Two years ago, I made a decision to run for U. S. Senate because I believed that we, as a country, needed to focus more on people and less on powerful interests. While we came up short last year, the same issues that compelled me to run then, face us today. I’m running for re-election for North Carolina Secretary of State so we can keep up the fight.

Today, we see a grassroots protest movement called Occupy Wall Street that, in some ways, is similar to the grassroots protest movement known as the Tea Party. While they have different goals, they both arose from anger at feeling left out of our political and economic system. It’s our responsibility as elected officials to address that anger and try to right those wrongs.

As Secretary of State, I worked to reform our lobbying laws to ensure transparency and reduce undue influence of special interests in the legislature. As part of my job, I oversee securities and investment and I’ve held powerful financial interests accountable when they have misled investors, both large and small. And I’ve cracked down on scam artists who use “Ponzi schemes” to prey on our most vulnerable citizens and have sent the con men to jail for long sentences.

Today, there is a concerted effort to roll back the lobbying laws at the state level. At the federal level, there is push to strip my powers of enforcement and allow for more “self-regulation” of the financial industry. We all know what that gets us.

I’m running again because I’m ready to fight these attempts to shift power back into the hands of the few. I ask for your help and support. It’s going to take all of us working together to get this country back on the right track.

Thank you,

Elaine Marshall