RALEIGH – Two Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for a longshot chance of replacing longtime GOP 6th District Rep. Howard Coble in the May 6 primary. The N.C. FreeEnterprise Foundation rates the 6th District as a strong Republican district. The winner of the Democratic primary will face the winner of the Republican primary in November.

Bruce Davis, a retired Marine and Guilford County commissioner from High Point, will face off against Laura Fjeld, a retired vice president and general counsel for the University of North Carolina system.

The district stretches from Surry County to Granville County along the state’s northern border, and dips down to include portions of Guilford, Alamance, Orange, and Durham counties.

Both candidates see jobs as the top issue in the campaign.

“It’s jobs — jobs and the economy,” Fjeld said. “And that’s where my focus will be, creating really good paying jobs in North Carolina.”

Fjeld said the region needs to get in a job-creation mode. “I see that also as a need to invest in education,” she said. “Small companies want to locate where they know that they have a prepared, skilled, educated work force.”

Davis said the area has been hit hard economically.

“I’ve been involved in bringing companies into my community,” Davis said. “We’ve got to make sure that we sell our region that it is a place where we have citizens who have skill sets to do things other than manufacturing.”

Davis agrees with Fjeld that a good education system would attract business to the area. “We have the greatest college system in the Southeast,” he said.

He added that he “absolutely” would support increasing the minimum wage.

Both candidates agree that the federal government should make it tougher for companies to outsource work overseas.

Fjeld said “the partisan rhetoric” about Obamacare should stop. Instead, it should be replaced with a focus on solutions.

“I hold the president accountable for the disgraceful rollout of this program,” Fjeld said. “I think people who want to keep their plans should be able to.”

Davis said he supports the Affordable Care Act, but admits that needs some improvements.

“It’s got some tweaking that probably needs to be done,” Davis said. Davis touted the effects the act has had in bringing down the cost for people with pre-existing conditions, and those receiving subsidies. “The subsidies would have to be what makes it affordable,” Davis said.

Davis said that national debt and budget deficit problems can be resolved by creating jobs. He said the government can’t wait on private industry “to feel good about making investments.”

Fjeld said that growing the economy would help bring the federal government’s books into balance. But there’s also need for making efficient, pragmatic, and effective spending decisions, she said.

“I have run a household, and I know how important it is to balance our checkbooks,” Fjeld said. “We do that in North Carolina, and there’s no reason why we can’t do that in Washington.”

On revelations that the National Security Agency was storing data on Americans’ cell phone, email and Internet usage, Fjeld said, “we’ve got to balance our very, very important rights to privacy with our extreme importance of national security.”

Davis said that trust is a key in making that balance.

“We enjoy our freedoms and we enjoy our privacy,” Davis said. “I don’t think there’s anybody sitting there listening to all our conversations. He added that we should trust that the professionals in the security agencies have our best interests at heart.

Barry Smith (@Barry_Smith) is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.