A letter from Anderson.

To my Democratic Party family,

Thank you for your resilience this year. I know just how hard folks have worked to strengthen this party. I am so grateful for each of you for showing up to do the hard work on the ground even when it feels like you’re the only one.

It has been an honor to serve as the state party’s Chair of the Association of County Chairs this past cycle. I was privileged to work with our party’s best and brightest—all folks volunteering their time—as we fought the uphill battle to win back margins in places that state and national Democrats have written off.

North Carolina has watched a steady erosion of Democratic power in local governments for the past several decades, and at no time has that been more stark than 2022, when Democrats only managed to flip one–just one—county commission seat across the entire state. Local governments are the foundation of our democracy but our party’s top-down strategy is leaving it to crumble. County parties are the first to feel that pain.

Through my work as chair of the Person County Democrats and as chair of the Association, I saw how vastly different counties across the state, from Cherokee to Cabarrus to Carteret, were unified in our needs from the state party. We needed help recruiting candidates, fundraising, and getting out the vote from the 2021 municipals to the 2022 midterms. If we’re going to repair our foundation, it starts here, by building for the future from the bottom up.

The people closest to the pain should be closest to the power. Our party needs a new direction, led by someone who knows firsthand how to win, even when it’s a long shot. We can repair what is broken if we work hand-in-hand to build back a party that will fight for us at every level.

I am ready to fight for us, and I am proud to announce my candidacy for chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

There’s no time to waste. North Carolina’s next election cycles will define a generation of politics. The communities that rely on Democrats to deliver on the right to choose, affordable healthcare, education, labor rights, racial justice, climate action, LGBTQ+ protections, and essential infrastructure suffer when our party fails. We need sustainable, grassroots infrastructure if we are to build robust, citizen-led communities across our state.

As chair, I’ll fight for what we know works. That starts with direct investment in local organizing with a year-round, staff-supported program. We’ll rebuild our bench with state-level support for local government candidate recruitment and retention efforts. We’ll prioritize local messaging for local issues to build winning coalitions with unaffiliated voters. We can break the cycle of Democratic decline, and when we do, we can deliver for Democrats from the school board to the Senate.

I promise you that I will be a workhorse for this party, and I will do everything in my power to make you proud to call yourself a North Carolina Democrat. I will fight to make NCDP an institution that lives up to its values and its potential. I am thrilled to build a movement with you that will do just that.

Sincerely,

Anderson Clayton

Chair of the NCDP Association of County Party Chairs