NOTE: Saturday, October 31^st is the last day of early in-person voting in North Carolina – click HERE to find early-voting sites in your area.

And, of course, you can still vote at your precinct on Election Day, November 3^rd.

On Wednesday, November 4^th at 12 noon, IIANC Chief Advocacy Officer Joe Stewart will host a FREE post-election webinar for all IIANC members featuring special guest Western Carolina University political science

professor Dr. Chris Cooper who will provide his insights on the results and what the new partisan balance of power in the US Congress and NC General Assembly will look like starting in 2027.

Click HERE to register for the webinar.

To help young agents better understand the way government and politics impact the independent insurance agent profession, the IIANC Governmental Affairs Program launched the iLEAD Top Gun program this year.

Eleven young agents from across the state signed up to take part in an initial in-person session in Raleigh on October 9^th, followed by two virtual sessions on October 16^th and 23^rd, featuring presentations from state legislators and key staff from the NC Department of Insurance, campaign consultants and pollsters, political science professors and demographers covering everything needed to understand the how and why associated with the advocacy work IIANC does on behalf of our members.

Yesterday, IIANC Chief Advocacy Office Joe Stewart presented iLEAD Top Gun certificates to graduates at the Young Agents Development Conference in Wilmington.

Given the enthusiastic response from the members of this year’s Top Gun class, we definitely plan to offer this program again in 2027 – information for young agents interested in registering to participate will be coming out next summer.

Save the Date - March 9^th in Raleigh

The 2027 iHEAL Health Insurance Legislative Summit is set for March 9^th at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences located right across from the state legislative building in downtown Raleigh.

The program will feature state lawmakers, officials from the NC Department of Health and Human Resources and NC Department of Insurance, and other public policy experts providing insights and analysis on state and federal issues impacting the healthcare marketplace here in North Carolina.

Registration information will be coming out in early December.

Last week IIANC Chief Advocacy Officer Joe Stewart moderated a panel at the Association Executives of NC Fall Conference featuring Kelly Calabria, Chief Communications, Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility Officer at Blue Cross NC, IIANC Governmental Affairs Committee member (and IIANC’s resident expert on health insurance agent issues) David Smith, and IIANC member and chair of the Senate Health Care Committee Senator Jim Burgin.

Great discussion on the many challenges currently present in North Carolina’s healthcare sector that are putting tremendous upward pressure on health insurance rates in our state.

And Finally

The next session date for the state legislature is November 16^th, and the rumor is the General Assembly may actually do some work that week - so look for the next edition of the Raleigh Report to come your way on November 20^th.