Now that the General Assembly has gone home, one thing is clear: We need new legislators in Raleigh. After five years of Republican control, North Carolina is worse for the wear. Our schools are underfunded, our teachers are leaving, and our university system is struggling to maintain its prominence. Republicans passed blatantly discriminatory laws against gay and lesbian couples. They privatized a Medicaid system that was a model for other states and recognized for providing superior services while saving the state money. They raised taxes on low and middle income families while offering more tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. I could go on, but you get the point.
So what can you do? Run for office. Or let us know somebody who might. Democrats need to compete in every legislative district in the state next year. After this session, no Republican deserves re-election without a fight.
So we’re asking for suggestions. While we have strong candidates lined up to run in a number of state House and Senate districts, we have many districts with no opposition. In 2014, dozens of Republicans were re-elected without having an opponent. That’s not good for democracy and it’s not good for Democrats. We can’t win if we don’t compete.
Republicans moved the primary to March 15. Filing is in less than two months. We need to make sure we have a full slate of Democrats.
We’re looking for a few good candidates. What makes a good candidate? Former Lt. Governor Pat Taylor used to say that people need to be successful at something else before they can be successful at politics. Good candidates have a record to run on and a network of people who have faith in their abilities. They are also people willing to do what it takes to get elected, including the hard work of raising money.
We call it crowdsourcing candidates. Fill out the form and let us know people in your community who might be willing to run for office in 2016. We’ll gather the names and turn them over to the state party for vetting. They’ve already done a great job of recruiting top-tier candidates and we hope this effort helps them fill the ballot the Democratic contenders. Our ticket is stronger when we have people running in every district and we can find those candidates by engaging the people like you. We need to have all hands on deck to win next year. Thanks for your help.
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Holly Jones.
I would absolutely love to have 4 Democrats to step up and run for the 3 House seats and the one Senate seat representing Union County, but it has been impossible to convince any Democrats to run in our gerrymandered seats that were carved out for the Republicans (except Kim Hargett in 2013 and Dale Nelson in 2011 in HD 55 — Anson and Union — but neither of them carried Union County). Our Senate seat includes 99.999 percent of Union County. I seriously doubt that the House and Senate Caucuses will be putting any money into Union County unless it’s HD 55, but after losing even when we ran excellent candidates, I doubt the House Caucus will put anymore money in it this time around. I will, however, send you the names of some folks who may want to run to just be a thorn in the sides of the Republicans.