To my Democratic family,
First and foremost, 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, and fighting for a better future in North Carolina.
It has been the honor of my life to serve as the State Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. I am privileged to work alongside the party’s best and brightest — from the county, precinct, district, and caucus chairs, to the auxiliary leaders, advocacy organizations, union representatives, and more. I’m so grateful to everyone who plays their part in helping make our party successful.
Over the last two years, we’ve built a party that works for the people of North Carolina. That means being a party that invests and runs candidates who know that we need more public servants in positions of power, not politicians. It means being a party that embraces our challenges, looks to uplift everyone, and fights for those who need it most.
We fought an uphill battle in 2024 against hate-fueled extremism and in a state Republicans have had to racially gerrymander in order to maintain their power. However, this year told a different story than the previous ones. North Carolina Democrats fought back. In a year when the nation saw a red wave, we saw 6 statewide victories for our party – including 5 Council of State victories, holding a crucial Supreme Court seat, and breaking the Republican supermajority in the state legislature.
In 2020, Democrats lost the Supreme Court seat by 401 votes. In 2024, Democrats won a Supreme Court seat by 734 votes, a needed victory on the three-cycle plan to take back our courts by 2028. This win is largely due to our investments in a full-time program this cycle, which included hiring a Judicial Director and staff, as well as a full organizing team called Project 100 that invested time and energy into every county.
Even through these victories, I recognize we still suffered immense losses in North Carolina as well, and that there is much work to do. Many people feel disconnected from the party. We must reorient ourselves into a party of service again, one that shows up everywhere, continues to treat everyone as someone worth talking to, and delivers results whenever we govern.
North Carolina Democrats believe in ceding no ground to the Republican Party, and I promise that we will continue to aggressively recruit candidates to contest every single race.
As chair, I’ll continue direct investment in local organizing with a year-round, staff-supported program. We’ll continue to rebuild our bench with state-level support for local government candidate recruitment and retention efforts like free votebuilder access for every single candidate on the ballot, digital support, and mobilizing grassroots volunteers. We’ll prioritize local messaging for local issues to build winning coalitions and bring people into the party. We can continue to break the cycle of Democratic decline, and when we do, we can deliver Democratic majorities from the school board to the Senate.
We know our biggest battles still lie ahead. We know the fights we have left, internally and externally as a party, could divide or heal us. I know I am prepared for that challenge. And I know I’m not done yet.
That’s why I’m proudly running for re-election to be your party Chair, and why I’m humbly asking for your continued support.
I’m not done fighting for what’s right in this state and in this party. I’m not done fighting for everyone’s voice and everyone’s community to be heard. We’ve accomplished so much the last two years, but I’ve come to realize that infrastructure takes immense time and focus to build. I hope you will grant me the opportunity to continue to build it with you — because we truly are stronger when we stand together.
You have my promise that I will continue to be a workhorse for this party, and do everything in my power to make you proud to call yourself a North Carolina Democrat. I will continue to fight to make the NCDP an institution that lives up to its values and its potential.
Our movement’s only just started. Let’s keep building a New South!
In this together,
Anderson Clayton
Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party