Last night, North Carolinian Democrats made it clear that harmful votes have consequences. Unfortunately, four NC State Legislators who decided to consistently vote with Republicans — and against their own constituents — are learning this lesson.
After a big night of wins, Anderson Clayton, Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, joins Jen to discuss everyone on North Carolina’s ballot. Chair Clayton explains the “why” behind skyrocketing voter turnout, mobilizing behind Roy Cooper’s senate bid, and the gerrymandering that complicates it all.
Anderson Clayton is the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Elected at 25 years old, she is the youngest chair of a state Democratic party. Prior to her election as Chair of North Carolina Democratic Party, Chair Clayton served as a chair of the Person County Democratic Party, her hometown county.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of The Contrarian. We are so delighted to have, the day after a really phenomenal election in North Carolina, the head of the Democratic Party of North Carolina, Anderson Clayton. Anderson, it is so great to see you. Congratulations on a very well-run election.
Anderson Clayton
Thank you, Jen. Thank you for having us back on here, we really appreciate it.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. Now, there were a few Democrats in the state legislature that had decided they were gonna vote just like Republicans, and they were gonna overturn the governor’s vetoes, and they were gonna, have a D on their chest, but really vote like ours. What happened to some of those people, or really all of those people? You know, last night was a good night for people to say that we wanted to uphold Governor Stein’s vetoes across the state of North Carolina, regardless of what zip code you’re in. And Democrats that had chosen to override that veto earlier this year got to fully see the effects that voters wanted to hold them accountable for overriding really bad pieces of legislation that should have never seen the light of day in North Carolina, and so we have that opportunity going into a.
Anderson Clayton
2027 year to have a very different General Assembly, and I’m excited about the opportunity to help protect the rights of people across this state for the first time, really, since 2024.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. Now, you’re too modest to say it, but you were a big moving force behind that, and it’s not easy to do, because most Democrats expect, oh, you’re just going to defend us because we’re a bunch of incumbents. Why don’t you take a different approach? What’s new about the Democratic Party in North Carolina under your leadership and under this new generation of people?
Anderson Clayton
You’re kind, Jen. I think one thing I was, the state party really said this year is that we were going to make sure that we also held our own accountable for those votes as well. And so, North Carolina Democrats restricted Vote Builder access. We actually censured the Democrats that had overridden Governor Stein’s veto this year. Vote Builder is a voter tool that’s used to help target and contact voters across the state, and one of the resources that the state party typically in North Carolina provides to candidates for free, and we decided this year we were going to engage because we need to see a party that fights back, and a party that also holds our own accountable, to be honest with you, and I think that’s what we saw. And we also did that because, Jen, we had Democrats that are in very competitive legislative districts that held down our governor’s veto because they know that Josh Stein won with a margin that was greater than any other governor had ever won a margin in North Carolina’s gubernatorial victories before, and so he won with a resounding… even 14 rural counties in North Carolina that had voted for Donald Trump also voted for Josh Stein in that election, and so we know when he speaks, he speaks to the majority of the people of the state.
Jen Rubin
What are your expectations or your hopes for November on the state legislative side? What do you think is possible, and what do you think with this group of candidates, you could potentially do in November?
Anderson Clayton
I think the sky’s the limit for what North Carolina can do in November, and so I’m choosing and remaining to be optimistic, but I also know we have a very gerrymandered legislature, thanks to a Republican state Supreme Court, which is also why North Carolina Democrats have been aggressively going after taking back our state Supreme Court, because we know that when we had a Democratic state Supreme Court in 2022 in North Carolina, that they had said partisan and racial gerrymandering was illegal. And the first time that Republicans came back into office in 2023 in our state, they re-gerrymandered North Carolina and took us from a 7-7 Democratic and Republican split in Congress to a 10-4 minority, an even more aggressive gerrymander than what we see in so many other states. And so that trickles down, right, not just to our congressional maps, but also to our state legislative maps. And so we have candidates that are running in really hard-to-win races this year across the state. But I also know that we are the last state in the country to pass a state budget, so North Carolina still has gone almost 250 days without a state budget, the one job that state legislators have, and even places in rural North Carolina right now that may have sent those same folks to Raleigh, I think are going to reconsider that in November, because they’re not doing their jobs.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely, and considering the record that Democrats have had, I think it’s up to 28 to nothing in these special elections and midterm elections of state legislators around the country. It does seem that Democrats are cleaning up in the state houses, which is important, because a lot of what gets done, obviously gets done in those state legislatures. Let’s talk about the Senate race. It is now officially set. Roy Cooper, extremely popular governor, he was also an Attorney General, is going to be facing off against the former head of the Republican Party, the guy who tried to rig the state super, state Supreme Court, excuse me, election, and reject the results of the voters, how do you think that race is going to play out? How do you like, the, chances for Roy Cooper?
Anderson Clayton
Our governor is the best and the most undefeated candidate that we have that’s ever run for North Carolina U.S. Senate on our behalf, and so I think that we are so lucky and so excited. But he’s also somebody who’s a champion for rural North Carolina. And right now, when you see the policy decisions that Washington, D.C. has made, and also the rollback, right, you know, Biden’s administration was one of the first admins that really looked at rural communities and said. you deserve to have a future, and we’re going to address the needs of your communities by going after expanding broadband access in your areas and making sure that your economies have a forward-thinking vision for them. And I really think that Roy Cooper is going to be the best advocate on behalf of North Carolina to go up there and say, hey, half of our state right now is still hurting from the fact that you don’t actually have a vision for what the rest of this country is going to look like in the future. And when you’ve got the second highest rural population of any state in the country other than Texas, like we do here in North Carolina, that’s gonna mean something for a majority of the people that live in the ex-urban or suburban or even rural parts of our state.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. Now, you also, of course, like, all other states, had your primaries for the House race, and there’s one that looks like it’s headed to a recount. Tell us about that one, it’s North Carolina 4th. It’s gotten a little feisty. What is going on there?
Anderson Clayton
Yes, we have a Democratic primary in NCO4, and obviously the party doesn’t take part in primaries, so we’re excited to see who’s going to come out of that, but we are in a recount territory right now. Durham County Commissioner Nita Alam is challenging incumbent Congressional Representative Valerie Fusche right now, and so we’re still waiting for that race to be called, but it is dicey in Durham, as they say, right? So, we are excited to, again, see who’s going to come out of that one. But we’re also looking at, you know, I thought when you were going to say congressional races, Jen, you were talking about our primaries that we also had on the Democratic side in CD3, and also.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely, that’s what I was calling.
Anderson Clayton
Maybe, because I was like, my hopeful nominees, Jamie Ager, who just came out of NC11 in Western North Carolina. We’re really excited about him being able to take on Chuck Edwards this year, and we had Raymond Smith, who came out of CD3 last night, who’s going to be taking on Greg Murphy this year, and both of those two Republicans are extremely vulnerable, we believe, in Congress right now, too.
Jen Rubin
And those are races, of course, that are in, if not the top rung, the next to the top rung of, gettable seats. So when you’re talking about flipping from red to blue, you got, definitely a couple of them there. Talk to us a little bit about turnout and enthusiasm, how engaged the Democrat electorate is now.
Anderson Clayton
Democrats’ turnout last night was up 43% from previous midterms, but also presidential election years, so we were monitoring turnout for how did that look for 2024 primaries as well, going and looking at this one, and so we saw a surge of people across the state, and even when you look at Court of Appeals races in North Carolina was something that was really exciting for us, and I know folks looking out there like, Court of Appeals races, Anderson, but That is the second highest court that I’ve.
Jen Rubin
Yes, it’s important.
Anderson Clayton
It is, and it is one of the courts that honestly tried to help overturn a state Supreme Court election for us in 2024, and Democrats, had higher voter turnout numbers for our primary elections than Republicans did, and we have got to hold 3 Democratic seats on the North Carolina Court of Appeals this year, and we just had our last primary for that last night. Judge Christine Walczyk is going to be taking on, our Republican nominee for For that last Court of Appeals seat, along with Judge Toby Hampson and Judge John Arrowood for us. So, we’re really excited, and it was just a good way to see, because Democrats have not won a Court of Appeals race since 2018 in North Carolina. So it was great to see heavy turnout, better turnout than Republicans, because we see that the tides are gonna shift for those races in November, we hope.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely, and we’re beginning to see a pattern for folks. Texas, North Carolina, red states, or previously red states, suddenly have more Democrats turning out, and that is a big indicator of enthusiasm and, willingness to turn out again in November. Let me ask you about, kind of, the economic climate there. we’ve had this affordability issue. Donald Trump took away the… and the Republicans took away the ACA subsidies. We’re looking at, potentially down the road, of course, huge Medicaid cuts. We had tariffs, struck them down. back on! What is the situation economically for people in North Carolina, and are they feeling like they’re being pinched, and perhaps now looking at some gas prices that are going to go up because of this unnecessary war?
Anderson Clayton
I mean, hard, you know, is how I would describe the economic and financial situation of a lot of North Carolinians right now. Governor Cooper talked about it last night during his acceptance speech, just the fact that, to your point, gas prices have risen overnight since the, you know, the war that we are now entering into in some ways with Iran, and trying to figure out how do you do that without congressional approval, and how does Donald Trump move at the pace that he has, right? without making sure that we are informing and actually going based off of our U.S. Constitution with congressional acts of authority. But I think that one thing that we’ve also seen on the ground in North Carolina is just healthcare costs alone, to your point about the ACA subsidies being taken, have impacted so many people. State employees saw last year, even before the premiums had been cut alone, or the subsidies had been cut alone, that their co-pays were doubling. And so, going up every single month, almost, for people who their job, I mean, their pay did not go up every single month, right? And so, they’re looking at skyrocketing healthcare costs, too. And just for, you know, me, I use us as an example because a state party is like a small business in some ways. 25 people, you know, and we are also an employer that pays 100% of our health benefits for our employees, and so the state party had a health insurance rate of about 24% that our healthcare cost went up as just an entity like us, and so you think about small businesses out there that employ less than 30 people, or that any sort of entity that’s in rural places right now in North Carolina, and how they’re struggling to afford to be able to do that. or how their, you know, employees are, because a lot of those folks, too, maybe don’t pay that same coverage percentage that we do, but it’s still impossible for you to actually be a good employer to your employees right now, as well, with costs going up like they are. And so, I feel for small business owners right now, I feel for people who are trying to figure out how do they help make sure that the business and the job that they have is still providing a good living and a good wage to a lot of the people that are working here, because Republicans are not making it easy on them right now.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. North Carolina has a great number of people who are in the military, has military families, has a great number of veterans. As you said, we’ve now gotten ourselves, or Donald Trump has gotten us into a war, that a lot of people are scratching their heads about. When you’re out talking now to North Carolinians, are they supportive of this? Are they concerned? Are they, you know, exasperated that Donald Trump is once again doing something other than working on the problems that they want him to work on? What’s been the… Reaction this week, as this thing has unfurled.
Anderson Clayton
I think a lot of fear and disappointment out of what’s coming out of Washington, D.C. The uncertainty, you know, a president is supposed to make a country feel good, and to feel safe and secure, and I think that this president has done anything but, especially for people, who, you know, we’ve got folks in North Carolina, my state legislature that have served in the military, thinking about my state representative, Eric Ager, and folks like him, who I just think right now. it is a disgrace to the men and women who are in our service industry for that to happen. North Carolina is the fifth highest veteran population in the entire country, and we want to make sure that we protect our folks if we can.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. I just want to ask you about one comment that Pete Hegseth made today. He said that we really shouldn’t be focusing on the men and women who give their lives, because that’s really just fake news, he said, and a criticism of the president. Does that… stand in contrast to what most people in North Carolina regard as the troops and the sacrifices they made. Let us frankly stunned.
Anderson Clayton
No, I mean, I think everybody is proud of the people that go to serve our country. Just in general, it is a badge of honor to be able to, and we thank the military servicemen and women who are out there right now serving overseas, but also serving here in the United States. You know, I mentioned it earlier with Eric Ager, but Dante Pittman, who’s one of my state representatives, is in the National Guard, has been for 10 years now, and I mean, people that signed up when they were 18 to go and do something on behalf of their country. I mean, I feel like that is how we personalize the people that are doing that right now, and that’s also why we all have so much pride in it, is because we know them and we can relate to them. So, I don’t know what Pete Hegsteth is talking about, but that’s not new for today, you know?
Jen Rubin
Yeah, pretty remarkable. So Anderson, if people want to get involved, they say, oh, wow, that’s happening, in the Democratic race, or they’re not registered to vote, or they’re not really sure where they’re supposed to be voting. What should they do to get themselves informed or to get engaged in some of these races?
Anderson Clayton
Yeah, please, please, please, please go to our website at ncdp.org and sign up to volunteer. We would love to make sure that you’re engaged with the events that we’ve got going on, and we try to make it accessible for anybody, whether you’re somebody who’s a working mom in the state of North Carolina, and you may not have the time to go out and canvas or knock doors, but you want to be listening in on a Tuesday night while you’re making dinner to a Zoom call to hear from statewide candidates about why they’re running for office, so that you can then go educate, you know. your local mom group that you’ve got together, or the buddies that you’ve got with you in your daycare classes, or anything like that. We want to make this the accessible state party, and that is something that we’ve really tried to integrate into. And so, NCDP.org, there’s a volunteer page on there, and we also have it so that if you are that person that says, Anderson, I want to canvas, but I want to do it on my own time. I’m not trying to be a Saturday at 9am type person. I want to do it on a Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock when I’ve got time. We have made it so that the state party has got a way where you can do anytime canvassing, and so you can get a list that is localized to you. It will give you the top 15 doors around you that we need you to go talk to for Democrats in the state of North Carolina about our judicial races specifically. We are calling this project justice, because our judicial races are oftentimes the ones that folks do not vote on down ballot, especially Democrats. we tend to skip those in some capacities, and so we need to make sure that we’re educating people that when they come out and they vote for our good old U.S, or our next U.S. Senator, Roy Cooper, that they are also voting down ballot for Justice Anita Earls, and also my Court of Appeals races, too. And state legislature, and county commission, and everywhere else as well.
Jen Rubin
Well, folks, you are looking at… it doesn’t surprise you, I’m sure, because you’ve heard from her before, but one of the rising stars in the Democratic Party, the most interesting, exciting, and maybe successful, a young first-time party leader, so no pressure or anything.
Anderson Clayton
Just.
Jen Rubin
of Western democracy riding on your shoulders there, Anderson. But in all seriousness, congratulations on everything you’ve done. Democratic Party is clearly up off the mat in North Carolina. You’ve got some great candidates and really impressive work in instilling a little discipline. Sometimes Democrats haven’t had that before, but now they do. So thank you so much. We’re going to be checking back with you and your great candidates throughout, the next few months, and, we will talk to you soon.
Anderson Clayton
Thanks, Jen, we appreciate it.
Jen Rubin
You’re welcome. Bye-bye.
