Afternoon all. One of our good friends, Anderson Clayton, dropped by a live discussion earlier this afternoon. A recording and transcript are above.
We hadn’t talked to Anderson in a while and I wanted to get her sense of things from on the ground in North Carolina. In our lively discussion we cover a lot of ground - whether people are coming to understand how harmful Trump’s agenda is (yes); how Roy Cooper is fairing in his campaign for the US Senate (well); what the plan is to counter the outrageous, ongoing Republican gerrymander of this very purple state (it’s a good one); what it’s like to now be a grizzled veteran state party chair at 27 years old (exciting); and much, much more….
For this community I think the most important part of the conversation is how we all helped, through our almost $1.2m invested in the NC Dem Party over the past 2 years, turn the NCDP into a muscular state party with the third largest budget in the country (despite being only the ninth largest state in terms of population). Anderson has built the NC Dem Party into a model for the nation, with 25 full time staff, 24/7/365 comms, and an aggressive organize-in-every-county model. North Carolina was arguably the most successful down-ballot in the seven main battleground states in 2024, and as she discusses, our big and early investment there helped their big wins last year possible.
It is our success in helping transform the North Carolina Democratic Party into a top-tier, high-performing year round party that has inspired us to launch our Audacious Expansion Fund this year. This program follows the same model - early targeted investments in state parties to make hard things possible next year. This time we are investing in five states - Alaska, Iowa, Florida, Maine, and Texas. All are “expansion” states - states we need to win if we are to flip the Senate next year and expand our narrowing Electoral College map (see here for more on the strategy driving the choice of these five states). Our investments are not just for a single campaign; rather they help build, as they did in North Carolina, lasting infrastructure and capacity in these critical states.
In just a few weeks we’ve raised more than $175,000 for this nascent program. Listening to Anderson will make it clear why these investments are both strategic and necessary. Thanks to all of you who have contributed so far.
If you want to become a supporter of Anderson and the North Carolina Dems you can do so here. You can learn more about her 2025-2026 program on the Party’s website too. Governor Roy Cooper remains our most promising opportunity to flip a Senate seat in 2026. You can help him by giving to the NC Dems or giving to him directly here. Here is the my interview with Governor Cooper from a few weeks ago:
For more on why our family simply do more to invest in state parties watch my recent interviews with DNC Chair Ken Martin and DNC Vice Chair Jane Kleeb. We spend billions and billions every election cycle. More of it must be spent on lasting infrastructure and not just on things that disappear the day after Election Day.
Enjoy this interview with one our party’s most inspiring emerging leaders, share it with others, and keep working hard everyone - Simon
