Friends, excited to send along a recording of my Hopium Live discussion from earlier today with the great Anderson Clayton, Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party.
When Allison Riggs was finally sworn in as a Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court just a few days ago the 2024 election in North Carolina finally ended. I asked Anderson to join us today to reflect upon the many successes Democrats had in North Carolina last year (and this month too) and to give us a preview of what’s coming in 2026. It’s a great conversation and I hope you can get to it this weekend.
For me the big takeaway from our discussion is that investing in state parties matters. Our community went in big for North Carolina Democrats in 2024, raising over $1.1 million dollars. But importantly we started raising that money early, in the fall of 2023. As Anderson reminds us that early investment allowed her to hire staff and start their work earlier than in previous years and build a much stronger statewide organization. This stronger statewide operation in turn helped drive their many critical 2024 downballot wins.
In 2024 North Carolina Dems won 5 of the 10 statewide offices, including Josh Stein for Governor; broke the Republican super-majority in the legislature; and elected Allison Riggs to her Supreme Court seat by less than 1,000 votes. In a state that Trump won by 3.2 points this was by all accounts an incredibly impressive showing. If you want to support Anderson’s 2025-2026 program you can make a contribution through Hopium here.
I am very proud of what we did together in the 2024 cycle. Not only did we help make North Carolina arguably the most successful of the 7 Presidential battleground Presidential states, we also:
Raised $2.4m for House open seat and challenger races, and helped flip 7 Republican held Congressional seats blue.
Were the largest non-campaign investor in the country in the Nebraska Democratic Party, helping us win the “blue dot” last year and building a party that just had a blow out win in Omaha Mayor’s race.
Were the largest fundraiser in the country for now Senator Ruben Gallego, helping secure a Senate seat in state Trump won by 5.5 points.
Raised almost $150,000 for Wisconsin state legislative races, another place where we made impressive gains last year (we raised another $150,000 for Susan Crawford and helped her win a WI Supreme Court a few weeks ago).
While 2024 was a tough year for Democrats, this community played a major role in some of our most important wins. A huge hearty Hopium thank to everyone who played a role in making that happen.
So enjoy my discussion with one of our party’s most exciting and dynamic leaders, and keep working hard all - Simon
P.S - Be sure to catch this morning’s post, On This Memorial Day Weekend American Needs A New Birth Of Freedom. Lots of good stuff in there!
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