*By Christian Smith*
North Carolina may be gun safety advocates' best bet for making legislative inroads this November, said Sarah Ullman, filmmaker and founder of One Vote at a Time, a PAC that creates free campaign ads for pro-gun safety candidates.
"I think North Carolina is really interesting right now," Ullman said Monday in an interview on Cheddar. "People smell an opportunity to make huge, huge gains for Democrats."
North Carolina, a state with a strong firearms culture and deep ties to the NRA, might seem an unlikely place for gun safety advocates.
But thanks to a recent Supreme Court ruling requiring the state to redistrict in an effort to curb gerrymandering, Ullman believes Democrats can make real progress.
Republicans in North Carolina currently hold a supermajority in both the state's House and Senate, which means both bodies can box Democrats out of policy decisions. Ullman hopes that through her team's work, Democrats can win back enough seats and end the GOP's stronghold on the state legislature.
This year, One Vote at a Time will work with 190 candidates across 10 states, she said. To make the cut, a candidate must stand a chance of winning and also be pro-gun safety ー the definition of which the PAC determines on a state-by-state basis.
"What it means to be pro-gun safety is very different in Texas versus North Carolina," Ullman said. "We have a political adviser, we talk to different political people in the state to make an assessment on which candidates are the best for us."
The cost of ads varies, since different states have vastly different rules about the amount of money a PAC can contribute to a campaign. To limit costs, One Vote at a Time executes many simultaneous ad shoots for candidates in a single day, so the organization can distribute the cost across several campaigns.
The ads run online and, if the candidate's campaign can afford it, on local broadcast networks.
One Vote at a Time has raised just over a $1 million this year.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/from-films-to-filings-why-one-director-decided-to-make-her-own-super-pac).
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.
A new poll finds most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive.
The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
President Donald Trump says “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea after China restricted exports of rare earths needed for American industry. The Republican president suggested Friday he was looking at a “massive increase” of import taxes on Chinese products in response to Xi’s moves. Trump says one of the policies the U.S. is calculating is "a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States." A monthslong calm on Wall Street was shattered, with U.S. stocks falling on the news. The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn't responded to an Associated Press request for comment.
