Son of working-class immigrants. First in his family to attend college. Went to the University of North Carolina and then attended grad school at Princeton University.
Ricky Hurtado has the sort of life story and resumé that embodies the American dream and he’s made it his life’s work to help other people reach those same heights. Right now, that means running to represent his hometown in the North Carolina legislature, seeking to win what’s been called a must-win seat (HD-63) in a state that needs to go blue this year. Remember, Dems need to flip just six seats in the state, and with new district lines, it’s absolutely doable.
He’s so dedicated to the cause, not even a case of COVID-19, which he contracted in June, can keep him from working tirelessly to win his district. Put together, it’s truly the antidote to Trumpism, a reason to feel a little faith in this country.
If you can say one thing for the last decade’s worth of craven far-right Republicans, it’s that they’ve inspired a generation of progressives to become activists and run for office. For Hurtado, it was former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, who went to war on the state’s environment, women, and workers during his time in office.
“It was just headline after headline coming out about how they were dismantling our public education system, how they continued to refuse to expand Medicaid, the suppression of people's voices in our democracy through voter ID and gerrymandering,” Hurtado tells Progressives Everywhere. “It was all that piling up and me realizing that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution.”
So around 2014, Hurtado moved back to Alamance County in North Carolina and immediately began working in the community where he’d grown up. Having received mentorship that put him on the path to college and beyond, Hurtado decided that his focus would be on providing the same opportunities to a new generation of kids in his hometown.
“I'm a first-generation college student and that trajectory really opened my eyes to so many of the challenges that working families have in North Carolina,” he explains. “We grew up living paycheck-to-paycheck and struggling to make ends meet at times when things got tough. I used my college experience, both at UNC and Princeton, to begin to understand social and income inequality and their root causes. And I really see education as being foundational to reversing this trend of inequality.”
Again, Hurtado followed his convictions. He’s now a lecturer at UNC Chapel Hill and the co-founder and co-executive director of LatinxEd, a non-profit mentor system that helps Latinx students through school and into higher education. Alamance County has a growing Latinx population — it’s up to about 16% — but many of them are low-income and children have fewer resources as compared to other students.
While the Hurtado campaign has like all others been somewhat scrambled by COVID-19, he’s applied his ethos of community service to quickly convert what was just a political operation into an opportunity to connect with and help his neighbors and perhaps future constituents. The campaign has made more than 1,000 calls a week, putting them up above 30,000 overall, and Hurtado has made house calls to deliver PPE and other supplies to people who haven’t been able to afford or acquire them otherwise.
The campaign has also held round tables with business owners, employees, gig workers, and other people who are suffering from the pandemic, a service that also gives him an early start on understanding the many interests and needs of a community that’s growing but still more rural and working class.
Now more than ever, the fact that North Carolina Republicans have refused to expand Medicaid stands as an egregious affront to working people in the state. The gerrymander that once made Hurtado’s district unwinnable was shot down by the State Supreme Court, making this the best chance for Democrats to take back the seat and the legislature. With just six seats required to flip the state blue, winning this district is absolutely essential. That Hurtado is the candidate makes it even more important.
This is adapted from parts of Wednesday’s Progressives Everywhere newsletter — we publish twice a week for free! For more stories about state politics, progressive activism, great candidates to support on a local level, and crucial updates on policies that matter, subscribe here! Don’t worry, we won’t bombard your inbox!
