Shannon Bray

Shannon Bray was born in Marrero, Louisiana. Bray served in the U.S. Navy from 1991 to 1997. He earned a high school diploma from Thibodaux High School. Bray earned an associate degree from Arapahoe Community College in 2014, a bachelor's degree from Colorado State University in 2016, and a graduate degree from the University of Delaware in 2018. Bray's professional experience includes working in information technology, software development, information security, and management. He has been associated with the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps (NSCC), and the Navy League of the United States.[1][2]

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Lieutenant Governor

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Governor

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Campaign website

Bray’s campaign website stated the following:

Abortion

Abortion is a complicated issue. The reason for this is because you are dealing with competing rights. When you have two citizens sharing one body, you have to find a way to balance those competing rights in a delicate and humanitarian way.

Democrats wish to eliminate any rights of a fetus, and only fully favor the rights of the woman. Republicans wish to eliminate the rights of the woman, giving exclusive rights to the fetus alone.

Neither of these options are reasonable or recognize that both citizens deserve rights and equal treatment.

So, how does one combat this issue? With fair legislation that balances the rights of each individual involved.

Women have full rights to terminate a pregnancy up until the 16th week without restrictions. 99% of all abortions take place by this time currently.

After 16 weeks, protective measures go into place to protect the rights of both the woman and the fetus.

In cases of rape or incest, a woman will have the right to terminate up until the date of fetal viability outside the womb (currently 24 weeks; likely earlier in future with improved technology).

Women will also have the right to terminate due to fetal abnormalities that can cause lifelong medical intervention up until the 24th week.

3rd Trimester abortions will be outlawed with the exceptions of danger to the life of the mother, stillbirth, and if the baby is unlikely to survive after birth due to malformations.

A fair system that takes into account the competing rights of each person inhabiting a single body is something that needs to be taken seriously and balanced accordingly.

Republicans and Democrats want to strip away the rights of one or the other. I don’t believe in stripping away the rights of a single soul in favor of another. I stand for the right to live and thrive for both parties involved in a pregnancy.

Policing & Public Safety

A Governor of the State of North Carolina has the right to appoint the Secretary of Public Safety, the position in charge of every policy and funding to the police departments, both Local & State. As Governor, I will appoint a qualified individual who will support and implement these policy changes throughout the police departments in the State of North Carolina.

Police departments will stop traffic stops that directly do not endanger the public safety. This includes, but is not limited to:

Broken Head/Taillights

“Smell of drugs”

Under 12 mph speeding infractions

Stop sign/red light infractions that did not lead directly to an accident.

Parking citations (Handicap zones are exceptions)

Complete cessation of “speed traps”

Jaywalking

Failure to Yield

Improperly passing, turning, or backing up

The points system against a person’s driver’s license will be abolished. This policy is intended for punitive reasons, but in reality only benefits the insurance companies financially at the expense of the people.

Lesser financial penalties based on income for traffic infractions/sliding scale.

Drug possession crimes will no longer be pursued or be arrestable offenses.

Intent to Sell drug crimes must be proven by the officers who investigate the activity, through a direct sale recorded on body camera or other surveillance by the Police Officers prior to arrest. Amount of drugs confiscated will no longer qualify as the determining factor in this charge.

Civil Forfeiture will be abolished. This creates an undue burden on a Defendant’s right to Due Process and an ability to mount a proper defense.

Qualified Immunity will be abolished. The people have the Constitutional Right to sue when their rights are violated.

The Defense of Civil lawsuits and Criminal charges against police officers will be paid for by the Police Union Pension and Retirement Fund, not taxpayer dollars.

Military equipment will be sold to the National Guard of North Carolina or the Federal Military Branches throughout the State of North Carolina. Officers may only carry a taser and a baton while traffic patrolling and may use registered pistols while investigating violent and property crimes or arriving to serve warrants on offenders with physically violent histories.

Police will go through a re-training program that will focus on how the life of each individual citizen is equal to the life of a police officer. They will shoot only when directly shot at, and only when other options are taken from them. Hand to hand combat, intense disarming training, and other methods of non-lethal violence will be heavily focused on. No weapon will be discharged unless all other methods have been used first.

If a police officer causes the death of a citizen in the line of duty, they will be immediately suspended without pay. They will be investigated by the Department of Public Safety to determine if evidence exists to hand over to a District Attorney for prosecution. If the officer is determined during the course of the investigation by the Department of Public Safety to have violated a citizen’s Constitutional Rights or acted outside the law, they will be terminated. Those cleared through the investigation will be allowed to return to work at full pay.

No-Knock Warrants will be abolished.

Full transparency with all body-worn cameras. These videos will be uploaded in full at the end of each shift, and available for access to any government official, media outlet, and affected individual that files an FOIA request to the Department in question.

Deliberately turning off a body-worn camera will immediately result in the firing of that officer.

Use of force restraint will no longer be allowed above the age of 70 and under the age of 15 by law enforcement. This will also apply to physically disabled individuals who are assisted with canes, wheelchairs, slings, or similar orthopedic devices for mobilization. Verbal tactics must be used for the safety of those citizens.

Police Departments will hire Licensed Clinical Social Workers, at least 3-5 per Department (higher numbers will be required for large departments that cover larger populations), that will respond with the officers to scenes involving the mentally ill, intellectually disabled, suicide risks, and other mental health related calls. These LCSWs will take charge of each of these scenes.

All current Police Officers that have not yet achieved a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice will enroll in college to achieve that Degree. This will be funded by the State. No new hires will be admitted without a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice. Police training programs alone are not enough to understand the complexity of the Laws set out to protect the Citizens of North Carolina.

Police Officers and Detectives will focus on Violent Crimes against the Public and Property Crimes. Non-violent offenses or those offenses not directly related to property damage or theft will not be pursued by Law Enforcement, unless an investigation has already been opened by the District Attorney’s office.

Marijuana

A Governor can decriminalize marijuana in their state on his own without the involvement of Congress.

I will issue an Executive Order directing State Law Enforcement agencies to not enforce marijuana laws, prioritizing violent and property crimes above marijuana offenses.

I will also work with the State Legislature to pass laws that decriminalize or legalize marijuana beginning on my very first day in office.

I will also be issuing official pardons for anyone who is currently incarcerated for Possession charges, along with the steps listed to ensure drug crimes are not the focus of law enforcement going forward.

Ultimately, the question of whether or not marijuana is legal in a particular state is a matter of federal law. However, State Governors can play a role in shaping how marijuana is regulated and enforced within their states. I intend to do exactly that for the people of the State of North Carolina.

Electoral Reform—Instant Runoff Voting

Municipal and county elections in North Carolina are adjudicated using the “non-partisan plurality” rule, which basically means that whoever gets the most votes wins. Sounds good in theory, but in practice, we often end up with “winners” who get less than a majority of the vote. In a four-way race for a town council seat, for example, if the vote were to split 26%-25%-25%-24%, we would end up with a town councilor who 74% of the electorate voted against! This is fundamentally undemocratic!

We could require candidates to garner a majority—or, say, finishing first with at least 40% of the vote—to be declared the winner, but that would likely necessitate many more runoff elections, which are expensive to conduct and typically have low turnout…so if a runoff winner got 40% of the vote in an election with, say, 30% turnout, then we have someone elected whom 88% of all voters did not vote for. Not an improvement!

Here’s a better idea: let’s allow municipalities and counties the option of utilizing the “instant runoff” rule—a/k/a ranked-choice voting. Using this system, you rank some or all of the candidates for each office in order of preference. If no candidate gets a majority of votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and the votes for that person are redistributed to each voter’s second choice candidate.

The advantages of “instant runoff” are:

Every winner is elected by a majority of all voters

No need to hold a costly and noisome runoff election

Even if your first-choice candidate is eliminated, you still have the opportunity to affect the outcome with your second-choice vote

Candidates have an incentive to broaden their message in pursuit of 2nd- and 3rd-place votes; the tactic of insulting not only other candidates but also their supporters will not work as well as it does under the current system

If elected, I will work with the afford counties and municipalities the option to conduct their elections utilizing the “instant runoff” rule.

Electoral Reform—Independent Voters

In October of 1765, the Stamp Act Congress met in New York. This group of American colonists then declared what would become a fundamental part of the formation of what is now known as the United States of America: No Taxation Without Representation.

It was unacceptable to these Colonists that the English Monarchy had any right whatsoever to tax them when not a single American Colonist was represented in their government. The argument being that to have the right to tax the citizens of the country, that population must be represented within the government. This is one of the core principles upon which America was founded.

North Carolina violates this core principle in an egregious manner when it comes to our elections.

Electoral matters are governed by the North Carolina Board of Elections and in each county, a local Board of Elections, each with five members. In total, that is 505 people who make important decisions about elections including the calendar for early voting and voting locations for precincts, approving voting machines, collecting and reviewing campaign finance reports, determining what types of IDs can be used to vote, resolving voting and candidate eligibility issues, and certifying elections.

Currently, 36% of all voters in this state are registered as independent (officially, ‘“unaffiliated”). This number exceeds the percentage of either Democratic (33%) or Republican (30%) registered voters. Obviously, if we respected the principle of No Taxation Without Representation, approximately 1/3 of all members of the various Boards of Elections would be registered independents…but instead, all 408 members of the boards of elections in North Carolina are registered Democrats or registered Republicans. And this is not just coincidence: independents—and voters registered with any party other than the two largest—are legally banned from being appointed to any of the 101 boards of elections in NC!

A separate but related issue is that current North Carolina law effectively prevents independent voters from running in any election where each candidate’s party is listed on the ballot. For example, as a Libertarian, to run for governor all I have to do is pay my filing fee to the North Carolina State Board of Elections, and I am automatically on the ballot—either for the general election in November 2024, or, if anyone else also files to run as a Libertarian, for the primary election in March 2024. But if you are registered independent and want to run, the NCSBE won’t take your check for the filing fee…unless you’ve already submitted petitions with thousands of signatures from voters approving putting your name on the ballot.

All North Carolina voters deserve to be represented equally and fairly in our government. If elected, I will work with the North Carolina General Assembly on legislation that will provide a way to include independent voters on each Board of Elections and end discriminatory treatment of registered independent candidates.[3]

—Shannon Bray’s campaign website (2024)[4]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Shannon Bray is a veteran of the US Navy. After leaving the service, Shannon invested his education in information technology serving many roles through software development to management. He is known in the cryptography and blockchain spaces. He is an author, speaker, and professional coach now living in Apex, NC with his wife, Stephanie, and his 3 children: Eden, Hayden, and Kenna.

Shannon is a big advocate in limited the power of the government and hopes to introduce technological ideas to help make government more transparent.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Economy/InflationTransparency in GovernmentEnd involvement in foreign wars

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about how money flows through our systems and how fiat money supplied by the government is often manipulated to support government overprinting. I believe the state of our current crisis' are due to a lack of government transparency, the influence of big pharma on government, and the government putting extra cash into the economic system and expecting the lower and middle class to pick up the tab through inflation and recession. Both democratic and republican parties believe the Fed is the right answer; the fed raises rates making it harder for poor people to pay their bills. I would like to return cash back to the middle and lower classes through tax reduction.

Inflation is a tax on the lower and middle class that is imposed on them through the mishandling of an economy. It take many years to end up in our current state. We need new ideas on how we choose our currencies. We need to decentralize our money from government to achieve personal liberty from government control.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

In our current government, I look to follow Thomas Massie, Ron Paul, and Justin Amash.

These gentlemen are leaders in personal liberty and understand the challenges we face in our future. Each have their own set of winning traits and each have shown incredible leadership. If they were on my ballot, I would not challenge them; they represent the best of our representatives.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The first historical event, outside being born of course, is the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan which happened on March 21, 1981. I was 9 years old.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was at Rouses Supermarket in Thibodaux, Louisiana. I started working while in high school.

What do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Our economy and the technical decisions we make around blockchain. Data privacy is also something we need to get under control.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

100% All federally elected offices should have term limits.

What qualities does the U.S. Senate possess that makes it unique as an institution?

Shannon Bray has a master's degree in cyber security and has been a leader in creating technological solutions for decades. In his career, he has worked for large companies such as Visa and Microsoft and the federal government working in a number of agencies.

Shannon believes the federal government is wasting resources on problems trying to force the wrong solutions and that his experience can help strengthen better policies in Washington.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for senators to have previous experience in government or politics?

No; in fact the longer someone is in office, the tighter they are with special interest groups like big pharma.

What do you think of the filibuster?

The filibuster is needed. I would like to see the old style brough back.

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Shannon Bray is a former submariner and diver for the United States Navy. After leaving the Navy, Shannon started a career in information technology. Over the past decade, Shannon has worked for several federal agencies and is now a cyber security analyst for the Department of Defense. He received his undergrad from the Colorado State and his master's from the University of Delaware. He is now pursing a PhD in Computer Science and is focusing on national defense. Over his career, Shannon has been a featured speaker at many technology conferences, written several books, and teaches stem classes to youth programs.

Shannon Bray lives in Apex, NC. with his wife Stephanie and their three kids who are ages 10, 11, and 12. In his free time, Shannon loves to scuba dive and explore the beautiful coast lands of North Carolina. While politics was never a goal, over the past several years, he realized that our information infrastructures are at risk and our current representatives struggle to understand how technology is used to keep our systems safe.

Shannon's passions lie with the veteran services, protecting those who cannot protect themselves, and ensuring our personal privacy both in life and in our online data.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I want to fight for equal rights under the law for all American citizens no matter their race, sex, ; I believe that ALL humans are created equalOne of the reasons why I am running is to find a solution at the federal level to improve the mental and physical health of our veterans; if we send them off to war, we owe this to them.Everyday, we hear of yet another cyber attack and the lose of our personal data. We should have complete control and ownership of our personal data much like they do in other countries.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Expansion of medicare to assist our veterans with their mental and physical well-being.

We need to improve our data privacy laws and give people ownership of their data.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

John McCain - I did not always agree with Sen. John McCain but he modeled what I feel a US Senator should be. I don't believe a senator should cast a vote just because his of a political party. You should stand up for the people of your state. He is a war hero and a patriot.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

Its' Your Ship.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

I do not have to agree with my elected officials on everything. The most important characteristics should include: honor, respect, and integrity.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I want to improve the lives of those in my state and fight for their personal liberties. I want to help the veterans that we send off to endless wars. I want to bring honesty and integrity to our government.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The same as any elected official. I do not have to agree with my elected officials on everything. The most important characteristics should include: honor, respect, and integrity.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I do not need to leave a legacy. I want to help right the wrongs I see in our government and then turn the reigns over to someone we can trust. If I am remembered for anything, I would want to be a champion of human rights, fight for personal freedoms, and keep our citizens safe from cyber crimes.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The first historical events I remember was the attempted shooting of President Reagan in 1981. Another memorable moment was the exposition of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was working in a grocery store when I was 16. I held that job for 2 years until I left for college out of town.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Shadow Divers - It is an excellent book on technical diving off the coast of the United States. As a technical diver, it was an excellent read. Most of my reading is for research or are related to technology and government.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Agent Liberty: Benjamin Lockwood once worked for the CIA but ultimately left in disgust at their methods and the types of missions he was being asked to undertake. He became so disenchanted with the Federal Government as a whole that he joined the paramilitary group called the Sons of Liberty, who outfitted him with the outfit and equipment to become Agent Liberty.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

God Bless the USA - Greenwood

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I struggle everyday just like everyone else, they include finances, education, health, and raising our kids. I was raised in a poor household that required social and church services to keep the lights on. I have struggled with having to keep health insurance to keep my kids healthy. I struggle watching friends of mine struggle when they cannot get the help they need from Veteran Affairs. I struggle to explain to my kids why some people don't have homes to live in. I struggle with my representatives not telling me the truth.

What do you perceive to be the United States' greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

We must get away from bipartisan politics where there always has to be a winner or loser. Senators should work for the people and not the special interest groups who fund the partisan divide.

What qualities does the U.S. Senate possess that makes it unique as an institution?

The most important job of a United States senator is to represent the people. A senator should speak with citizens about problems, concerns or suggestions they have for their state. The people elect their senators with the expectation that they will fight for legislation that is in the best interest of the average citizen. Senators' offices should take phone calls and emails from citizens who want to share their opinions; A senator should host town halls and should inform the public of the truth and keep the citizens of the state well informed. A senator also uses constituent feedback to identify new laws that need to be passed. Senators must work to research topics, identify issues and propose laws to protect citizens.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for senators to have previous experience in government or politics?

No; I believe that it is more important to represent the people as apposed to knowing how to navigate special interests.

What do you think of the filibuster?

A filibuster in the United States Senate is a tactic used in the United States Senate to prevent a measure from being brought to a vote. The most common form of filibuster occurs when one or more senators attempt to delay or block a vote on a bill by extending debate on the measure. I do not believe that any vote should be blocked and I'm against having all issues represented on the Senate floor.

What criteria would you apply when deciding whether to confirm presidential appointees?

The party one belongs to should not dictate who a president nominates for appointees. The nomination should be a person who is free from corruption, bribery, and is truthful in their actions. In positions where the nomination has a past of public service, their service should help speak for their future actions.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other senators?

Absolutely!

If you are not a current senator, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

Armed Services

Commerce, Science, and Transportation

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Veterans' Affairs

If you are not currently a member of your party’s leadership in the U.S. Senate, would you be interested in joining the leadership? If so, in what role?

I would first need to evaluate who is among the leadership. The US Senate needs to be refreshed with people who care for their states as opposed to their legacy.

Is there a particular senator, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

US Senator - John McCain

Shannon Bray did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2019 Candidate Connection survey.