North Carolina – Reps. Chuck Edwards and Greg Murphy have repeatedly voted against disaster preparedness and climate action while accepting nearly $100,000 from the property insurance and oil and gas industries — even as North Carolina homeowners face skyrocketing costs, claim denials, and policy non-renewals in the wake of Hurricane Helene. A new report from Unlocking America’s Future released today exposes how North Carolina’s Republican members of Congress have failed to take action on the worsening home insurance crisis devastating their own constituents.
Today, UAF held a press call featuring North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton, North Carolina residents and two-time climate disaster survivors Tony Dunn and Alex Webber, and North Carolina State Senator Natalie Murdock (District 20). Speakers discussed their experiences, state action, the drop off of federal support, and how Reps. Edwards and Murphy’s records demonstrate a pattern of prioritizing insurance and industry profits over the needs of homeowners in their districts.
Congressional Republicans’ priorities and votes have perpetuated a growing affordability crisis as North Carolina homeowners face skyrocketing home insurance costs, claim denials, and policy non-renewals in the wake of Hurricane Helene and amid some of the worst non-renewal rates in the country.
“This is a state of emergency. I filed Senate Bill 979 to close the consent-to-rate loophole that we have here in North Carolina and I’m working to ensure that credit scores cannot be used as a basis for rating non-commercial private residential property coverage. But we can’t do it alone. North Carolina’s Republican members of Congress have repeatedly voted against disaster preparedness and climate action,” said North Carolina State Senator Natalie Murdock. “These same members of Congress are simultaneously accepting nearly $100,000 from the property insurance and oil and gas companies. We cannot deny climate action when the cost of everything is going up. If we say that we’re serious about recovery post-Helene, that will include giving a serious look to our insurance policy so that the businesses impacted can come back and those homeowners impacted can get the relief needed so they can stay in the beautiful mountains that we all know and love.”
“Republicans cannot get their act together, and we’ve seen that time and time over again. I think one person that we failed to mention in this conversation so far is the person that’s helped approve every single one of these insurance rates, which is Mike Causey, our commissioner of insurance right now in North Carolina,” said North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton. “We’ve got a site called RateHikeMike.com where you can review any county in North Carolina and figure out exactly how much your insurance rates have gone up under Mike Causey. June 1st is the start of another homeowner insurance hike in North Carolina. The average state based rate is going to increase by 7.5% after an increase of 7.5% last year. And meanwhile, we’ve seen North Carolina congressional Republicans like Chuck Edwards and Greg Murphy continue to do nothing about it.”
“Make no mistake, Congress has a role to play in addressing the home insurance affordability crisis. The insurance industry has cited climate change to justify requesting massive rate increases in far excess of inflation while experiencing billions in profit over the last decade,” said Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future. “Yet both Rep. Edwards and Murphy have repeatedly voted against climate action, protected polluters, and to cut funding that helps home and property owners, businesses, and communities, and have instead sided with insurers and climate polluters in two of the hardest hit areas in the state.”
“We moved to North Carolina thinking that there was a lower climate risk here and learned the hard way that nowhere is safe from climate risks now,” said Tony Dunn, two-time climate disaster survivor. “Our property didn’t actually have any damage from Hurricane Helene but despite not filing any claims and after six years in our home, I found insurers are charging per-dollar-value has gone up 50% and the value of our house has gone up almost double in their mind. We moved here because we thought we weren’t gonna have insurance issues, but now it’s a problem. It’s a problem everywhere”
“When Helene came, historic floods put about six inches of water in the shop that my husband and I own, and we got over 12 feet of water. So we had 27 feet of river rise. A third of our town disappeared. Like it was just gone,” said Alex Webber, Helene survivor. “And out of everybody downtown, there were two people, two, who were adequately insured enough to come back. We didn’t get help from our insurers, and our insurance still went up 50%. The only reason we were able to reopen was because my sister started a ‘Go Fund Me’ right away, and that’s what passes for a safety net in this country.”
Abusive State Law, Enabled by Edwards and Murphy: As state legislators, both Rep. Chuck Edwards and Rep. Greg Murphy voted for a uniquely abusive 2018 state law—drafted with the input and agreement of the insurance industry—that allows insurers to charge policyholders rates exceeding state-mandated maximums and interpret payment of a renewal bill as “consent.” Both representatives also voted to override the governor’s veto of the law. Since it passed, the share of North Carolina homeowners paying excessive rates has increased from 41% to 55%.
Industry-Backed Legislation Hurts Low-Income Homeowners: In Congress, both Edwards and Murphy co-sponsored legislation to limit third-party litigation financing—a mechanism that allows low-income consumers to afford legal costs when challenging wrongful claim denials. Rep. Edwards also repeatedly introduced legislation to allow federal resilient construction funding to go to projects using outdated building codes, despite evidence that compliance with leading standards saves both insurers and homeowners significant money. When Texas enacted similar restrictions on lawsuits against insurers in 2017, claim denials rose sharply and average premiums climbed from $1,860 to $2,919 by 2024.
North Carolina’s Crisis: Skyrocketing Costs, Non-Renewals, and the Helene Aftermath: Rep. Edwards represents Western North Carolina, where insurance companies responded to Hurricane Helene by denying more than 25% of claims without any payment and canceling policies. Rep. Murphy represents the North Carolina coast, where private insurers have abandoned policyholders at some of the worst non-renewal rates in the country, driving the state’s insurer of last resort to a 64% market share in coastal areas. Both members voted for a spending package that cut nearly $300 million from FEMA’s budget and helped create conditions for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which halted FEMA training and threatened to deplete its disaster relief fund.
A Pattern of Industry Favoritism: Edwards and Murphy have together accepted nearly $21,000 in campaign contributions from the PACs or employees of major property insurers and industry associations, and over $72,000 from the oil and gas industry. Even as the insurance industry cited climate change to justify massive rate increase requests while experiencing huge profits, both representatives have promoted climate denialist rhetoric and voted to undo President Biden’s climate agenda and dramatically increase fossil fuel production. Rep. Edwards additionally co-sponsored legislation to prevent state and local governments from regulating fossil fuel use, and does not mention the insurance crisis among his legislative priorities.
Read the full UAF report here.
