How we win in North Carolina
In a post-election editorial in the Raleigh News and Observer, Paige Masten lays out her prescription for electoral success in our state:
Knocking on doors and registering voters when a major election rolls around is important, but it’s not the way to achieve long-term success. If Democrats want to win in North Carolina, they’re going to have to start laying permanent infrastructure in counties they have too often ignored. That means empowering communities, recruiting candidates for local office and investing resources year-round. It also means having a message that resonates with voters in those communities — understanding their unique concerns about everything from the economy to health care and having a plan to address them.
Sound familiar? This two-fold approach outlined by Masten is the approach that County-to-County has put into practice for the past six years. We know "boots on the ground" are important to elect candidates. Terrence Everitt and Mary Wills Bode, two of our winning candidates, reinforced this in a post-election Neighbors on Call webinar. Everitt said the difference for him between 2016—when he lost—and his win in 2018 was the armies that came out for him -- making calls, knocking on doors, having conversations with voters. "This is what's going to change North Carolina," he said. And Bode seconded his remarks: "Because we knew the ground game (for Everitt) in Wake County was so strong, we could spend our time in Granville. And it worked."
C2C volunteers didn't wait till the month before the election to spring into action. We began holding phone banks back in February—and coordinated 75 phone banks from then until election eve to reach out to voters for the 13 campaigns we were supporting. Over those months, a total of 765 phone bankers reached out to 30,000 voters. And during those months we wrote almost as many postcards to voters (29,000). And of course, we joined with Neighbors on Call and Down Home to knock on a total of 49,000 doors. Each of these touches, each conversation, makes a difference. As Bode said: "We did it together—and for each other."
Like Masten, C2C knows that important as these conversations are, reaching out during elections isn't enough. Our strategy includes working with partner counties to build local party infrastructure. Our county team leaders (CTLs) work to gain a deep knowledge of the people and issues of their counties. They build relationships with county chairs, with candidates and campaign managers and help them develop the skills and resources they need to put in place year round voter education and candidate recruitment systems.
We know, too, that this is where we need to expand our efforts. C2C will spend 2023 fostering relationships and continuing to build infrastructure across NC to turn it ever BLUER. We will be making a game plan for 2024, when we will once again work to take back and flip seats in the NC House and Senate and elect more Democrats.
We need each one of you to be a part of that process and stay engaged in this important work. You can sign up to join us here.
We also need each of you to remain vigilant—to keep watch on what the Republican Majority in the State Legislature tries to push through with its enlarged majorities in both the House—where we lost 7 seats, leaving the Republicans one vote shy of a supermajority—and the Senate, where we lost 2 seats, giving the Republicans the number of seats they needed for a supermajority. In a News and Observer opinion piece, Senate leader Phil Berger says: "North Carolina voters confirmed their preference for Republican governance that has lowered taxes, balanced state budgets, returned children to classrooms, expanded parental choice in schools...and created a state policy environment conducive to private sector job growth."
What this means is pretty clear:
continued cuts to corporate taxes in the name of creating a "state policy environment conducive to private sector growth;"
continued cuts to services for the public good, like public education: they are likely to refuse to implement the Court order to fully fund Leandro;
continued privatization of public education in the name of "parent choice."
We can also expect:
restrictions on abortion;
failure to expand Medicaid once again;
restrictions on what schools can teach;
restrictions on what counties and municipalities can do to increase affordable housing;
restrictions on voting rights including reimposing a voter ID requirement;
gerrymandered Congressional Districts for 2024.
It's a long and frightening list, and with the Republicans only one vote short of a supermajority in the House, it may prove difficult to sustain any veto by the Governor. The Democrats will have to stick together—and we will have to be the superglue that forces them to stick together, with calls and letters to the editor. Maybe we can even lure Reverend Barber back to lead a new round of Moral Monday demonstrations like the ones he led in 2013 when thousands of us showed up at the legislature every week.
Our future depends on all of us keeping our focus on our common purpose, on what we can do together to rebuild a North Carolina that works for all of us.
So watch here...we're going to keep publishing our Newsletter, keep you up to date on where we need you and what you can do to build our majority and take back the seats we have lost in the House, in the Senate and the Courts. As our new State Senator Mary Wills Bode said: We will do it together. And for each other.