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North Carolina is a pivotal swing state that could go either direction. How the future unfolds will depend a lot on the investment of time and energy by progressive organizers in the state.
One of the groups on the case is the Carolina Federation, a grassroots organization in North Carolina focused on building people power for greater influence. Donors interested in flipping the state blue—and keeping it there—should consider them.
According to Durham City Council member Jillian Johnson, the federation has a multi-faceted approach to driving change. “The combination of issue-based work organizing in communities and linking those vocal struggles to the electoral system is how we can have an impact through voting and through electing the right people to office,” Johnson said.
Carolina Federation co-Director Theo Luebke told Blue Tent that the group draws heavily from the labor organizing world. That grounding allows the organization to approach tough organizing challenges with a patient focus on building deep relationships, as the organizing guru Jane McAlevey advocates. (See our coverage of McAlevey’s work.)
“One of the things that we bring to our work is this notion that, building power for our folks, there are no shortcuts to it,” Luebke said. “You have to put in the work and you have to have a strategy and you have to have a long-term game.”
Carolina Federation is a small operation, working only in four counties of North Carolina’s 100 and with a budget of $913,238 in 2020. But the group’s focus on building leadership in communities of color and engaging new voters has made it an important player in progressive organizing efforts in the state. It receives support from two national funding intermediaries, Way to Win and Movement Voter Project—as well as other sources—for year-round work that includes both paid field organizers and volunteers, as well as close partnerships with other groups in the state. A key to its approach is building a sense of empowerment that can drive both ongoing grassroots activism and voter mobilization during elections.
“Bringing those two pieces together is really critical for helping people understand how their daily struggles are impacted by the decisions that are being made by our political leadership and how they can have an impact at the ballot box, as well as in the community,” Johnson said.
Scaling up the organizing work by the Carolina Federation and other progressive groups in this key swing state could help to change the national political map. According to an analysis by Way to Win, Democrats have a base expansion potential in North Carolina of 964,022 voters to the GOP’s 753,455 potential. Realizing that advantage in practice could flip the state blue for a generation.
Carolina Federation’s primary focus this cycle is getting Cheri Beasley elected to the open Senate seat left behind by retiring Republican incumbent Sen. Richard Burr. Beasley, in 2020, lost an election for her third term on the state Supreme Court by only 401 votes. She faces another tough fight this year, and every vote will count.
Supporting her candidacy is a short-term priority for Carolina Federation. There’s more to be done.
“We do see a very slow and intentional path in the next five, 10, 15, 20 years in which we're organizing the same sort of methodical, deep engagement in more and more counties,” Luebke said.