Nick Bromell’s after action report treats the state of the Democracy in North Carolina’s (formerly) deep red Cabarrus County and in deep blue Amherst, Massachusetts. Bromell is following up on his pre-election post in First on the organization, Democrats without Borders.
The day after the last elections, a number of us who work with Democrats without Borders in Amherst, Massachusetts, gathered at my home to share how we were feeling about the outcome. (Democrats without Borders is an organization that enables Democrats and progressives in safely blue states like Massachusetts to lend their support to embattled Democrats in deeply Red states.) We in Amherst had spent the last two years raising money and making phone calls for Democrats in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Now the election results were in, and we wanted to decide: were they good or bad, a sign of hope or a cause for despair.
We began by talking about the elections overall. The Democrats had taken back the House, and we should have been elated. But we confessed to each other that we weren’t. The problem wasn’t just that the “blue wave” hadn’t quite materialized. Nor was it just that the surge of support for Trump had proved to be so strong, or that the results from Cabarrus had been disappointing. The pit in our stomachs had some deeper cause.
We realized, after a while, what it was. Our gathering was shadowed by gloom because we all harbored, deep within, the unspoken assumption, fantasy, or expectation, that today would be different, that the sun would shine brighter, that the world would somehow return to what it had been before Trump’s election.
Rationally, of course, we had all known better. None of us is an optimist by nature, and all of us had spent two years building massive psychological defenses against a repeat of the trauma of 2016. In fact, that was part of our problem. Inwardly, we were all so hunkered down that now we couldn’t stand up straight again. Not instantly, anyway.
But the deepest source of our gloom, really, was our obdurate naivete, a stubborn innocence we still weren’t able to outgrow. Inside each of us, there was still a somewhat spoiled child who had never known the world to be this bad and who had every expectation–even a sense of right, or entitlement–that the world would, and should, be other than it is. And that child was sulking.
Almost as if to shield ourselves from this, our conversation turned to our allies in North Carolina. Think how disappointed they must be feeling, we told ourselves. We knew how incredibly hard they had worked. Over the past two years, they had logged in thousands of hours (all of them unpaid, and in addition to their day jobs), and on the brink of the election it had seemed that some major victories were within their grasp: Perhaps the defeat of State Representative Larry Pittman, who had compared Abraham Lincoln to Adoph Hitler and called climate change science a blasphemy against God. Perhaps the election of Aimy Steele, a black high school principal running against a popular Republican woman who had once been moderate, but who now embraced Trump for fear of being “primaried out” by the far right in her Party.
Both of these hopes, and a number of others, had been dashed. How awful they must be feeling, we told ourselves. How crushed they must be. Within minutes, our malaise had been swallowed up by our empathy for their pain.
A few days later, the Chair of the Cabarrus County Democratic Party Dawn Larma posted this message on the Internet for all her colleagues, volunteers, and allies to read…
Now that I have had some sleep I can take a few minutes to write and talk about how proud I am of what we accomplished.
We put the first African American woman on the Bench in Cabarrus County making history. Juanita Boger-Allen, who will bring some new balance to our criminal justice system.
We saw candidates who ran state level races and gave the incumbents a real fight. We did not prevail but we came closer than we ever have in the past.
Aimy Steele came within 2000ish votes of beating Linda Johnson. Last election against Linda Johnson she won by 9,520.
Gail Young came within 1600ish votes of beating Larry Pittman. She took 51% of the vote in Larry Pittman’s home county. Last election Larry Pittman won by 6646 votes.
Mark Shelley came within 10,644 of Paul Newton For Senate Seat 36. That seems big until you realize that the last election Paul Newton won by 23,920 votes.
Karen Webster took on the new to Cabarrus District 67 to make sure no-one in the GOP got off easy. A district designed to keep Justin Burr safe, and yet she still campaigned and got a respectable showing.
We had a full slate of candidate in almost every race.
We elected the first African American woman to Harrisburg City Council–Diamond Staton-Williams.
We became recognized by the state party as being a real contender to make change. We helped elect a Democrat to the Supreme court and all three seats on the court of appeals. We broke the supermajority.
When this board took over [the Cabarrus County Democratic Party], we had a small balance in the bank, bills due and owned a box of clipboards and papers. We now have a functioning headquarters with technology and resources. We were able to raise money to help down ballot candidates and grow the part
But most importantly, we made them fight to hold on to every seat and we made them sweat.
Some people define success as only the win. I define success by results and these are some considerable results. We turned the dial. But more importantly we proved that we are a force to be reckoned with.
Every volunteer who called, who knocked doors and every candidate who sacrificed and ran hard, we are grateful for each of you. We have proven that Republicans do not own this county and it is purple.
We go into the next 2 years wiser, more strategic and with strength. We go in knowing that if enough people get involved we can turn the dial. 2020 we will make them work even harder and we will win!
Rome was not built in a day–but we have laid the foundation and we will continue to stack the bricks and we will prevail.
I am proud of this party and our candidates. We have a lot to look forward to. We made them work for their wins, and next time we will make them work even harder. Well done everyone, well done!!
New district lines will be drawn and we will start planning for new races. Come join us for our December breakfast and join us to find out how you can get involved for 2020 races now.
We have a lot to be proud of!
– Dawn
Over the past two years, we in Amherst have often confessed that we’re getting back from our Cabarrus allies much more than we’re able to give them. We’ve gotten a sense of doing something, instead of standing helplessly sidelined in a safely Blue state. We’ve gotten information about how the Democratic Party works (and doesn’t) on the local level. We’ve learned about the Koch brothers’ strategy that has poured millions of dollars into swing states to turn them Red. And after seeing our allies build a state-of-the art web site and Facebook page, compile a sophisticated database of voters in the county, and muster a small army of volunteers to knock doors and make calls, we’ve seen firsthand how much just a handful of people can accomplish if they are truly dedicated to the job.
But now we’ve learned our most important lesson so far. (In the years ahead, there will be more to come, I’m sure.) Democrats living in deeply Red states did not see the world change in 2016. Progressives living in deeply Red states did not suddenly discover that millions of Americans don’t share their values. Democrats living in those areas have known for a very long time what life is like when the extreme right constitutes a majority and appears to seek total and permanent domination, even at the expense of democracy itself.
For them, the 2018 election ended on Tuesday, November 4. And for them, at that exact moment the 2020 election began.
The entitled child that still lingers within so many Democrats in deeply Blue states had grown up and left their homes quite some time ago. They know what it takes to persist in a long, bitter struggle, gaining ground inch by inch at best. They have what it takes.
To win back this nation in 2020, and 2022, and 2024, and for many elections to come, we have to have it too.