There are questions about whether young people will run for Democrats in November or whether they have turned against President Biden and the party that typically considers them a key part of the base. Polls suggest it could very well happen amid frustration over the likelihood of a rematch between Biden and Trump and the president’s support for Israel as the war rages in Gaza.
But a Democrat leading the Democratic Party in a key battleground state is determined to take on the fight ahead. Anderson Clayton is the 26-year-old chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Elected last year amid a wave of discontent over the party’s performance, she is the youngest president of a state political party in the country.
Clayton passionately argued that this year’s election is “not about” an 81-year-old, but about the issues: abortion rights, workers’ rights, climate rights, “anything you care about being entitled to is in your ballot.”
He said voter education is the party’s biggest issue in the next election cycle. Promoting something like ‘Bidenomy’ doesn’t work in a state like North Carolina, he said fiercely because the state legislature says it’s okay to keep the minimum wage where it is.
‘What do you want the future of your country, your state, your community to be like?’ Clayton said of 2024. “Because what the other side believes right now is fundamentally something that I don’t think we, as people, agree with. I hope we are not.
Anderson Clayton was elected chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party last year at age 25, making her the youngest state party chair in the country.
In an effort to get more young people to turn out amid questions about whether they will vote in 2024, Clayton maintains that the election is “not” about President Biden, 81, but about issues and the future of the country.
Clayton has been working to revitalize Democrats not only in his state but everywhere. She previously worked as an organizer in Iowa, Tennessee and Kentucky before returning to North Carolina.
Clayton, an organizer by profession originally from rural North Carolina, is tasked with getting the people of the Tar Heel State to show up in November and every election. She claims that she “hasn’t come to play” and that she is ready for the opportunity to “map blue the bitch.”
To date, North Carolina has been a deep purple state. He elected Donald Trump in 2020 by fewer than 75,000 votes, but re-elected Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper by nearly 250,000 votes. The current congressional delegation is divided into seven Democrats and seven Republicans, although redistricting is expected to shift more seats to the GOP.
A little over a week ago, the Democratic Party’s state executive committee voted to make the state chair a full-time, paid position.
But under Clayton, the party starts at ground level. Last year they contested 1,100 of 1,600 municipal elections. In 2025, she says they will come for every one of them.
“We’ll see what happens in the state this year, but we’re not done fighting yet.”
Clayton’s strategy to turn North Carolina blue involves Democrats showing up and engaging in communities not just right before elections, but regularly and making sure to field candidates up and down the ballot. He also has his sights set on rural North Carolina. The state has the second largest rural population behind Texas.
Part of their focus is taking advantage of rural North Carolina.
“We have the second largest number of rural voters in the country,” said Chris Cooper, a professor at Western Carolina State. “These light blue voters are moving into the state, but there is still a countervailing force coming out of the rural parts of the state that are getting redder every day.”
Clayton calls herself a “hopeless romantic” when it comes to conquering rural areas, arguing that “everyone is worth talking to.”
She has praised the governor’s high approval rating even in rural areas of the state, noting that he has made a constant effort to show up in those communities even if they weren’t the ones that got him elected.
“It’s about putting more emphasis on those communities,” he said, and forcing Republicans to run there.
She has experience working in those places, first as a field organizer in rural Iowa for then-Senator Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign and then in Kentucky.
Clayton recalled feeling like she was the only rural organizer at times. She said the campaigns have left out a whole swath of people they don’t want to interact with because “they don’t think they matter.”
“I don’t really believe in that,” he said.
It’s what ended up bringing her back to North Carolina, where she found herself leading Person County Democrats. While there, they flipped the Roxboro City Council and a state House seat in 2022.
But make no mistake: the party faces challenges throughout the vote, and seriously admits it fears having to eat its words at the end of the cycle, but believes it’s worth a try.
The party left 44 seats unopposed in state House and Senate elections in 2022, the most in state history. Forty-five counties lost Democratic representatives.
In 2020, a Republican won a state Supreme Court race by just over 400 votes. That year, the court went from a 6-1 Democratic majority to a 4-3 majority before Republicans gained the majority in 2022.
“This shit happened because we just didn’t get enough people to vote,” Clayton said in frustration, noting that it was being “very, very, very, very angry” that led her to even run for state party chair in Congress. first place. With the help of young friends she was able to unseat the establishment-backed incumbent.
Now Democrats are canvassing early and their goal is to get people talking to people as soon as possible. He also doesn’t want Democrats to be known for simply knocking on doors three months before the election.
“We want to be in their communities all the time,” he insisted. ‘Right now we are eight months away from the elections and what I am saying is that we are already in those communities. “I think that’s the change, and that’s what I hope makes the difference this year.”
More than 70 young North Carolina Democrats met with Vice President Harris during her visit to Durham on March 1. Clayton said the room was “vibrating” with energy.
North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Anderson Clayton takes a selfie with Vice President Harris while riding with her in her motorcade on March 1. Clayton says he urged the vice president to return and meet with voters in the eastern part of the battleground state.
For Clayton, her experience first as a field organizer for Harris and then as state party chairwoman in one of the most important battlegrounds came full circle last week when she found herself traveling with the vice president in his motorcade during Harris’ visit to Durham.
While there, Harris stopped to talk to young Democrats. And at least for that visit, a group of passionate young people did show up who have been and will be on university campuses working to register voters this election year.
“It was one of those moments where I got to see her interact with a lot of young people, people who I think needed to see a very personal side of her,” Clayton said.
Clayton wants the Democratic Party to invest in the state. He also wants the vice president, who has been to the state 10 times since he took office, to keep coming back.
“When we were in the trailer together I said, ‘Eastern North Carolina needs to see you. “They would love you.”