Selling NC '24

North Carolina Democrats have a big selling job to do for 2024, and Anderson Clayton is selling hard.

The state party chair was on ABC News’ GMA3 last week (link below) selling the idea that President Biden and other Democrats can win her state next year – and telling how to do it:

“I really want to chase rural communities that have predominantly Black and Brown voters and that haven’t been tapped into in so long … I’m chasing the margins this year.”

Biden and U.S. Senate candidate Cheri Beasley lost North Carolina by narrow margins last year because national Democrats didn’t invest big money in the races.

Democratic donors across the country might be leery about the state in 2024 because of 2022. But the Biden campaign has already run ads here. And Democratic strategists like James Carville and Simon Rosenberg see North Carolina as a ripe Electoral College expansion target.

Clayton has a whole-state strategy. Too often, she said, Democrats write off rural areas as Trump country: “Right now, what we’re trying to do … is organize in 100 counties across North Carolina” – and especially with Black, Brown and young voters.

Clayton told GMA3 she got started in politics at Appalachian State University in 2016. She joined the Watauga County Democratic Party’s lawsuit to keep a voting site on campus. Republicans wanted to close the site. Democrats won the fight.

“A small group of people coming together can really make something happen if they believe in it,” she said.

The best thing she did was say “y’all” three times in four minutes – at the beginning, “good to meet y’all;” at the end, “thank y’all;” and making a point in the middle, “When Democrats get organized, Republicans in our state get scared, to be honest with y’all.”

She’s talking to all y’all Democrats, in North Carolina and across the country.

Keep it up, Madame Chair.