In battleground North Carolina, Democrats face a defining moment a few weeks from today: the March 3rd primary. Its outcome will help determine the answers to the two most pressing political questions of our time:
- Which party will control the U.S. Senate in 2021?
- Which party will win the White House?
Without strong North Carolina Democratic turnout next November, the national party’s road to flipping the White House and the Senate would become much narrower. Partly that’s because incumbent Tillis is in dire straits; Dems are counting on flipping his seat. But partly it’s also because this state’s 15 electoral college votes are poised on a knife-edge and could go either way, depending largely on Democratic turnout. Consider that in 2008 a turnout tsunami by African-Americans (who comprise 47% of the state’s registered Democrats) yielded a win here for Obama that no one saw coming. North Carolina (which Trump won by a razor-thin 3 points) could send a slate of Democratic electors to DC again in 2020, if the state’s Democrats turn out and vote.
That potential adds a new factor to the equation North Carolina voters must solve for themselves as they head to the polls on Super Tuesday. Along with answering the usual question (“which candidate do I just like best?”) they must also factor in “which candidate can best drive Tar Heel turnout next November?”
If we choose wisely — and particularly in the Democratic race for the nomination to unseat vulnerable Republican Sen. Thom Tillis — it’s highly likely that North Carolina can play an outsized role in saving our republic in 2020.
Six Reasons For Erica
In her year-end fundraising email blast, a copy of which has just hit my inbox, three-term state senator and US Senate candidate Erica Smith lists six compelling reasons why the state’s Democrats should choose her rather than her primary opponent, Cal Cunningham, on March 3rd. Her six reasons make plain that she has a clear-eyed understanding of what November’s election is all about in NC: it’s all about the turnout, which in turn is all about inspiring and mobilizing a broad coalition of Democrats and independents:
Because I’m the candidate who energizes voters of all colors. I’m a woman of color who has succeeded by working shoulder to shoulder with people of every color.
I’m the candidate who bridges the urban/rural divide. I grew up working our family’s farm, and have earned my living in major cities like Seattle and Raleigh. I’m a State Senator representing a rural and diverse district, where I champion rural economic development.
I’m the candidate who can attract young voters. I don’t just believe in science, I’ve lived it, as an engineer at Boeing. And I’ve fought for equality by sponsoring bills to extend hate crimes to include those targeting gender identity and sexual orientation, to fully repeal our state’s notorious ‘bathroom bill,’ for a $15 minimum wage, for equal pay for equal work, and so much more.
I’m the candidate who can encourage people of faith to vote Democratic again. I’m an ordained clergywoman and church leader.
I’m the candidate whose own story speaks to women’s experience. With effort, guts, and brains I’ve worked my way up from picking cucumbers to a career in the male-dominated field of engineering, and to my seat in the State Senate, while raising four children.
Finally, I’m the candidate who knows how to win elections. I’ve won every one I’ve ever run in, from school board to three state senate terms. My primary opponent has won only one (twenty years ago), but when the going got tough he passed on a reelection bid. Then he later lost a primary bid for the U.S. Senate in 2010.
Each of Erica Smith’s Six Reasons draws a clear distinction between herself and her opponent, Cal Cunningham. Even Cunningham himself judged he was up for no more challenging a contest this year than the state’s largely symbolic lieutenant governor race, until last June when Chuck Schumer waved the prospect of feeding him millions in leadership PAC funding (corporate dollars once removed) if he’d run against Erica. Not one to let a privilege pass him by, Cunningham quickly withdrew from the lieutenant governor’s race to cash that sweet, sweet Schumer check. And so, the race is on.
But as Smith writes in the final paragraph of her year-end fundraising letter, “Let’s let the voters, not Chuck Schumer, decide whom NC Democrats’ champion should be in November.” Will that choice be the candidate who refused to state his position on impeaching Trump, or the woman who delivered this fiery keynote oration at Raleigh NC’s recent No One Is Above The Law rally?
Will state Dems’ choice be the notably uninspiring Cunningham, whose ability to bore a room to death might qualify him as a WMD, or Smith, the riveting combination of a progressive preacher and a rocket scientist (well, OK: a rocket engineer) all in one?
North Carolina’s upcoming senatorial primary is a race of national, not merely statewide, significance. Even if you’re not a North Carolinian you can still vote...with your credit card. If that vote is for Erica, you can cast it at her donation page (before January 1, please...this month’s will be her campaign’s last quarterly FEC filing before early voting begins, so the timing is important): act.myngp.com/...