Crystal Cavalier
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Crystal Cavalier (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent North Carolina's 4th Congressional District. She lost in the Democratic primary on May 17, 2022.
Cavalier completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Crystal Cavalier was born in Burlington, North Carolina. Cavalier earned a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2001 and a graduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 2011. Her career experience includes working as a national-level organizer with the Native Organizers Alliance. Cavalier has been affiliated with the International City/County Management Association, the Association of American Indian Farmers, and the Women's Resource Center of Burlington.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: North Carolina's 4th Congressional District election, 2022
North Carolina's 4th Congressional District election, 2022 (May 17 Democratic primary)
North Carolina's 4th Congressional District election, 2022 (May 17 Republican primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House North Carolina District 4
Valerie Foushee defeated Courtney Geels in the general election for U.S. House North Carolina District 4 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Valerie Foushee (D) | 66.9 | 194,983 |
 | Courtney Geels (R)  | 33.1 | 96,442 | |
| Total votes: 291,425 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 4
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 4 on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Valerie Foushee | 46.1 | 40,806 |
 | Nida Allam | 37.0 | 32,731 | |
 | Clay Aiken | 7.4 | 6,529 | |
 | Ashley Ward | 5.4 | 4,767 | |
 | Richard Watkins | 1.3 | 1,155 | |
 | Crystal Cavalier | 1.3 | 1,116 | |
 | Stephen J. Valentine | 1.2 | 1,023 | |
 | Matt Grooms | 0.5 | 435 | |
| Total votes: 88,562 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 4
Courtney Geels defeated Robert Thomas in the Republican primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 4 on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Courtney Geels | 64.5 | 19,645 |
 | Robert Thomas | 35.5 | 10,793 | |
| Total votes: 30,438 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- John Szoka (R)
- Rene Borghese (R)
- Nat Robertson (R)
- Craig Kinsey (R)
- Erik Fredsell (R)
Campaign themes
2022
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released February 28, 2022 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Crystal Cavalier completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cavalier's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
Crystal Cavalier is the former North Carolina Democratic Party Native American Caucus chairwoman from 2019-2022. Cavalier is an enrolled member of the Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation. She serves on the Women’s Resource Center, Benevolence Farm, and South East Regional NC Poetry Festival. Crystal worked as the NC Deputy Tribal Engagement Director for Joe Biden and Political Director for Tom Steyer.
An advocate for American Indian voting rights, and an environmentalist, she has advocated for protection of her traditional homelands in VA and NC. Crystal is also the Alamance County Environmental Justice Chair and the founder of 7 Directions of Service with her husband, an indigenous-led environmental education organization. Also, Crystal founded the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Coalition of North Carolina in 2019. For 18 years, Crystal was a US military spouse raising three children, including one with severe autoimmune disease. Along with pursuing a master’s degree in public administration, Crystal dedicated her free time to supporting military families like hers and the impacts of PTSD. In 2011, Crystal was named Army Spouse of the Year for her advocacy to improve health care access for military families and job stability for spouses. She later became the Specialist Assistant to the Chief of Staff at General Services Administration. Eventually, Crystal became immersed in National Security and ended her career as an Intelligence Analyst within the DOD.
- Healthy air and water is directly connected to the health of the people. I stand for environmental sovernighty.
- Human bondage and trafficking is the most neglected law enforcement issue in our country and I stand for those victims.
- Working class people are the most deprived of quality medical insurance and education, I stand for those who need it the most.
Environmental - I am pushing for the Rights of Mother Nature and Grandmother Earth(be it water, land, and air quality) and Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) on indigenous territories. I will support policies that diversify our fuel and energy options, releasing our dependency on an extractive fuel-only model.
National Security - I worked for the US General Services Administration, Department of Homeland Security Intelligence and Analysis, and Department of Defense. I sat on many working groups that helped me navigate national and foreign policies shaping and affecting the United States during this time.
Homeless/shelterless Issues - create solutions through a process to ensure gainful employment and community service options are in place to protect.
Mental Illness/Addiction - I will embolden law enforcement agencies to prioritize all human trafficking cases first. I will direct law enforcement agencies to refer mental illness and addictions cases that are currently overtaxing their budgets to the proper medical facilities.
American Indian - I will advocate for stronger protections for Missing Murdered Indigenous Women, children, and two spirits nationwide but especially in my State, which currently collects no data or statistics even for our Federally recognized East Band of Cherokee. I will also advocate for stronger Tribal sovereignty and protection
I look up to Secretary Deb Haaland. She was the first women selected to be Department of Interior Secretary. Sec. Haaland has shattered glass ceilings and has given us American Indian women, something to aspire to.
Representation matters, especially when being able to have a seat at a political table that makes legislation over my American Indian community. She was one of the first two women elected to Congress, along with Congresswoman Sharice Davids.
I would like to follow her example of overcoming adversity, she came from humble beginnings, with a small business, single mom, and marginalization of her cultural identity. When you are forced to work with less and are given the responsibility of more you understand your service to all people.
Kayanerenkó:wa Great Law of Peace
Integrity, Compassion and Courage
Yes I have vision, inspiration, strategic & critical thinking, interpersonal communication, authenticity, self-Awareness, open-mindedness creativity, flexibility and integrity.
You have to represent with you conscience, community and mind. You should represent the district with selflessness, and not just one marginalized community.
A life that my children, great grandchild, state and country can be proud of. One what shows out of the darkness of oppression into the light of cooperation serving the next seven generations of all our descents to come.
On Jan. 28, 1986 I remember being in elementary school watching the space shuttle taking off, and soon after lift off seven astronauts were killed when the Challenger space shuttle exploded shortly after launch. I was 8 years old.
My first job was working in my family's small farm, we grew up helping the community farm. I grew up in my rural area of Pleasant Grove. In high school when I was a senior my first job was working in the shoe department of Sears, Burlington NC. I stayed there until I left for college in August of 1996 at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
Firekeeper's Daughter, It tells the story of an 18-year-old biracial, unenrolled tribal member named Daunis Fontaine who tries to stay true to her Anishinaabe heritage while working undercover in an FBI investigation of a new drug that is harming her Ojibwe community
Katniss Everdeen of the Hunger Games Trilogy
Alexis Raeana- Keep My Memory ft. Charly Lowry
Poverty that comes come Indigenous invisibility.
I believe the fact that you are elected every two years. The diversity of ideas that you can bring from your state and the responsibility to keep un checked power in balance.
I actually believe that there should be a non career political population within politics to collaborate with the veteran politicians to have a better understanding of the needs of the people.
Courage to diversify energy, courage to eradicate homelessness, courage to bring true reconciliation to the marginalized and courage to be the global example of freedom and justice.
I would be up for the challenge of all of them wherever I need to serve the people best.
I believe it should be four like the presidents.
I support term limits for all civil service positions.
I would model myself after John Lewis, Sharice Davids, and former Congresswoman Deb Haaland.
One story that comes to mind is in 2019, the local town of Hillsbrough, NC was threatened by local Ku Klux Klan presence. They started scaring the local people and businesses. It made national news. However the district came together, and brought hundreds of people to stomp out racism, fear and hated.
Absolutely, it is necessary for policymaking to bring ideas together and compromise for the greater good of the people, as long as the compromise bears solutions.
I would be able to create bills that diversify our energy sources, and put our unemployed and under employed to work in these new industries, solving multiple challenges at one time. We can even have shelters for the displaced simultaneously.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Cavalier's campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Crystal has had hundreds of conversations with community members whose land and farming livelihoods are threatened by destructive environmental projects and predatory corporations behind them. She has written countless petitions and organized effective community campaigns to spread awareness about these threats, and to hold local and state governments accountable. Crystal is the chair of the NAACP Alamance Chapter Environmental Justice Committee and serves on the board of the Haw River Assembly, as well as the Orange County Climate Council. She grows fresh vegetables to feed her family on grandparents' land in Alamance County. Crystal’s Indigenous identity instills in her the perspective that when the earth is destroyed, communities suffer along with it. She is reminded every day by her child’s asthma, a result of air pollution. Crystal’s stance is clear: the environment is not expendable, and neither are our children. Crystal will never stop leading the fight for our right to clean air and water. Crystal believes in the Rights of Mother Nature and FPIC (Free Prior Informed Consent) life, the diversity of life, water, clean air, equilibrium, restoration and pollution-free living-life, the diversity of life, water, clean air, equilibrium, restoration and pollution-free living.
Even as a former military spouse, Crystal had to fight to get her sick 8 year old daughter the medical treatment she needed. Crystal understands the struggle working families face to navigate a healthcare system designed to profit corporations at the expense of hard-working Americans. As a mother and Indigenous woman, Crystal has been forced to advocate for basic access to affordable medication and medical care for her family. With a sick child, she could not wait for someone else to stand up. Crystal is ready to bring her decades of healthcare advocacy and community organizing to Washington, DC. She will fight to end surprise billing and crushing out-of-pocket expenses, to hold insurance companies and drug manufacturers accountable, and to lay the path for quality, affordable healthcare for all.
Education IS a Civil Rights fight of the 21st Century. Access to a quality education should not be determined based on where you live or your income. Crystal comes from a line of farmers and teachers in Alamance County. She has worked locally in public education, as assistant to a K-12 principal, and understands firsthand the challenges rural schools face. In her role, she supported faculty and parents to bring their concerns to the school’s leadership, and helped create lasting improvements. Recognizing the importance of math and science, Crystal worked as a public school STEM coach, and organized an annual science fair that engaged hundreds of students across the region. Today Crystal sees young people in her community go to school hungry, many of whom are unable to complete their schooling due to economic circumstances. This has to change. Crystal is determined to make quality education accessible to all, and with it the opportunity for our children to become the leaders our communities need.
We must expand equitable access to revenue in our small towns and rural areas, and end discriminatory policies that have historically had a disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous and People of Color farmers. Growing up in a rural community and living on a tobacco farm fuel Crystal’s commitment to addressing the challenges and uncertainty farmers face. She will support common sense policies on trade and tariffs that protect North Carolina jobs and products, and help keep family farms strong. Crystal has a master's degree in public administration and emergency management, and has supported dozens of local communities to prepare for natural and man-made disasters from the ground up. She has proven her ability to bring rural communities together across differences, to fight for one another’s rights to healthcare, livelihood and clean water.
As Crystal witnesses those in power ignore patterns of violence against Indigenous women, she is taking action into her own hands. In 2019 Crystal founded the "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Coalition of North Carolina”, which maintains a database of missing people intended to support law enforcement investigations. In 2020, thanks to pressure from advocates like Crystal, the federal administration authorized a task force to address this crisis. Crystal’s 18 years as a military spouse, including her initiatives as Military Spouse of the Year, centered around advocating for families and empowering other military spouses. She remains committed to creating more pathways for women’s empowerment, leadership and equal pay. She is a firm believer in a woman’s right to choose. Crystal is a leading voice on the Board of the Women's Resource Center of Alamance County, where she is Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.
They fought for us and it's our responsibility to fight for them. We need to ensure all veterans have the healthcare, mental health counseling, and support services they need when they return from war. Crystal spent her early adult life as a military spouse. She understands firsthand the impact of PTSD on families and the frustration of empty promises from those at the top. While her husband was on active duty, Crystal was busy raising her 3 young children, getting a master’s degree, volunteering, and leading support groups on the base where she lived. Crystal was awarded Military Spouse of the Year for her dedicated service, and through this platform, her advocacy for soldiers and their families took off. Crystal is determined to improve the lives of veterans and their families through access to medical care and mental health support, as well as meaningful and dependable economic opportunities.
Every American deserves the right to work, to put food on their table, and earn a living they can be proud of. We need to develop quality, middle-class jobs that can support families. That means empowering small business owners and focusing on job training, to give people the skills for in-demand jobs. Having been forced many times to make the terrible decision between earning money and caring for sick loved ones, Crystal is determined to see this change. She will pass a Federal Paid Family and Medical Leave Act to help people balance work and family when welcoming a child, caring for a loved one, or dealing with a personal illness.
Crystal’s Occaneechi-Saponi ancestors have stewarded the land around Alamance County for generations. Even in the face of extreme violence and displacement, they passed down the core values of community and ecological responsibility at the heart of Crystal’s leadership. Proud and rooted in her Occaneechi-Saponi identity, Crystal is unstoppable in her determination to protect the land, uplift Indigenous communities and all working people. During her time in tribal leadership, she promoted talking circles and programs to empower youth. She continues to coordinate capacity-building trainings and helps to direct resources to tribal communities. As congresswoman, Crystal will work hand-in-hand with American Indian leaders and communities to address concerns, and to set the stage for positive socioeconomic change.[2] |
” |
| —Crystal Cavalier's campaign website (2022)[3] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House North Carolina District 4 |
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Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on March 15, 2022.
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Crystal Cavalier for US Congress, “Issues,” accessed April 22, 2022
