it seems like since the hospital closed, there’s a lot more people dying,” Linda Gibson, a lifelong resident of Williamston, North Carolina, said on a recent afternoon while preparing snacks for children in a nearby elementary school kitchen.
More than 100 hospitals have downsized services or closed altogether over the past decade in rural communities like Williamston, where people openly wonder if they’d survive the 25-minute ambulance ride to the nearest hospital if they were in a serious car crash.
When Quorum Health shut down Martin County’s 43-bed hospital, citing “financial challenges related to declining population and utilization trends,” residents here didn’t just lose a sense of security. They lost trust, too, in the leaders they elected to make their town a better place to live.
People like 73-year-old Bobby Woolard say they don’t believe any politicians – from the local county commissioners to the presidential candidates who will pass through this swing state with big campaign promises in the coming months – care enough to help them fix the problem.
“If you’re critically ill, there’s no help for you here,” Woolard said on a sunny April afternoon while trimming his neighbor’s hedges. “Nobody seems to care. You got a building sitting there empty and nobody seems to care.”
Trouble for Biden’s health care campaign?
The sentiment in this sharply polarized and segregated eastern North Carolina county could hint at trouble for President Joe Biden, who has made health care a key part of his reelection campaign against Republican rival Donald Trump.
His TV campaign ads hone in on Trump’s promises to diminish the Affordable Care Act. On social media, Biden regularly reminds followers of the law he signed that caps the cost of insulin. And in North Carolina, the campaign is narrowly focused on promoting Democrats’ successful efforts to expand Medicaid, which will extend nearly free government health insurance to thousands of people and reduce the indigent population for hospitals.
Biden and Trump are fiercely competing for the state, which also features the most prominent governor’s race of the year. Martin County, where Williamston is located, voted for Trump in 2020.
“Health care is on the ballot this year, and voters will remember that when they reject Donald Trump in November,” said Dory MacMillan, the Biden campaign’s North Carolina communications director.
But Biden’s achievements might not be enough for crucial voters living in towns like this one in North Carolina, where people have a hard time just getting emergency care when they need it.
Nationally, emergency room wait times have ballooned, with the average emergency room visit taking nearly three hours last year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Health care systems are also grappling with a health care worker shortage that worsened after burned-out employees emerged from the pandemic.
Those problems are particularly pronounced in rural communities, where more than 68 hospitals have closed in the last decade. The closures slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the federal government doled out billions of dollars in extra funds to hospitals. But with that money spent, hospital closures might tick up again, said George Pink, the deputy director of the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Center’s Rural Health Research Program.
Often, it’s emergency room care that residents miss the most, Pink said.
“If you’re having a heart attack, if you’re having a stroke, if you’re giving birth, all those are the kinds of life events where you need access to emergency care quickly and properly,” Pink said. “Those communities that have lost their rural hospitals, they don’t have that.”
A system ‘at risk’
Months before Williamston’s hospital closed, an outside consultant sent a dire warning about emergency care in the county.
The county’s volunteer first responder system was ineffective and long response times that stretched past 15 minutes in some areas were putting “lives at risk,” the consultant told the county’s commissioners last April.
The system was “in desperate need for vision, direction, guidance, command and control, and additional financial support,” the consultant advised the county, according to meeting minutes.
Since Martin General Hospital shut down, things have only gotten worse.
Longer drives to hospitals outside of the county mean ambulances and their crews are tied up for hours sometimes on a run, said Capt. Kenny Warren of the Williamston Fire and Rescue.
“A call that used to take us 20 to 30 minutes is now taking an hour to two hours, depending on where we’ve got to transport to,” Warren said. He added that the agency is staffed with emergency medical technicians, but not paramedics who are trained to provide more advanced care to patients in emergencies.
Warren, however, said he doesn’t think anyone has died as a result.
“Most of the outcomes probably would have been the same anyway,” he said.
In December, first responders arrived on a Williamston street within three minutes of receiving 911 calls that several shots had been fired and a young man might be dead.
They tried unsuccessfully to get a medical helicopter to transport the 21-year-old gunshot victim. The closest option was a six-bed hospital, a 21-minute ambulance ride away. All told, it would take 34 minutes from the time of the 911 call to get him there, according to police dispatch logs. He was transferred from that hospital to a higher-level trauma center where he died a few days later.
The scene of the shooting was just four minutes away from Martin General Hospital’s site.
‘Do you really care?’
More than a dozen Williamston residents interviewed for this story blamed the Martin County Board of Commissioners for failing to prevent the troubled hospital from closing.
Last month, Williamston resident Verna Perry told commissioners that her sister made a 25-minute drive to the closest hospital only to find out she would not be able to get the treatment she needed there.
“Do you really care, commissioners?” Perry asked. “If you cared, you would do something to get us a hospital here.”
Kaitlyn Paxton was seeking treatment for her asthma at Martin General Hospital’s emergency room the day it shut down. She watched staff wheel out patients on stretchers to transfer them to other hospitals.
Since then, she’s had a hard time finding primary care doctors and specialists to replace the ones who left once the hospital closed.
“As far as everyday doctors and appointments, from my personal experience it has been a nightmare trying to find someone,” she said.
She’s used the federally qualified health center, called Agape Health, which is one of a few facilities in the county still offering primary care. More than a thousand of these health centers operate across the U.S. They receive federal government funds and take patients on a sliding pay scale, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.
Agape Health added Saturday hours because of an influx of new patients after Martin General closed, said clinic CEO Dr. Michael McDuffie. Last month, Agape reopened one of the orthopedic clinics that shut down along with the hospital.
McDuffie wants to reopen Martin General next, even if just as a stand-alone emergency room.
“It could mean life or death,” McDuffie said. “They need an emergency department here so that it could at least stabilize them.”
The county, which still owns the hospital and land, is consulting with state officials and federal Health and Human Services agency representatives to determine whether the facility can reopen as a Rural Emergency Hospital, said interim County Manager Ben Eisner. Gov. Roy Cooper helped to usher in a new state law that allows North Carolina’s rural hospitals to make the transition.
The Rural Emergency Hospital program was developed by Congress, signed into law by Trump and finetuned by the Biden administration. The designation allows rural hospitals to unlock millions of federal dollars and beef up Medicare payments if they stay open to provide 24/7 emergency care.
“The simple question we’re trying to answer is how do we go from closed to open in a way that makes sense for the citizens of Martin County,” Eisner said.
If successful, Martin County would be the first hospital in the country to reopen its doors after closing with the new federal designation.
“It’s a top priority for us, we live it every day as a community,” Paxton said of getting the hospital reopened. It’ll be top of mind for her when she votes in the presidential election this fall.
Even still, she said: “I do not think it is a top priority for any of them at all – president, senators – any of them.”
Jamie Ager interview after Fairview campaign rally
Democratic congressional candidate Jamie Ager spoke with the Asheville Citizen Times following a campaign rally in Fairview on May 18, 2026, after former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg addressed supporters ahead of the 2026 election.
How do you get Republican voters to the polls in a difficult political climate? Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are hoping a slate of up to seven constitutional amendments might do the trick.
Multiple polls nationally and in North Carolina show low enthusiasm among Republican voters, President Donald Trump’s approval rating sagging, and Democratic candidates up and down the ballot widening their leads over GOP rivals as the midterm election approaches.
“They’re probably seeing the winds of the political mood of the state against them,” said political scientist Michael Bitzer, director of the Center for Politics and Public Service at Catawba College. “The standard is that registered Republicans always overperform in terms of turnout, and they will need that historic turnout advantage to blunt what is obvious in the mood of the state and the country against the Republican party.”
In 2018, when a similar set of circumstances led Republicans to put six constitutional amendments on the ballot designed to appeal to conservatives, including a 7% income tax cap, photo voter ID, and a constitutional right to hunt. Four passed and two didn’t.
State House and Senate Republicans still lost their supermajorities, but the blue wave could have been worse than it was, said Bitzer. “Ours was fairly muted in comparison to what the national and other state dynamics were like.”
Eight years later, North Carolina Republicans are returning to the 2018 playbook, loading up the 2026 general election ballot with a raft of similar proposals aimed at boosting conservative turnout.
One constitutional amendment has already been approved for the November ballot — a provision that would require mail-in voters to include photo identification with their ballot. It’s already state law, but this would add it to the constitution. That was passed at the end of 2024.
As of May 19, 2026, there are six others under consideration. All six were heard in committees within a 24-hour span. And more could be filed at any time because constitutional amendments are exempt from rules that limit the bills legislators can consider during the short session.
Two proposals would limit taxes. Senate Bill 1080 would lower the state’s constitutional cap on the income tax rate from 7% to 3.5%. The state’s income tax rate is already slated to drop to 3.49% in 2027, so it wouldn’t actually lead to lower taxes, but it would keep state lawmakers in the future from raising it again without first getting voters to approve it.
The second, House Bill 1089, would require lawmakers to “enact a property tax levy limit” to rein in county governments’ ability to raise property tax rates. However, it lacks specifics about what the limit might be.
Two other proposals would put existing state laws in the state constitution. Senate Bill 1081 would create a constitutional right to “engage in farming and forestry.” The right to farm was written into state law in 1979. Senate Bill 1082 would enshrine the state’s 1947 right to work law. In committee hearings Monday, the sponsors of those bills were unable to come up with any actual threats to the existing laws.
The final two would further limit the governor’s appointment powers. House Bill 144 would allow voters, rather than the governor, to select the members of the State Board of Education. They would be elected from 14 districts, likely to be the same as the congressional districts, with the elected Superintendent of Public Instruction becoming the board chair.
House Bill 443 would spell out the process by which the governor can replace an elected member of the Council of State in case of a vacancy. The party of the departing official would nominate three potential replacements, and the governor would select one.
Bitzer told NC Newsline some of these are likely policy priorities that Republican leaders want to accomplish now in case they lose control of one or both legislative chambers in November. Constitutional amendments are not subject to the governor’s veto.
When it comes to enacting conservative policy objectives, “the most stable and hardest to change is a constitutional amendment,” he said.
Constitutional amendments require a vote of three-fifths in the House and Senate. Senate Republicans hold the 30 seats they will need to approve any amendment favored by the leadership, assuming they’re all present on the same day.
House Republicans are one vote shy of the 72 votes they need, but have proven themselves adept at finding votes across the aisle. Former Mecklenburg Democrats Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed have left their party and are now unaffiliated. And with the state budget still under negotiation, the $2 billion surplus this year could give Republican leaders more room to trade a project earmark for a Democratic vote.
Once they reach the ballot, amendments need only a simple majority to become law. The income tax cap amendment on the ballot in 2018 passed with 57% support, reflecting some crossover support among Democrats, Bitzer said. The same could be true in 2026.
“The tax issues — the property tax, the income tax — hearing those as limitations or caps, I think, will resonate with the public initially,” Bitzer said. “How the fight over that is framed will be, I think, a crucial voter education piece.”
While critics of the proposals have accused Republicans of turning the constitution into a “political tool” to boost their electoral prospects, Bitzer sees it as along the same lines as the extreme partisan gerrymandering — “gerrymaxxing,” he calls it — throughout the South.
“We’re taking politics and moving it to the extremes, so why not make constitutions into political tools in this hyper-polarized environment?” Bitzer said. “Welcome to North Carolina in 2026.”
Laura Leslie is an award-winning journalist and analyst who’s covered North Carolina state politics for 22 years. Before coming to NC Newsline, she served as capitol bureau chief for WRAL-TV in Raleigh and WUNC/NC Public Radio. She also wrote the award-winning political blog Isaac Hunter’s Tavern.
NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
North Carolina
NC appeals board to review disqualification that cost track team a state championship
A state-run appeals board is reviewing a call by an official that cost a Charlotte high school the state track and field championship last weekend.
A three-member panel appointed from members of the North Carolina State Board of Education’s Independent Interscholastic Athletic Appeals Board will review the disqualification of Mallard Creek High School, which has drawn national attention. The state legislature created the appeals board in 2023 as part of a broader reshaping of high school athletics administration.
The appeals board is appointed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, an elected official. A spokesperson for the Department’s Office of Athletics told WRAL News that they will issue a decision within 30 days.
“This process is intended to provide a fair opportunity for a thorough review of the officiating decision,” the North Carolina High School Athletic Association said in a statement Tuesday morning. “Following the established appeals process outlined in the NCHSAA Handbook and state procedures, Mallard Creek High School has exercised its right to such an appeal through the Independent Interscholastic Athletic Appeals Board administered by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The NCHSAA respects the right of member schools to utilize that process and appreciates the importance of ensuring all concerns are heard through the appropriate review structure.“
The appeals board is composed of retired professional educators with experience overseeing high school athletics programs, including former superintendents and athletic directors. The panel for this appeal has not yet been finalized.
The board is now tasked with making a determination about the events that took place Saturday at the 8A state track championship in Greensboro.
Mallard Creek boys track and field athlete Nyan Brown held his hand up in celebration as he prepared to cross the finish line to win the 4×400-meter relay, the meet’s final event. An official near the finish line deemed the action a disqualifier, calling it unsportsmanlike behavior.
In 2025, Brown won the 4A Indoor Track and Field Farm Bureau Sportsmanship Award, which recognizes “players who have demonstrated the ideals of outstanding character and sportsmanship throughout the 2024-25 season.”
Without the points from the final relay, the Mallard Creek boys track and field team finished second. Durham’s Jordan High School won the title.
Mallard Creek head coach Samuel Willoughby said that Brown held up his hand to indicate what would’ve been Mallard Creek’s fifth overall state championship in boys track and field.
“After the 4×400 relay, we were so excited because we knew going in that we could win the state championship if we got the points we needed in the relay,” Mallard Creek head coach Samuel Willoughby said. “So, we just were thrilled that it happened and the way it happened and to end in good fashion with our ace, Nyan, at the anchor.
“So, it was a great feeling to see it actually happen, but then, once I saw the official threw the flag up, I just couldn’t believe it. I was in disbelief.”
Coaches and athletes are expected to show “good sportsmanship” and competitors who engage in taunting, profanity, baton throwing and refuse to follow the instructions of meet officials can be disqualified from the event or the meet, according to meet information. The same rule sheet also says “showboating” will not be tolerated and will result in disqualification. Those terms are not described further in the rules.
Willoughby said he knew the flag was against his team. He said he also got called into the infield on Saturday for the disqualification of another runner.
“I was in the infield more than I needed to be,” Willoughby said. “So, when I saw the flag, I was like, ‘Here we go again.’”
The officials said Mallard Creek received a warning for taunting after Brown won the 300-meter hurdles earlier in the day, setting a state record. Brown appeared to briefly flex toward photographers after winning the race, according to video from the meet. Mallard Creek disputed claims that they were given an initial warning.
“[There are] claims that she gave Nyan a warning beforehand, but that never happened,” Willoughby said. “She said that she gave him a warning to justify the flag that she gave at the end.”
Willoughby said he spoke with Brown and asked him to speak with the official.
“When did we have this conversation of you warning me?” Willoughby said. “And, it never happened. The only thing she said was, “Yeah, I spoke to him. I spoke to him.’
“It became my word against hers.”
The disqualification has attracted intense interest on social media with former players, track athletes and commentators weighing in on the issue.
Watch: Mallard Creek track coach discusses disqualification: ‘I was in disbelief’
On Tuesday morning, the NCHSAA released a new statement as backlash over the call against Brown has continued to mount. The association confirmed the start of the larger appeal process and said it would not comment as the process is in motion.
“Over the past several days, the conclusion of the 8A Men’s Track and Field Championship has generated significant discussion across North Carolina and beyond. The NCHSAA recognizes and understands there is deep disappointment experienced by the student-athletes, coaches, and the school community involved. “As previously stated, officiating decisions made during competition are judgment calls administered by certified meet officials under NFHS playing rules and NCHSAA rules relative to unsporting behavior and actions, and are considered final decisions. The Association appreciates the efforts of the officials who are tasked with applying and enforcing those rules during our championship events. “Under state law, an aggrieved party may challenge the decision of an official that results in disqualification by appealing to an independent appeals board appointed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. This process is intended to provide a fair opportunity for a thorough review of the officiating decision. Following the established appeals process outlined in the NCHSAA Handbook and state procedures, Mallard Creek High School has exercised its right to such an appeal through the Independent Interscholastic Athletic Appeals Board administered by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The NCHSAA respects the right of member schools to utilize that process and appreciates the importance of ensuring all concerns are heard through the appropriate review structure.
“Because that process is underway, the NCHSAA will not provide further public comment regarding the specifics of the matter.”
Watch: North Carolina high school runner’s raised hand costs team state track and field title
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Director Brad Alford also released a statement on Tuesday.
“The Independent Interscholastic Athletics Appeals Board has received an appeal from Mallard Creek High School regarding a ruling at the State Track & Field Meet,” Alford wrote. “State Board of Education Policy ATHL-013 outlines a detailed process for reviewing appeals of decisions by an athletics rule administrator, in this case the NCHSAA.
“The Appeals Board is currently reviewing the appeal and will issue a decision within 30 days. Since the appeal remains pending before the Appeals Board, we are unable to comment further on the case at this time.”
A spokesperson for the Department’s Office of Athletics tells WRAL News that they will issue a decision within 30 days.
At this point, the three-member appeals panel hasn’t been selected.
As this is not a time-sensitive case, with the season concluded, the review process could take time to complete.
According to Alford, the appeals board is made up of retired professional educators with experience overseeing high school athletics programs, including former superintendents and athletic directors. Appeals are heard by three-member panels, but the panel for this particular appeal has not yet been finalized.
Note: HighSchoolOT Managing Editor Joel Bryant and WRAL anchor/reporter Ashley Rowe contributed to this story.
SWANNANOA, N.C. (WLOS) — After more than a year and a half spent living in the aftermath of what Hurricane Helene took from him, one Marine Corps veteran has finally stepped into his new home.
During the storm, a tree fell on the home of local veteran Billy Ricketts III, and he had been living in a camper on his property ever since. On Monday, May 18, Purple Heart Homes and Valley Strong Disaster Relief dedicated a new home to him.
Purple Heart Homes, Inc. has helped over 4,000 veterans all across the country. The nonprofit organization serves veterans with critical home repairs, building ramps, HVAC systems and building modular homes to give to veterans.
‘YOU JUST HAVE TO FIX IT’: CANTON FAMILY RETURNS HOME 19 MONTHS AFTER HELENE
Leah Gutierrez, director of program services for Purple Heart Homes, said the organization wanted to send homes to western North Carolinian veterans impacted by Helene. The nonprofit partnered with Valley Strong Disaster Relief to meet Ricketts and get him the help he needed.
“He was a little hesitant at first, you know, most veterans are because some feel that they’re not as deserving or that someone else deserves it more than them,” Gutierrez said.
But on Monday, it felt surreal.
19 MONTHS LATER, HELENE RECOVERY IN MADISON COUNTY IS FAR FROM OVER
“[I’m] just blessed and thankful for my community,” Ricketts said. “Means a lot, coming home and seeing members of the community are pitching in to help one another.”
“For him to be able to transition from that to a stable home, I mean, our logo is ‘Healing Hearts One Home at a Time,’ and so if we’re able to do that for each veteran, then we’ve done our mission,” Gutierrez said.
Ricketts said he is looking forward to some peace and quiet as the new home represents the next chapter of his life.
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