John R. Bell IV

John Richard Bell, IV is the child of John R. "Ricky" Bell, III, and Cindy Ezzell Bell. He has one sister. His father was a highway maintenance engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation.[2] Bell graduated from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, in 2001.[3]

In 2016, Bell was a business development employee for North Carolina Community Federal Credit Union in Goldsboro, North Carolina.[4] He later joined Sentinel Risk Advisors as a client executive.[3]

In January 2016, Bell endorsed Senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries.[5]

Bell was elected by the state House Republican Caucus to the position of state House majority whip in 2014,[6] and to the position of majority leader in 2016.[4] Bell was also been chairman of the House Regulatory Reform Committee and the House Select Committee on Wildlife Resources.[4]

In the state House, Bell has been a supporter of restricting wind energy development, taking the position that wind farms are a threat to military bases in North Carolina because they could obstruct low-level military training flights.[7] Bell sponsored legislation in 2013 to increase wind-energy regulation,[7] and in 2019 helped negotiate a bill to require the state to consult military commanders as part of the state permitting process for wind farms.[8]

Bell and other General Assembly Republicans have opposed Democratic Governor Roy Cooper on the issue of expanding Medicaid. Cooper and other Democrats support the expansion of Medicaid, and Republicans oppose it.[9]

Bell introduced legislation in 2019 to allow the sale of beer and wine at North Carolina public universities during athletic games.[10] The bill passed later that year, and seven University of North Carolina System institutions took advantage of the law by opting to allow alcohol sales on game days.[11]