Performance Review: Representative Chuck Edwards, NC-11
An Open Letter to the public
Representative Edwards:
My BRONZE tier healthcare premium went from $350 to $1,257 per month because of your HR 1 vote.
I am in my 50s, self-employed and semi-retired, well above the poverty line. I saved responsibly, did everything Republicans celebrate as the markers of personal responsibility and success. If someone like me cannot afford the healthcare system you created, then what you’ve built is designed to fail.
But this letter is not about my healthcare alone. This is a performance review. You work for me and every other constituent in NC-11. And you are failing to meet the basic expectations of your job.
Core Responsibility: Show Up For Work
The House of Representatives has not been in session since September 19—six weeks. Congress hasn’t voted on a single piece of legislation while the government you shut down continues to harm millions of Americans. You’re keeping the House on recess instead of coming back to work.
Meanwhile, you send sporadic newsletters and divisive surveys designed to inflame rather than inform. But the House chamber sits empty. The work that requires your physical presence in Washington—the votes, the negotiations, the actual legislating—goes undone.
Performance Assessment: Fails to meet basic attendance expectations. Employee refuses to report to primary workplace while critical job functions remain unperformed.
Core Responsibility: Ensure Constituents Have Representation
On September 23, Arizona voters elected Adelita Grijalva to represent their district. More than 800,000 Americans have been without congressional representation for over a month because Speaker Johnson won’t swear her in—and you’ve said nothing.
Two Republican congressmen were sworn in within 24 hours of their special election victories in April. Grijalva has now waited longer than any member-elect in twelve years. Her constituents can’t access constituent services. Veterans can’t get help with their claims. Students can’t get nominations to military academies. A member of Congress their community elected cannot do her job because leadership from your party won’t allow it.
You claim to stand for the voice of the people, yet you remain silent while 800,000 Americans are denied the representation they voted for.
Performance Assessment: Tolerates disenfranchisement of constituents when politically convenient. Fails to defend democratic representation.
Core Responsibility: Protect Vulnerable Constituents
Forty-two million Americans receive SNAP benefits—food assistance for families living in poverty. On October 10, the USDA announced they have “insufficient funds” to continue benefits starting November 1. A $5 billion contingency fund exists that could maintain benefits. President Trump was asked directly whether he would use emergency authority to fund SNAP, as he did to pay military personnel. He deflected to blaming Democrats.
You have remained silent while children go hungry as a political tactic.
Food prices have increased since President Trump took office, with August seeing the biggest jump in grocery prices in almost three years. Overall food prices are 3.1% higher than a year ago. While families struggle to afford groceries, you’ve been on recess for six weeks rather than working to address rising costs.
Performance Assessment: Fails to advocate for vulnerable populations. Allows children to be used as political leverage. Takes no action on constituent economic hardship.
Core Responsibility: Deliver On Promises to Working-Class Americans
In May, you sent constituents a letter defending your HR 1 vote. You wrote that the bill was “for and about working-class Americans and senior citizens.” You promised it would help small business owners. You claimed it delivered “the largest tax cuts for the middle- and working-class Americans in our country’s history.”
I am a working-class American approaching full retirement. I am self-employed—exactly the kind of small business owner Republicans celebrate in campaign speeches. Your bill made my healthcare unaffordable. Your vote turned a safety net into a safety gap, and I’m falling through it.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, 4.2 million Americans will lose healthcare coverage because HR 1 did not extend the enhanced premium tax credits. For those who remain insured, average premiums will increase by 75%. This affects self-employed workers, early retirees, and small business owners—the very people you claimed to help.
Performance Assessment: Delivers opposite of promised results. Policy outcomes directly contradict stated objectives.
Core Responsibility: Honest Communication with Constituents
When the government shut down on October 1st, you sent constituents a newsletter blaming Democrats for “playing Russian Roulette with the American economy.” You detailed Hurricane Helene recovery delays, national park closures, and veterans’ services. You wrote that Democrats “voted no to continuing disaster recovery in Western North Carolina and no on providing $22.5 billion in additional disaster relief funding.”
What you never mentioned: Democrats refused to vote for the Republican funding bill because it did not include an extension of the enhanced premium tax credits—the very subsidies your HR 1 vote eliminated. The subsidies that 78% of Americans, including majorities of Republicans, support extending. The subsidies that would keep my premium at $350 instead of $1,257.
This is propaganda by omission: tell people about everything except the thing that matters most to their lives. You blamed Democrats for refusing disaster relief while never telling constituents that Democrats were fighting to restore the healthcare you made unaffordable for millions.
Performance Assessment: Deliberately misleading communication. Withholds material information necessary for constituents to understand policy decisions.
Summary Assessment: Complete Control, Zero Results
For years, I heard Republican leaders promise that if only they had control, they would fix everything. Speaker Mike Johnson promised on Fox News that he was preparing so Trump would be “prepared and ready on day one.”
You have that control now. The White House. The Senate. The House. The Supreme Court. Complete authority to enact your vision for America.
And what have you delivered?
Food prices have increased, with August’s jump being the largest in almost three years. The government has been shut down for over 31 days. Congress hasn’t been in session since September 19—six weeks—and you’re keeping the House on recess instead of coming back to work. You won’t even swear in a duly elected member, leaving 800,000 Arizonans without representation. And 4.2 million Americans are being priced out of their healthcare. Bonus action - alienated us from our allies.
But you still blame Democrats—Democrats who control nothing—for the consequences of legislation you passed with complete control.
Where is my affordable healthcare, Representative Edwards?
Where is the help for working-class Americans you promised?
Performance Review Outcome
In any other workplace, an employee with this performance record would not survive their annual review.
An employee who doesn’t show up for work for six weeks? Terminated.
An employee who delivers the opposite of what they promised? Terminated.
An employee who deliberately misleads their supervisors about their work? Terminated.
An employee who tolerates harm to the organization’s most vulnerable stakeholders as a political tactic? Terminated.
But you’re not in a normal workplace. Your performance review accountability comes in 12 months, when voters in NC-11 decide whether to rehire you.
They will remember that they lost healthcare. They will remember there is less food on the table. They will remember the painful tradeoffs they had to make because of your votes.
And gerrymandering will not save you when the impact is this widespread. When upper middle-class families can’t afford healthcare, when working families choose between groceries and medical care, when senior citizens ration their medications—that crosses every district line you’ve drawn.
So here’s the question every voter should be asking: Why should we give you another term when you haven’t fulfilled the basic responsibilities of this one?
What will you tell us? That you were “ready on day one”? You said that already, and the results speak for themselves. That you’re fighting for working-class Americans? My $907 monthly premium increase says otherwise. That Democrats are to blame? You have complete control of government and can’t even manage to show up for work.
In twelve months, you’ll ask NC-11 voters to rehire you. This letter is documentation for that performance review.
Corrective Action Required
You promised your bill would help working-class Americans. Instead, it costs me $10,884 annually—money I need to stretch my retirement savings. You promised to help small business owners. I am self-employed, and you made my healthcare inaccessible. You promised the largest tax cuts for the middle class. I see no benefit from those cuts, but I see very clearly the $907 monthly increase in my healthcare costs.
Here is what I expect you to do:
Come back to Washington. Stop hiding in your district while the government you shut down harms millions of Americans. The House hasn’t worked since September 19. Do your job.
Work with your colleagues—Democrats included—to reopen the government. Your constituents need federal services, not political theater. Seventy-eight percent of Americans want the enhanced premium tax credits extended. Stop pretending this is a partisan issue when majorities across party lines support action.
Restore the enhanced premium tax credits. Publicly endorse their restoration and co-sponsor legislation to reinstate them. Your HR 1 vote created this crisis. Take responsibility for fixing it.
Stop using hungry children, uninsured families, and unrepresented constituents as bargaining chips. Fund SNAP benefits. Demand that Speaker Johnson swear in Adelita Grijalva. Govern like people’s lives matter more than your political games.
Do the job North Carolina voters elected you to do. You have complete control of government and promised you were ready. Prove it.
I am making this public because you hid the truth from your constituents. Because millions of Americans in the Medicare gap—the self-employed, the small business owners, the early retirees—face the same crisis. Because propaganda only works when people don’t know they’re being deceived.
Bonnie A Ross
Constituent, NC-11
In my 50s | Self-employed and semi-retired
$907 monthly premium increase due to HR 1
This letter will be distributed to local and national media, healthcare policy organizations, and democracy advocacy networks.
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