NC Insurance Commissioner Race to Be Competitive in 2024
RALEIGH, N.C. //BestWire// - A North Carolina businessman is in the running for the Democratic Party’s nomination for insurance commissioner, and has a raft of plans to lower insurance rates, restore staffing at the Department of Insurance, create a company rating scale for consumers to access and support more insurance jobs statewide.
David WheelerDavid Wheeler said he would fight rate increases, which he said have happened too often under the leadership of Commissioner Mike Causey, identified on his web site as “Rate Hike Mike.”
Wheeler will be facing state Sen. Natasha Marcus in the primary election. Marcus said she is running against corruption, corporate greed and bad government (BestWire, Dec. 11, 2023).
Besides fighting rate hikes, Wheeler said he would create a web site for consumers to rate companies as a tool to identify “bad” insurance companies.
Further, Wheeler pledged to work with the North Carolina economic development teams to ensure insurance is a focus for investments, incentives and attracting new businesses.
“Insurance agents and agencies are sources of well paying jobs and I will help them expand through grants and loans,” he said. “I would also like to work with existing insurance tech hubs to expand their capabilities to all of North Carolina and create several new insurance tech companies that can provide high paying, long term jobs for our people.”
He also said he wants to rebuild the staff at the Department of Insurance.
“The employees have taken a back seat over the last several years and it’s time the right people were in the right jobs with the right pay,” he said. “I’ll work to get some of the people DOI has lost back in their roles at DOI and get jobs filled in departments that are suffering.”
Wheeler also said the department should get more involved in preserving the North Carolina property market so that it doesn’t fall into an availability crisis such as the one facing Florida. He called for a nonpartisan task force of industry, consumers, senior citizens, public employees and other stakeholders to study what is happening in Florida and what steps North Carolina should take next.
Wheeler also wants to put an emphasis on distracted driving, and said he would first focus attention on teens.
Last, Wheeler said he wants to see if the North Carolina Rate Bureau, which represents carriers, should be eliminated or strengthened.
(By Timothy Darragh, senior associate editor, BestWire: Timothy.Darragh@ambest.com)