Anderson Clayton Dropped By With Exciting News And A Preview of Battleground North Carolina In 2026Always great to see our inspiring Democratic Party Chair of North CarolinaEvening all. Sending along a recording of my talk with Anderson Clayton this afternoon. The video is above and a transcript is below. For those new to Hopium winning North Carolina was our biggest undertaking in the 2024 election cycle. We raised over $1.1m for Anderson and the NCDP, helping them have the most successful cycle downballot of any the 7 Presidential battleground states. This model - investing early, creating capacity, getting wins across a critical expansion state for us - is the model we are following in our Audacious Expansion Fund this cycle. This time thought, with a very different map, we are not working to develop capacity and get wins in one expansion state but five - Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas. I asked Chair Clayton to drop by and share with us some exciting news - Democrats are running candidates in all 170 state legislative and 14 Congressional districts in North Carolina this year! It was a huge undertaking for the Party and its allies, and a successful one. In our discussion you can hear us talk about why this matters so much - for it brings the fight to every corner of the state, 24/7/365, and lifts up all Democrats in every race throughout the state. We got a similar report a few weeks ago from the dynamic new chair of the Texas Democratic Party, Kendall Scudder. The Texas Democratic Party is fielding a full slate of candidates statewide for the first time in more than 60 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s a testament to what state parties can do if we invest in them. Anderson also shares with us her thoughts on the 2026 election landscape in the state, including the all important efforts to elect Roy Cooper to the US Senate and keep Anita Earls on the state Supreme Court. The bottom line - things feel good, but there is a lot of work ahead of us. Anyway, it’s a wonderful and uplifting discussion with our good friend and one of our party’s most inspirational leaders. Get to it when you can, and if you are so moved, help Anderson win in 2026 by giving to Roy Cooper or the North Carolina Democratic Party directly. Keep working hard all - Simon Transcript - Simon Rosenberg and Anderson Clayton (1/13/26)Simon Rosenberg: Anderson Clayton: Simon Rosenberg: Anderson Clayton: And we're really excited because our members of Congress have been up to some dirty tricks in Washington, D.C., trying to take away people's access to health care. And we're excited to have good candidates to run against them everywhere. Simon Rosenberg: Anderson Clayton: And we're really excited about the competitive nature of a lot of these gerrymandered districts that we're seeing. Because as we saw in Virginia, our +9 state legislative seats became competitive last year, thanks to Republicans and the decisions that they've made both in Congress and in state legislatures across the country. Simon Rosenberg: Anderson Clayton: And then looking at our state legislative seats, really saying that in the State House right now, we have 49 seats that Democrats hold. And I think that we're looking at the fact that there are five to ten seats that could be stretch seats for us to be able to take in this year. Five that are definitely take seats for us. And they look like places out of Wake County and Mecklenburg County and in Forsyth County, too. We've got some urban areas that we need to juice the turnout in. And then we've also got some rural areas like where Dante Pittman won his state legislative seat in 2024 and where Lindsay Prather won her state legislative seat in 2024, Wilson County and Buncombe counties that are some of our more rural areas of the state that we're going to need to make sure that we're still holding ground in. But I definitely think that we could take back a state legislative chamber by 2030 if we do our jobs right in this election cycle. And we really push towards free and fair elections in North Carolina with our state Supreme Court. Simon Rosenberg: Anderson Clayton: Simon Rosenberg: You know, we talk a lot about the information wars at Hopium and the information superiority that Republicans have. When you have a candidate running in every district and in every community, it means that you have somebody actually engaging in this information war every day, making our case for our agenda and our values. And degrading theirs. And to have this in every place, to allow every district to be able to connect to this argument, to hear from them, to bring it to life, to show that we're not an urban-based party, but that we're fighting and competing everywhere. The significance of this, of making us louder and more effective communicators in the day-to-day scrum, where we have so much work to do to break through… it’s a big deal. We just interviewed Kendall Scudder from Texas, where they had also had a similar achievement like this, the new Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em chair down in Texas. A cousin of yours spiritually, I think, Anderson. But it really is a big deal, and I'm just really proud of you guys, because I think of any year where we need to be loud, it's got to be this one. Anderson Clayton: And I think that the other side of that is that a state party has got to be prepared to help those candidates, though. And so some of the things that the North Carolina Dems have done to be proactive about helping those candidates be successful is, you know, making sure that we give out free data access to every candidate that's on the ballot. We don't charge people for a little tool called VoteBuilder, which is the access to all of the data that the state party has collected over previous campaigns and election cycles. We also make sure that there's a full-fledged organizing and training department that's operated year-round. So I've had organizers that are from the communities that they represent that have been with the state party for the last two years and have really made the relationships holistically in the communities that we need to, to have canvas launches go on for local candidates that then are making sure that the top of the tickets, our Supreme Court justice candidate, is also mentioned in that. Because we are really focused on judicial races as well as the full ballot this year in North Carolina. And the U.S. Senate election is just going to be the cherry on top of everything for that, too, for us. Simon Rosenberg: Anderson Clayton: And so definitely the feeling on the ground, I don't think is any different than the last election cycle. It's definitely one of change and one of wanting to see promises that were laid out by the Trump administration. And I think that what we're seeing right now is a lack of oversight about what Americans are really caring about and what North Carolinians really care about, which is… do my kids have a good school to go to? Can I afford my grocery bill? And do I have a hospital that's within a 20-minute drive of me that I could get to if I actually need help? And for a lot of North Carolinians right now across the state, they can't say that. And I think that Roy Cooper is really going to be focused on that this year. And so is Anita Earls, for that matter. When we think about affordability and holding corporations accountable in North Carolina, our Supreme Court does that when you're thinking about companies like Duke Energy that have monopolies throughout the state… that need to have an accountability measure that just do not right now with Republicans that control both our judicial system and our legislative branch in North Carolina. Simon Rosenberg: Anderson Clayton: And so students or teachers that are across the state right now, state employees right now have gone without a raise for the last year and a half. And somebody that makes forty five thousand dollars a year right now has had to go without because people in Raleigh could not make up their minds on whether or not they want to cut healthcare or they actually want to pay our teachers. So… we're expecting a state budget at some point in time, hopefully this year, fingers are crossed, but knowing Destin Hall and Phil Berger, probably not. And I also think that, you know, just in general, how they're going to react to federal cuts. I think 2026 is… we saw a little bit of it in 2025. I think 2026 is really going to be the testing ground for a lot of the nonprofits and the NIH funding that North Carolina lost last year too. Simon Rosenberg: And now you've got these legislative sessions. You've pointed out your own Republican-led legislature is struggling mightily to be able to govern against these draconian cuts that have come down. And so it's our view that just the way that you just expressed it, that these kinds of brutal debates that are about to happen literally in every state and local government in the country are going to bring the harms of Trump's regime closer and closer to people as we get closer to the election. Anderson Clayton: Simon Rosenberg: Anderson Clayton: Simon Rosenberg: And I know this from being at state party meetings over the last year. And so, we did invest a lot of money with you last cycle, but you had remarkable returns. I mean, North Carolina was arguably in 2024 the most successful down-ballot state underneath the presidential of any of the battleground states. You continue to do really well in 2025. And you've got enormous opportunities in 2026. So we're happy to be here at every step of the way with you. And let us know when you've got news or other things we can share with folks in the Hopium community. You've got a lot of fans here. And so keep up the good work, Anderson. And thanks for dropping by today. Anderson Clayton: Simon Rosenberg: You're currently a free subscriber to Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Anderson Clayton Dropped By With Exciting News And A Preview of Battleground North Carolina In 2026
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Anderson Clayton Dropped By With Exciting News And A Preview of Battleground North Carolina In 2026
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