Senator Ralph Hise Contact information

Ralph E. Hise, Jr. (born August 15, 1976) is an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he represents District 47 in the North Carolina Senate. Hise joined the Senate in 2011 after winning election on November 2, 2010. He is from Spruce Pine, North Carolina.

Early Life and Career: Hise is a native of Mitchell County, North Carolina. He attended Mitchell High School, before graduating from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. He received a B.S. in statistics from Appalachian State University before going on to complete a master’s degree in higher education administration from North Carolina State University. He is a statistician by trade, and is currently serving as the Coordinator of Special Projects at Mayland Community College in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.

Political Career: At 35 years old in 2011, Hise was the youngest Republican member of the North Carolina Senate. Hise used his position as chairman of a committee on Medicaid to convinced the Senate to reject the portion of House Bill 998, “a bill to study rural healthcare needs”, which would have implemented a study to explore expanding Medicaid in North Carolina under the Affordable Care Act. On January 9, 2019, he succeeded Senator Louis Pate as the Deputy President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate. In 2021, he proposed anti-transgender legislation which would prohibit medical professionals from performing gender confirmation surgery on those under the age of 21. The legislation would also mandate that state employees inform parents when their children display “gender nonconformity.”

Campaign Finance Investigation: In 2017, a North Carolina activist filed two complaints with the North Carolina Board of Elections. The complaints accused Hise of allegedly committing a variety of campaign finance violations, including “allegedly paying himself more than $10,000 from his campaign fund.” At the time he was also the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Elections. After the State Board of Elections began investigating the accusations that Hise had broken campaign finance laws, Ralph Hise introduced Senate Bill 68, which altered the power and structure of the Board of Elections that was investigating him. The bill consolidated the State Board of Elections and State Board of Ethics into one entity called the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement whose Chair switches between the two dominant parties every year such that the Chair is a Republican every even numbered year.

District Representation: Senator Ralph Hise represents District 47 in the North Carolina Senate. The district includes Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Caldwell, Haywood, Madison, Mitchell, Watauga, and Yancey counties.