May 2024

Help Turn North Carolina Blue!

There is no “purple” state in the nation more primed to transform into a solid progressive bulwark than North Carolina.

– Down Home North Carolina 2024 Strategy Report

Everyone’s abuzz about North Carolina in the 2024 elections, and with good reason:

Joe Biden lost the state by only 1.3% in 2020, and is investing heavily to win the state in 2024 (so is Planned Parenthood!)
North Carolina is the third fastest-growing state in the nation, with an increasingly diverse and well-educated population
The most important governor’s race in the country this year has Democrat Josh Stein leading ultra-MAGA, Holocaust-denying Mark Robinson, whose despicable stands on women, abortion, LGBTQ+ people, and school shooting survivors turn off even stalwart Republicans
Democrats need to flip only one seat in each state legislative chamber to break the GOP’s supermajority
There’s a dynamic new North Carolina Democratic Party Chair and a growing progressive infrastructure thanks to robust grassroots organizing

Beyond 2024, North Carolina is well positioned to move from purple to reliably blue: There are US Senate seats up for grabs in 2026 and 2028 as well as state Supreme Court and state legislature pick-up possibilities.

North Carolina has broken our hearts before, but there’s new reason to hope. For one thing, there’s Anderson Clayton, North Carolina’s new Democratic Party Chair who last year became the youngest state democratic party leader in the country. Clayton, now 26, grew up in rural Person County, sharpening her political skills on national campaigns before returning to North Carolina in 2021. After showing up at a Person County Democratic Party Zoom call with eight other people, she volunteered to become the county chair when no one else raised their hand.

Politico describes her immediate impact and success:

Clayton found an office space, registered the county on . . . ActBlue and updated the local website. She scrapped the county’s Democratic donkey branding for a “rural matters” slogan, and started hosting “food truck Fridays.” She found three Black Democrats to run for city council, handed out yard signs and knocked on 600 doors with the candidates several times, flipping the Roxboro City Council in 2021. She went on to help flip her district’s state legislative seat in 2022.

Clayton is frank about the impact of Democrats’ long-term neglect, embodied by the failure to even run in nearly a quarter of 170 state legislative races in 2022. “We left 44 seats uncontested. That is something that shouldn’t have happened,” exclaims Clayton. This year under her leadership, Democrats are running in all but two General Assembly races.

Clayton is a huge believer in grassroots organizing and investing in year-round progressive infrastructure. Democrats are now showing up everywhere–especially on college campuses and rural and red areas of the state. The way to organize and win, she says, is “by knocking on every door, talking to every voter, especially in the rural parts of the state, and to put lasting infrastructure on the ground.”

Clayton is the perfect match for Airlift’s Partners in North Carolina. We proudly support Down Home North Carolina and Carolina Federation–savvy, sophisticated, and energetic grassroots groups who will be conducting their biggest organizing and GOTV campaign ever in 2024. Their priorities are to make sure the radical and dangerous Mark Robinson is defeated for governor, and to flip enough state legislative seats to break the GOP supermajority with a comfortable buffer. This will lay the foundation for flipping two US Senate seats, regaining control of the state Supreme Court, and taking the majority in the state legislature by 2030, after which new and fair maps can undo the right-wing’s stranglehold on North Carolina.

Both groups have significantly expanded their membership, reach, and victories (hooray for Medicaid Expansion!) over the last few years, with Down Home functioning largely in rural areas and small towns and CF in more urban and densely populated regions. They're in the process of registering thousands of new voters by the end of June. The two groups just sponsored a statewide Issues Campaign Bootcamp to train 150 organizers about successful ground-game strategies. Airlift’s NC Partners will knock on more than a million doors, hold tens of thousands of substantive conversations, and engage multiple times with hard-to-reach voters this election cycle.

Both Down Home and Carolina Federation have been very successful at recruiting, endorsing, and supporting candidates in local and state legislative races who go on to win, and many have cleared their primaries to be on the November ballot. Dreama Caldwell, Down Home’s Co-director, notes that when community members run, there’s a higher level of motivation and enthusiasm. People who ordinarily don’t participate in the political process are excited and involved when they see people who look like them and represent their interests running for office. Dreama adds, “The magic for us is we don’t have to rely on top-ticket, national politics.”

The power of this bottom-up strategy is extremely effective at turning out hard-to-reach voters who don’t like or tune out of national politics. But once they come out to vote for local candidates and issues, they’ll likely vote blue for President and Governor as well. Anderson Clayton also endorses the concept of “reverse coattails”: “The bottom of the ballot is going to help the top of the ticket in my state like none other.”

Showing up–Down Home North Carolina, Carolina Federation, and Anderson Clayton know that’s what it will take to turn the state blue in 2024. So let’s show up, too, and make sure they have what they need to win.

Featuring Anderson Clayton, NC Democratic Party Chair

The youngest state party chair in the country and veteran of national campaigns, Anderson Clayton is showing up everywhere to turn North Carolina Blue in 2024. “The road to the White House goes right through North Carolina,” Clayton notes, and she’s working tirelessly to win the Presidency, Governorship and other statewide races, plus more blue seats in the state legislature.

A big believer in grassroots organizing, investing in progressive infrastructure, and showing up everywhere (especially on college campuses and rural and red areas long neglected by Democrats), Clayton’s a force to be reckoned with. Come catch her enthusiasm about why North Carolina is poised to turn from purple to Blue in 2024 and through the rest of this decade.

Guest Partner Groups

Down Home North Carolina
Carolina Federation

Equally savvy and energetic, our grassroots groups from North Carolina will be running their biggest organizing and GOTV campaign ever. Come hear their plans and how you can help to keep the governorship and a state Supreme Court blue, break the GOP’s state legislative supermajority, protect abortion rights and public schools, and keep Joe Biden in the White House.

LIT’S Cristhabel Martinez Lights Up Young Voters

When Cristhabel Martinez starts explaining, the plan comes fast and clear: What if Leaders Organizing Transformation (LIT), Airlift’s Partner Group with a magic touch when it comes to engaging Wisconsin’s youth, expanded its outreach beyond high school and college-aged young people to include those who are a few years older? That’s just what she’s doing in her role as LIT’s Senior Civic Engagement Manager.

This new program expands LIT’s traditional focus on motivating high school and college kids in Milwaukee to vote, especially those in traditionally underserved, mostly Black and Brown communities. LIT justifiably prides itself on nurturing Wisconsin’s next generation of voters. But there’s a whole slightly older cohort ripe for engagement.

Cristhabel describes LIT’s typical outreach: In talking to high school seniors about the importance of voting, she starts with a question: “What is one issue you care about?”

One young man wasn’t participating at all. When Christhabel asked for his thoughts about voting he replied, “My vote doesn’t matter.” She pressed him on what he cared about: “Housing.”

Not wanting to risk embarrassing him, Cristhabel didn’t ask why he cared about housing. But knowing that housing insecurity is a major concern among many young Milwaukeeans that she talks to, she found a teachable moment for this young man and his classmates:

I literally was writing on a whiteboard, showing Milwaukee’s north side [the poorer side] vs. the south side. We started talking about the key players in our city, and then about the potential voting power of the north side. At the end of my talk, this kid was engaging the most, raising his hand. He was the most excited.

As Senior Civic Engagement Manager, Cristhabel is expanding that technique and energy to focus it on young voters who are recently out of school. She manages over twenty youth canvassers and two cultural organizers to reach out to Black and Brown young people in Milwaukee. Recently, LIT and its allied organizations had a big win when they helped pass a referendum to bring additional funding to the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).

Getting to the heart of her canvassers’ experience in the same way that she reaches students, Christhabel asked them, “How do you see your role as a LIT canvasser as part of the bigger picture?” One admitted:

When I first started this job I didn’t really know what canvassing was. I just saw the pay and it was fine. I didn’t realize how impactful it is to talk to the community everyday. And even though I’m no longer a student in MPS, my kids go there. And campaigning for the referendum, I can see how important it is for me to stay involved.

Cristhabel proudly notes, “He is now one of our star canvassers. He can hit doors like nobody can.”

Cristhabel is also excited that LIT is expanding beyond Milwaukee to become a statewide organization. That way they can do throughout Wisconsin what LIT has done so well in Milwaukee: turn hopeless and apathetic young Americans into passionate believers in their own ability to make change.

Feed the Grassroots Now!

November is coming up fast and furiously, and there’s no time like the present to support Airlift’s Partner Groups. Grassroots organizers are the frontlines, donors are the supply lines. Let’s keep those supplies flowing. Here’s how:

Donate by Check. Set up automatic payments to Airlift with the Bill Pay service at your bank, or send a check directly to: Airlift, PO Box 617, Corte Madera CA 94976
Donate Online at ActBlue. Just click the button, and click again to Make it Monthly!

Supply Now!

Make it Monthly–Your Own Anxiety Relief Program! Becoming a monthly donor means our partners can count on having resources right through to the election. Besides, you’ll feel better.

For Tax-Deductible Giving. Although non-tax-deductible 501c4 gifts allow our partners the most flexibility for political action, tax-deductible 501c3 donations are welcome too. Email Ruth Jaeger at ruth@airlift.fund.
Spread the word! Tell your friends and family about Airlift and our events. Share this newsletter and our website.

Here are two events we thought you should know about:

California Donor Table presents:
Battleground California: The Path to Taking Back the House

Thursday, May 16, 12 noon PT / 9 am ET

Co-hosted by Airlift

Come hear key regional groups and national partners of the California Donor Table share insights on 8 congressional battles in California crucial to winning back the House at their May meeting. The Battleground California group of donors and strategists is focused on coordination of grassroots, state and national organizational efforts in the state’s swing congressional districts. Some of the organizations have also created Battleground California PAC recently, described in the New York Times.

Register Today!

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Access Abortion 2024
Behind the Scenes: The Strategy Conversation

Thursday, May 30, 10 am PT / 1 pm ET

Join Airlift friend Galvanize Action for a conversation between Executive Director Jackie Payne and Chief Strategy Officer Kristin Wheeler as they provide a behind-the-scenes look at their analysis of their latest research on what influences people to support access to abortion, and how they will use these findings to develop a strategy to maximize impact in 2024.

Galvanize Action focuses on moderate women in rural, small town, and suburban communities with persuasive messaging. They work at the intersection of data science, behavioral psychology, and neuroscience to find women who want progress on key issues but aren’t reliably playing a role to get us there. The result? More women who vote their values by voting blue for candidates and issues pertaining to abortion, healthcare, childcare, gun control, climate, and more. Check out their important work here.

Register Today