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I'm so proud to be standing before you. As the representative for House District 24, I'm here today in my office in

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back home in our district. One of the committees that I'm proud to be on is the Commerce and Economic

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Development Committee for the North Carolina House. Let me tell you, our district is the

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talk of the state, with the major business and industry that's coming to our community, folks all

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across North Carolina have taken notice. One of the things that I tell them all the time is that

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Wilson County and Nash County both are open for business.

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We want to make sure that we have the right environment, that invites business, that we,

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that I tell them all the time, we have some of the best support systems and best work force you

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can ask for. So we're continuing to try to attract those businesses and make sure they know that we've

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got to spot for them. As you may have heard, we are celebrating Johnson and Johnson coming

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to the city of Wilson, I would tell you there have been so many community leaders that have come before me that have worked so hard to set the conditions to have a major corporation like that coming to bring over 400 jobs that are high paying and high skilled jobs.

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And I'm just proud to be a part of the team to make sure that we partner together, that we make sure they are comfortable here in Wilson and that we take care of business.

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so that they know we are the best place to do business in the state.

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We're also doing all that we can to make sure we're looking after our small businesses and our local businesses.

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One of the things that I said on the campaign shows that while we are so glad to have folks coming in,

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it's a priority to make sure we don't forget the folks that have already been here,

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the folks that have been building in this community, and that they know their business is just as important as any other.

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So, I'm going to be looking forward to visiting businesses around our community to listen to what your needs are to see how we can partner together

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because I firmly believe that small businesses, the backbone of communities like ours, and we're going to make sure you're not forgotten.

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We're also focusing on some agricultural needs that we have in Wilson County in the state of North Carolina.

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But we all know how pivotal agriculture is to our state and how important it is to the local

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economy that we have.

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So I've been proud to be partnered with the North Carolina Farm Bureau and our Wilson County

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Farm Bureau to make sure that we are pushing forward legislation that supports our agricultural

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needs.

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That includes the hurricane disaster relief bill that not only is the first step in making sure

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that we are taking care of the victims out west for Hurricane Helene, but also taking care of victims from past hurricanes that happened a few years ago in eastern part of our state, because we know that we can't afford for eastern North Carolina to be left behind.

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So we're going to continue collaborating with our partners and make sure that folks know that agriculture is number one for us in this state.