[00:00:00] Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.
[00:00:06] Jonathan Breeden: And today as our guest, we have Christopher Sessions, who is a libertarian candidate for the North Carolina Senate on your November 5th ballot for District 10, which is all of Johnston County. He is running against the incumbent Republican state Senator Benton Sari of Clayton.
[00:00:23] Jonathan Breeden: Anyway, so we’re going to talk to Christopher Sessions today about some of what he would like to see North Carolina do about the legalization of drugs and school choice. The elimination of income taxes and other things that you will find interesting and in line with what the Libertarian party believes, which a lot of people may not be aware of.
[00:00:43] Jonathan Breeden: So anyway, but before we get to that, I would ask everybody, if you would like, subscribe and follow this podcast, wherever you’re seeing it, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok. Any of the social media campaigns that The Best of Johnston County podcast has, it will make you aware of future episodes of The Best Johnson County [00:01:00] podcast.
[00:01:00] Jonathan Breeden: And the best Johnson County podcast comes out every Monday. And if you’d also be kind enough to give us a five-star review down at the bottom and give us comments about what you like or don’t like about The Best of Johnston County podcast. Welcome, Chris.
[00:01:13] Christopher Sessions: Thanks for having me.
[00:01:14] Jonathan Breeden: Hey, no problem. So let’s start with what’s your name and a little bit of biographical information.
[00:01:19] Christopher Sessions: Yes, I’m Chris Sessions, like you said, running for Senate District 10. First and foremost, I’m a family man. I have four children, and a beautiful wife, Grace Sessions. I’ve lived in North Carolina for about 20 years now.
[00:01:32] Christopher Sessions: I was brought here by the military. I’m a retired military, lived in Johnston County for the past six years. I have a master’s degree from Franklin University and currently work at Pike Electric as the warehouse manager.
[00:01:47] Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So where did you grow up?
[00:01:49] Christopher Sessions: I grew up in Utah.
[00:01:50] Jonathan Breeden: Utah.
[00:01:51] Christopher Sessions: Yes.
[00:01:52] Jonathan Breeden: You know, I just heard on the radio yesterday that Utah was rated the happiest state in the nation.
[00:01:58] Christopher Sessions: It is. It’s a [00:02:00] beautiful state, but I’ve actually lived in North Carolina longer than I lived in Utah and I’m used to the warm weather. So I’m making my home here.
[00:02:09] Jonathan Breeden: So what drew you to wanting to join the military?
[00:02:11] Christopher Sessions: In high school, even though I ended up going to college and getting a master’s degree while I was in the military, I knew college wasn’t for me and just patriotism and a chance to have a good career without having to go to college. I chose to go to the military camp.
[00:02:27] Jonathan Breeden: So you went in the U. S. Army, I believe.
[00:02:28] Christopher Sessions: Yes. I did.
[00:02:29] Jonathan Breeden: So did you go in like at 18, straight out of high school?
[00:02:31] Christopher Sessions: I did. I actually joined the National Guard while I was still in high school. And then after I graduated, I worked in a cafe for a little while. Realized, you know, that wasn’t for me. Needed something with a little more opportunity. So I went ahead and went on active duty.
[00:02:46] Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. And so, what are some of the duty stations that you had while you were in? I think you did 28 years.
[00:02:52] Christopher Sessions: Yes. 28 years. Started out in Georgia. Spent my first eight years in Columbus at Fort, where it was [00:03:00] Bending Man and then Hunter I. Mayer Field and the Ranger Battalion. Then I went overseas to Germany and Italy for a while.
[00:03:07] Christopher Sessions: Then I came to Fort Bragg and that was 2001 and spent basically the best time except for four years. I was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I’ve been in North Carolina.
[00:03:20] Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And so what did you do with the military?
[00:03:23] Christopher Sessions: I think.
[00:03:23] Jonathan Breeden: You made it all the way to master sergeant.
[00:03:25] Christopher Sessions: I actually Sergeant Major
[00:03:26] Jonathan Breeden: Sergeant Major. Excuse me. I don’t want to shortchange you there. I get all those things mixed up. So anyway.
[00:03:31] Christopher Sessions: Understandable. But yes, so I was a cook in the army and actually ended up doing logistics as the wars progressed, as went overseas, things were moving to contractors. So the kitchens were all run by civilians.
[00:03:45] Christopher Sessions: So I got into the logistics field and that’s kind of what steered me after the army is how I ended up running the warehouse.
[00:03:53] Jonathan Breeden: So you were responsible for, I guess you were running kitchens?
[00:03:56] Christopher Sessions: Yes. So I was running kitchens and then [00:04:00] running all logistics. I was actually the logistics Sergeant Major for all of Iraq in 2016.
[00:04:05] Jonathan Breeden: So, oh man. So what does a logistics sergeant major do?
[00:04:08] Christopher Sessions: So, move people, equipment, food, bullets, fuel, just everything that the warfighter needs to do his job basically.
[00:04:19] Jonathan Breeden: Right, and it’s not like you can just drive from point A to point B when there’s bad guys in between point A and point B.
[00:04:25] Christopher Sessions: Exactly, there’s a lot of planning on what moves by ground, what moves by air, you know, what routes can be taken, all that stuff.
[00:04:35] Jonathan Breeden: Well that’s interesting. So where’d you get your undergrad degree from?
[00:04:38] Christopher Sessions: I’m at Franklin University.
[00:04:39] Jonathan Breeden: Franklin University. Okay. And then you ended up getting an MBA from there too.
[00:04:42] Christopher Sessions: Yes.
[00:04:43] Jonathan Breeden: I got you. So, when did you retire from the U S army?
[00:04:46] Christopher Sessions: In 2017 was my last day. I actually, my official retirement is 2018, but I had to leave. So actually my last, you know, day in uniform was the end of 2017.
[00:04:59] Jonathan Breeden: Right. I [00:05:00] assume you were honorably discharged.
[00:05:01] Christopher Sessions: Oh yes. Retired. Yes. I have my military retirement.
[00:05:05] Jonathan Breeden: Well, sometimes in my office here, when you’re dealing with divorces and stuff like that, we do represent military people that are not honorably discharged. And we’ve helped some people fight their discharge papers.
[00:05:17] Jonathan Breeden: And let me just tell you when you’re not honorably discharged. It can be a mess, particularly trying to get any kind of retirement, VA benefits, stuff like that.
[00:05:27] Jonathan Breeden: So, I used to think as a child, everybody was honorably discharged, but I now know that is not the case. And I’m sure you saw many soldiers that were not honorably discharged during your 28 years.
[00:05:38] Christopher Sessions: Yeah, unfortunately. Yes. Put a few out that just couldn’t cut it. Good people, but just the military wasn’t for them.
[00:05:45] Jonathan Breeden: Right. I get it. It’s a lot of work. It’s a ton of work. I don’t think people realize quite how much work it is and the sacrifices people make with their families and stuff to be in the military.
[00:05:55] Christopher Sessions: Yeah, it’s definitely not for everybody. It is sacrifice, I am glad to [00:06:00] be out and be able to go home every night. Spent many years total, you know, away from home deployed and stuff. So it is nice being able to come home every night.
[00:06:09] Jonathan Breeden: So what is the number one thing you learned in your 28 years that would help you now as a citizen and an employee of Pike Electric and possibly a state Senator?
[00:06:20] Christopher Sessions: Well, as far as I guess government goals is how inefficient government is being in the logistics field. You see things like when things kind of drove me crazy waste taxpayers’ money is at the end of the fiscal year, they would look at the budget and if they had money left over instead of basically giving it back to the taxpayer, it’s, well, we need to spend up this money because if not, our budget for next year is going to be less.
[00:06:50] Christopher Sessions: So they just put a wish list of stuff that they don’t need, you know, it’s stuff nice to have, but stuff they don’t need just because they don’t [00:07:00] want it to affect the budget for next year.
[00:07:02] Jonathan Breeden: And I’ve heard that so many times, you know, over the years, I was fortunate to work at the legislature back in the mid-90s, and we would get stories about that, where employees were, state employees would call in saying, you know, we’re just spending money on stuff we didn’t need stuff like that, which is unfortunate because it is the taxpayer’s money that’s getting spent on stuff that’s not necessary sometimes.
[00:07:26] Christopher Sessions: Oh, absolutely. You know, you look at the military budget and then other budgets and it’s just a huge, a lot of money that we could definitely be saving. I know we’re talking national and I’m running at the state level,
[00:07:40] Jonathan Breeden: But same thing at the state level too.
[00:07:41] Christopher Sessions: I’m sure, you know. Absolutely. There’s all sorts of places money can be saved.
[00:07:46] Jonathan Breeden: So, tell us a little bit about Pike Electric. I know that’s a pretty good-sized company. What do you do for them? What does Pike Electric do?
[00:07:52] Christopher Sessions: So, Pike Electric is an electrical contractor. And for me, we were contracted for [00:08:00] Duke Energy. So they put up the power lines, they do some emergency restoration, but a lot of what we do where I work out of his new construction.
[00:08:10] Christopher Sessions: So when they build a subdivision, apartment complex, and stuff like that. Pike Electric and other contractors are the ones that go out, run the power lines and I run the warehouse form.
[00:08:22] Christopher Sessions: So all the poles, wire, transformers, everything you see out there that’s bringing electric to your house comes through my warehouse or a warehouse-like mine.
[00:08:32] Jonathan Breeden: Okay, cool. So does Pike Electric do any work for anybody other than do that power?
[00:08:37] Christopher Sessions: Yes. What I’m at is only dude, but Hike Electric, they’re in, oh, they’re in most states now when I joined, it was 26, but I think they’re up above 40 states, so they contract with, you know, multiple power companies throughout the country, and they’re also into engineering, gas, they’re into a lot of stuff. It’s pretty [00:09:00] big contracting company.
[00:09:01] Jonathan Breeden: Well, cool. Well, let’s talk about some of your platforms. I’ve been reading your platform online. So I kind of know where you’re coming from It’s very in line with the libertarian party. One of the things you would like to see is the Decriminalization of drugs talk about that.
[00:09:15] Christopher Sessions: So first and foremost, in one of these. It’s my top priority is medical marijuana. As a veteran I’ve seen my fellow veterans greatly benefit from it, life-changing truly. People that say that it’s not a medicine have not seen loved ones and friends and family. The benefits that it’s caused.
[00:09:34] Christopher Sessions: I’ve seen fellow veterans come off, you know, multiple different drugs that had terrible side effects, started smoking marijuana, and were able to come off these other drugs and basically have their life back.
[00:09:48] Christopher Sessions: So that’s why that’s one of my top priorities, just because it’s personal to me. Other thing with decriminalization of drugs, I don’t think people should be thrown in cages for something they put in [00:10:00] their own body.
[00:10:00] Christopher Sessions: First and foremost, It’s about who owns your body, you or the government, but also you look at, I don’t know the numbers now, I heard that opioid deaths are coming down, but they peaked about 100,000 a year.. You look at Portugal, which decriminalized all drugs and made it more of a medical issue than a criminal issue, and they would cut their deaths by 80%.
[00:10:24] Christopher Sessions: So by making the drug issue a medical issue instead of a criminal issue, we could save up to 80,000 people a year. Now that’s on a national level and I’m running for state, but you know, we could set the example here in North Carolina for the other states to follow.
[00:10:41] Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. And another thing on your platform is a school choice. Talk a little bit about that.
[00:10:48] Christopher Sessions: Yes. So we do have a fairly good school choice program in North Carolina. It’s not fully funded. I would like to see it fully funded. I would like to see the money [00:11:00] follow the student so that the parents can decide how to best educate their child. Mike Ross is the libertarian running for governor and he actually did a podcast.
[00:11:11] Christopher Sessions: I think it’s called why we learn or how we learn. You can go to my Facebook page. I have a link and you know, it’s basically let’s allocate the money to the child. Let’s look at what’s best, whether it’s religious, charter, homeschooling the micro schools, really good idea. Let a teacher take, you know, 10, 15 children.
[00:11:35] Christopher Sessions: They can do it in the home. They can pocket most of that money. Spend some on the children. And give this child a better education. More, one one-on-one. And make more money as a teacher.
[00:11:47] Jonathan Breeden: Right. And, I actually somewhat agree with you, but the counter-argument would be, how do we assure the rigor and the standards of these micro-schools, or [00:12:00] some of these charter schools that don’t have to answer for the test scores and stuff like that, what’s your response to that?
[00:12:06] Christopher Sessions: I would say that’s up to the parents. It’s just like anything else in the free mom kit. You know, the parents make a choice or a customer makes a choice and if they’re not getting what they want out of it, they’re going to move their children.
[00:12:19] Christopher Sessions: You know, there are some bad parents out there, but those bad parents, no matter what those parents that don’t take their children to the government schools, that’s not going to change.
[00:12:30] Christopher Sessions: But most parents do care about their Children. They care about their education. And if the Child’s not being educated they’re going to pull them out. We don’t need the government to come in there and have test standards because the parents are going to have their own standards for their own children.
[00:12:43] Jonathan Breeden: Right. I don’t disagree with you at all on that. So the legislature has, well, the state Senate has passed the full funding of the opportunity scholarships. And for those of the people listening that aren’t aware there is a movement upon among the legislature. The state house has not taken up yet.[00:13:00]
[00:13:00] Jonathan Breeden: We’re recording this at the end of July of 2020. By the time this runs in a few weeks the legislature may have come to an agreement to fund these opportunity scholarships, but what that would allow you to do is to have the money as Mr. Sessions is saying, follow the student to a charter school or to a private school.
[00:13:18] Jonathan Breeden: And the new bill would eliminate income caps. Initially, you had to be in poverty to get it. But now they’re trying to open it up to any income level to where the money would be able to follow the school. I think it’s going to cost to fully fund it with the Senate passed a few weeks ago, it was $450 million in additional funding.
[00:13:37] Jonathan Breeden: But I don’t believe that would be additional funding because those kids would come out of the public schools and you know, so I think it might save the public school some amount of money there, too.
[00:13:46] Jonathan Breeden: So, for those of y’all listening, if you’re not familiar with the Opportunity Scholarship Program in North Carolina, definitely Google it, follow it, see what the legislature decides.
[00:13:53] Jonathan Breeden: If they don’t come to an agreement here in the next few weeks, I’m sure it will be up for debate again in the next [00:14:00] session that begins on January of 25 with the new state Senate and what will be a new governor at that time. And I know that Governor Cooper is against it. I know that Josh Stein, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate is against opportunity scholarships and against the expansion of school choice.
[00:14:16] Jonathan Breeden: So I guess we’ll have to see who wins these elections to see whether we’ll be able to move forward on that in North Carolina.
[00:14:22] Christopher Sessions: Yes, absolutely. And one thing I want to point out is, you know, you brought up the standards and testing and one reason why I’m against increasing and putting these standards on the private schools and the homeschooling is I don’t want a government takeover of the private schools.
[00:14:42] Christopher Sessions: I don’t want private schools to look like just like the public schools. I want parents to have a true choice on how their children are educated. And the only way we can do that is get the government out of education. You know, especially the private sector, we can still have [00:15:00] government education, but they need to be out of the private sector and let them come up with new ways and more innovative ways to educate the children.
[00:15:08] Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. And I know that you support the elimination of the state income tax.
[00:15:12] Christopher Sessions: So on the income tax, I guess I’m evolving on that, I think that’s an easy one that other states have done. And that’s why when I initially ran, I came out with that. I’m bringing up Mike Ross again, and he’s on his platform. He talks about simplifying the tax code and eliminating a lot of taxes and bringing them into one.
[00:15:34] Christopher Sessions: So whether it’s eliminating the income tax, eliminating the sales tax, property tax, cause you start looking at these and we don’t even realize how much your tax if you start adding it up, it’s a lot more than we see.
[00:15:47] Christopher Sessions: So what I want to do is, you know, in a perfect world, Mike would be elected government and you know a governor and I would be elected to the Senate and we could work this plan and [00:16:00] basically just consolidate everything so it’s more transparent.
[00:16:03] Christopher Sessions: So you the people see what they’re being taxed and then they can decide. Do they one, all these programs, is it worth the tax? So whether it’s eliminating the income tax, eliminating the property tax you know, eliminating sales tax, let’s get one tax. It’s transparent that you see actually how much you’re paying, and then hopefully lessen it.
[00:16:26] Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And one of the things that you’ve also got in your platform, another one that you and I kind of agree with is you’d like to see the state eliminate some of the licensures, particularly the ones that are not involved in healthcare. Talk a little bit about that.
[00:16:41] Christopher Sessions: Yes. So, I want to eliminate the licensing for anything that doesn’t have to do with public safety. And right now we’re the 8th worst state as far as occupational licensing, nearly 22% of our jobs require licensing. And even [00:17:00] healthcare, not necessarily licensing, but we need to look at the certificate of need which requires the government to give hospitals permission to expand or build new hospitals.
[00:17:11] Christopher Sessions: So I’d like a more free market approach, let them decide what the community needs, not the government. And I actually have a list of some of the jobs, I don’t have everything memorized. If I can take a second and go through.
[00:17:24] Christopher Sessions: So, A barber requires over 1500 hours and a licensing fee of $120. A manicurist requires 300 hours of training. A hair braider requires 300 hours of training. A landscape contractor, they don’t have to have any training, but they do have to have a licensed auctioneer, and 80 hours of training, and travel agents have to be licensed. Interior designers have to be licensed and massage therapists require 500 [00:18:00] hours of training.
[00:18:01] Christopher Sessions: So, and that’s just a few, there’s nearly 800 occupations in North Carolina that require licenses. As you see, most of them have nothing to do with public safety. It’s about raising government funds, and protectionism of who already has in those perfection.
[00:18:17] Christopher Sessions: So, yeah, I’d like to eliminate pretty much all occupational licensing.
[00:18:22] Jonathan Breeden: Well, and those licenses create barriers to entry, they make it harder to start a business. When you talk about the military, as you move from state to state, you might not need a license to do a manicurist or whatever, wherever you were.
[00:18:37] Jonathan Breeden: And then that’s what your career is. And your husband gets sent to Fort Liberty now, and now you can’t work in your profession because you don’t have the right stuff to get the license.
[00:18:48] Christopher Sessions: Oh, absolutely. It is a hin for opening business and for finding a job. And like I said, those it shows no benefit to society as a whole, to safety. It’s [00:19:00] just protecting the people that are already in those jobs.
[00:19:02] Jonathan Breeden: Well, yeah, and creating government entities to support it because somebody’s got to review the licenses and give the licenses, and then most of those things have a board that the taxpayers pay for that oversee the licensing. So I agree with you 100%.
[00:19:16] Jonathan Breeden: We have way too many license requirements in North Carolina and me as an attorney pay a separate licensing fee on top of my state bar licensing fee until this year. So for 23 years, I had to pay a fee to just be a business in the state of North Carolina. I think it was $50.
[00:19:37] Jonathan Breeden: It’s ridiculous. Finally, they got rid of that after the state bar charged me three or four hundred dollars a year for the right to have a law license in this state. So it’s a lot.
[00:19:47] Christopher Sessions: Yeah, and another thing they do is limit, like, what the people can do in these professions. Like I was reading about paralegals on what legal advice they can give.
[00:19:58] Christopher Sessions: So you could probably speak more of [00:20:00] it, but people could save money if they could go to a paralegal for things that they could handle versus having to pay a lawyer to get that legal advice. Also, nurses were one of 15 states that nurses have to follow up under a doctor to do almost anything describe medicine.
[00:20:17] Christopher Sessions: So if we got some of them barriers out of the way, it would save customers a lot of money
[00:20:22] Jonathan Breeden: And I’m familiar with the paralegal thing there are states around the country that allow paralegals to become licensed and then they’re able to do certain minor things without an attorney’s supervision. Drafting documents is not a lot different than what you would see with legal Zoom or something like that.
[00:20:40] Jonathan Breeden: I don’t know I mean eventually that’ll probably get to North Carolina right now, it’s on the West Coast. I know they have it in Washington State, so we’ll see. You know, if it can create access to the courts and access to justice for people that can’t afford it I would be for it.
[00:20:53] Jonathan Breeden: I actually know some paralegals in these states that are these they have a name. I can’t think of what it is. [00:21:00] Basically a Certified paralegal, you know, and they do a nice job and I talked to him, and they do a very good job of knowing what they can do and what they can’t do.
[00:21:08] Jonathan Breeden: So I’ve seen where it can work, particularly in Washington State, where they have it, where I know a couple of people that actually are that. So anyway, well, good. I’d like to thank you for coming on.
[00:21:17] Jonathan Breeden: How can people get up with your campaign or contribute to your campaign for the state Senate?
[00:21:21] Christopher Sessions: So I have a page on the libertarian site. It’s LPNC.Org/Sessions. I’m also on Facebook. It’s Sessions for the NC Senate. And on X it’s Christopher Sessions for NC Senate at Sessions for Senate.
[00:21:39] Jonathan Breeden: Okay, cool. Well, we would like to thank Christopher Sessions for coming on and being our guest on this edition of the Best of Johnston County Podcast.
[00:21:47] Jonathan Breeden: He will be on your ballot in Johnston County on November 5th in the general election, running against the incumbent state senator from Clayton Benton, sorry, who is a Republican and it’s his seat and Christopher [00:22:00] Sessions is running against him.
[00:22:02] Jonathan Breeden: So anyway, if you want to learn more about his campaign, go to the sites he talked about. Visit the Libertarian NC website as well. Anyway, until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.