Democrat Maria Cervania was elected to the North Carolina state House in November and is one of the first two Asian-American women ever elected to the state legislature.
As the new legislative session begins, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expect healthy debate about Medicaid expansion, mental health care, abortion and other issues.
North Carolina's Republican-led legislature could expand Medicaid to cover 600,000 more residents this year, but they could also try to ban abortion in the state, robbing their constituents of their reproductive freedom.
The politics might be different, but it has long been known that expanding Medicaid would significantly improve the lives of more than 600,000 low-income North Carolinians.