Chuck Hubbard, a native of Wilkes County, spent 40 years in journalism at the Wilkes Journal-Patriot, which his grandfather founded in 1932. In 2024, he lost to incumbent Rep. Virginia Foxx in his first run for federal office. Hubbard has served on the board of Wilkes Recovery Revolution, the Wilkes Child Abuse Prevention Team and the Wilkes Prison Ministry. He and his wife, Shari, live in Wilkesboro. They have three daughters and two grandchildren.
Candidate Q&A
What do you see as the biggest financial and administrative challenge to implementing the work requirements for Medicaid that were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill?
“The human cost is atrocious, what that does to people, but the economic cost of the United States, given our other challenges, will be untenable. It will damage us severely. So we’re going to put that money back in Medicaid. We’re going to make it federally required that you can’t do this to people in terms of requiring them to show that they’re working or seeking work. That’s not what the social safety net is for.”
What would be your plan for ensuring the future security/strength of Social Security and Medicare?
On Social Security: “Right now, the Social Security contribution from people cuts off at $184,000. We’ve got to extend that all the way up to make sure that the wealthiest among us are paying their share. We’re going to have to remove that cap. I think there’s a consensus that there’s going to have to be some level of means testing. In other words, if you’re making $5 million a year, $10 million a year, why do you need Social Security?”
On Medicare: “We’ve got to have a public choice in health care … and that goes from cradle to grave.” It would likely need to have a sliding fee scale, and should prevent families from having to pay large deductibles and premiums, and high prescription costs, he said. While there’s some talk of Medicare for all and getting rid of private insurance, he has questions about the constitutionality of that.
What would you support in Congress as a plan to help control health care/ pharmaceutical costs?
He reiterated calls for a public choice in health care that would allow people to receive treatment and medication that they need without costing so much that they lose their home or have to choose whether to buy food or medication.
What steps would you take to improve access to health care in rural areas? How do we make the Rural Health Transformation Program successful in North Carolina?
“We are proving in real time that a for-profit health care industry will not work. It does not produce the best results, and it hurts people. It hurts rural communities, so of course we’re going to have to find whatever means possible to keep rural health going, whether doctor recruitment programs or subsidies or whatever we have to do.”
The rollout of AI is moving fast, including in health care, and leaders in that space are calling for things to slow down. What federal moves should be taken to regulate it, if at all?
“AI is a real thing. It’s going to be here. That’s a given. But how we implement it and the speed of it is something that we’ve got to control,” he said. “We’ve already seen the AI agents escape containment and attack various systems.”
“They’ll do that with your sensitive health care data as well,” he added. “I can imagine that health care systems are not encrypted well enough to avoid that.”
Where do you stand on federal vaccine policy? What should be done to prevent future disease outbreaks?
“I believe parents get to choose what they want for their children, but they are not allowed to infect other people. And if we have a large unvaccinated population, we’re going to have a problem.”
He added: “If we don’t require vaccinations before they go to school, then that’s a mistake. And if the federal government needs to require that, and not allow states to differentiate from that, then that’ll be done. But we have got to protect our population, and I’m pretty tired of the lies about how vaccines cause autism and vaccines cause all sorts of things completely unfounded or based on wacky science. … I believe in science. I believe in the doctors.”
We’ve had some high-profile food contamination outbreaks, yet the federal government is pulling back on regulation of food, air and water. What level of federal regulation do you support and why?
“We need to restore funding and personnel to the FDA. We need to restore funding and personnel to the EPA.”
He added: “Of course, food’s got to be safe. And of course, we have to make sure that we’re doing the right things in our environment.”
PFAS contamination is a nationwide issue; how do you address it while balancing public safety and business interests?
“Allowing forever chemicals into our water table is crazy. We’ll see the cancer rates skyrocket. That’s the reason I’m calling for a moratorium on the building of these data centers.”
“When PFAS and these chemicals are in the water supply, there’s no getting them out. That’s the problem right there. I don’t think we know the extent to which it will increase cancers and other issues. So we got to stop this process right now and get a hold of it.”
The building and placement of data centers have become a big issue, particularly in many rural communities. What should be the federal government’s role, if any, in how these are developed?
“They got to prove to us they can do it in a safe way,” he said. “We need a two-year moratorium to make sure that they’re environmentally safe and that those companies themselves are incurring the costs of electricity and not consumers.”
Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?
People are paying too much for health care, more than they can afford, he said. Major health incidents can cost thousands of dollars, and can force people to choose between medication and food, he said.
“This is a problem. The system is not working. … In my heart of hearts, I truly do believe that a public choice in health care is the only way out of this. It will allow the entire population to receive treatment and medication that they need without having to go under.”
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