Healthcare CEO Donna Lake is a retired Air Force combat veteran with two Bronze Stars, the Legion of Merit and the rank of Air Force Colonel as well as the endorsements of VoteVets, Barack Obama, Sierra Club, Equality North Carolina and BradyPac.
Economics and efficiency expert and mother to an autistic son, Nicole Quick is endorsed by NC Now, Poder NC Action, Simkins PAC, Mijente, Human Rights Campaign, Moms Demand Action, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, and the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters.
What these two leaders have in common other than an exceptional track record of excellence and a commitment to an inclusive and sustainable vision for North Carolina’s future is that they are running to flip their respective North Carolina district’s blue.
Lake is running for North Carolina Senate District 07 and Quick is running for North Carolina House District 59. Not only is North Carolina currently a battleground Presidential state, with 538 putting it front and center, but it’s also home to Cal Cunningham’s insurgent campaign to unseat Thom Tillis in one of the hottest U.S. Senate races in the nation.
When I talk to local on the ground Democratic activists in North Carolina, like the local blogger Long Leaf Pine Slate (who gave a seal of approval to this diary below!) there is genuine local excitement about these two women and their respective races. There’s energy on the ground and in the field, and you can see and feel it.
Nicole Quick is running in the Greensboro area which overlaps where Kathy Manning is running to flip North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District to the Democrats.
Quick has outlined her positions on the issues and values and also has a cool practice of spotlighting her campaign volunteers on Twitter, like Grace, below:
Donna Lake is putting her absolutely exceptional track record and experience against a Republican incumbent candidate who was appointed and thus has not won an election for the position or previous served in elected office. Lake has a high level of engagement with voters in this Southeastern North Carolina district centered around Goldsboro (Wayne) and Kinston (Lenoir).
Lake’s experience in healthcare is front and center in this campaign during a time of Covid-19, and she has called on her experience to bring a clarion moral call for healthcare to the campaign:
Timely access to quality, affordable healthcare is a human right. Across the nation we see the need for improved, expanded, transparent healthcare systems, and North Carolina is not exempt from these issues. The goal of every community should be 100% healthcare coverage no matter age, gender, or wealth.
-Donna Lake, Issues
And as you can see below, Lake uses her expertise to bring focus on critical issues like rural healthcare, as well.
Now both of these districts will require local Democrats to give everything they’ve got. Nationally, Donna Lake has the good fortune of being on the Dkos endorsed slate, while Quick is endorsed by the NDRC and featured by the DLCC. You can donate to Nicole Quick directly here and know that every voter she turns out goes to help Kathy Manning, Cal Cunningham and the Biden/Harris ticket, too.
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As I wrote in my recent diary Perspective. Focus. Get the Win these local races play a crucial role in Democrat’s best angle of attack in 2020.
Indivisible’s Ezra Levin says it perfectly here as it relates to Texas on Twitter, click through to read the whole thread:
As you may know I’ve put all of my focus this year on exactly these scrappy and persistent downballot candidates.
Every Democratic campaign expert I’ve consulted with on this project has shared one clear conclusion. The strategy is correct. When local Dem candidates turn out votes, those voters very consistently vote for Dems upticket.
It’s effectively a Trickle Up vote that helps the national Presidential campaign.
Add Nicole Quick and Donna Lake to the list!!
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About this series:
I’m a longtime local election activist and Dailykos blogger dating back to 2003. I was part of helping local blogs and the netroots drive Democrats to take back the House in 2006 and helped build some of the biggest and most successful grassroots and online groups supporting Barack Obama.
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