BREAKING: Great News in NC, TX and ARK

Our New Baseline: Running Everywhere!

Yes, I know.

I say some things a lot.

“The battle for democracy is a long battle.”

“We must run everywhere.”

“Not running in so many places is doing untold damage to democracy. And it’s fueling extremism everywhere.”

“If we are going to succeed in running everywhere, we have to start VALUING running everywhere. And that means building an infrastructure that values running everywhere. And communicates that value all the time.”

If you’ve heard me at all in recent years, you’ve heard me say these things. So much, I may have even detected a few eye rolls along the way.

But I’m pretty stubborn, so I’ll keep saying it all.

And when these things happen, I will celebrate them.

So today, I’m celebrating. Heck, I’ve been celebrating all week!

I’m celebrating several states in particular who’ve decided to do things differently. To step it up!

North Carolina

I could tell the first time we talked.

The new North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman, in her mid-20s, didn’t only believe in running everywhere. Anderson Clayton gave the candidates running in the toughest districts a name:

“Champion candidates!”

Because, as she says, by running in those tough districts, these heroes are championing the Democratic cause and values. And from my standpoint, they’re championing democracy itself.

Now that is how you show that you value running in these tough districts—which means you value running everywhere.

Well, Chairwoman Clayton got to work finding those champion candidates, in a state that’s seen a non-stop attack on democracy as brutal as any state. (Half the major cases involving gerrymandering seem to come out of North Carolina, including Rucho itself).

Chairwoman Clayton has been tirelessly circling the state recruiting ever since, and yesterday was the filing deadline.

And…WOW did she succeed!

Only two years ago, North Carolina Democrats didn’t field a candidate in 29 statehouse districts. That left about 40% of Republican members without opposition. And THAT is an unacceptably high number of politicians feeling zero accountability to the people—exerting power with no democracy.

Well, here’s the headline in North Carolina after yesterday…

That’s right, for 2024, Chairwoman Clayton and her colleagues now have a candidate in all but 2 districts! From 29 to 2!!

And all 50 Senate districts have a Democratic candidate—in 2022, 15 seats went unopposed! From 15 to zero!

Incredibly, as a brand new chair, Chairwoman Clayton bested the Republicans in recruiting in a state they gerrymandered. Republicans are leaving far more districts uncontested (25 statehouse, 8 senate) than she is!

How is this success being treated in North Carolina?

Exactly as it should be:

“North Carolina Democrats have reversed the narrative…Chided for absences across more than 25% the General Assembly races in 2022, Friday's final half-day of election filing for the 2024 cycle brought a resounding end to the fortnight.”

This is how you go on offense in states, where democracy is most directly under attack!

Kudos to Chairwoman Clayton, all the other leaders and activists who recruited so vigorously, and especially to the many Champion Candidates for stepping up and providing this invaluable and patriotic public service. Your service has already begun!

Texas

And then there’s Texas, which has been ground zero of extremism for years—including the last few weeks of inhumane and cruel treatment of Kate Cox.

It’s no longer acceptable for those inflicting all that extremism to face no accountability for doing so. Which is why I was thrilled to hear of great recruiting success in Texas as well.

Through a new effort called Lone Star Rising, the Texas Democratic Party recruited far more aggressively than before.

As a result, they are contesting every statewide office, every Supreme Court seat up, every court of appeals seat, every state school board seat, and every state senate seat up.

They will have a candidate running in 84% of the statehouse seats—a 42% reduction from 2022 in the number of seats not contested by Democrats candidates.

Great work, Texas Dems!

Arkansas

The Arkansas Democratic Party is also getting in on the act, setting a record for how many candidates they recruited to run for the Arkansas statehouse next year.

You can read more about that here.

I’ll provide updates on other states in the coming weeks.

Why it Matters

Think about it for a moment.

The difference.

The difference in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas next year versus 2022 because so many candidates are stepping up.

Every one of these candidates will be holding incumbents accountable for extremism.

Every one (in Texas) will be talking about what happened to Kate Cox and the Supreme Court’s decision on her case.

Every one can explain the role that the statehouse played in that case, and is playing for extremists and special interest at the expense of every day Texans like Kate Cox, and every day North Carolinians.

Every one will be inspiring a team of volunteers to knock on doors to get the vote out for candidates up and down the ballot, including Colin Allred in Texas and candidates in crucial statewide races in North Carolina.

And turnout will be higher because of it. The higher turnout we’ll need to defeat Donald Trump.

Every one of these candidates will be able to explain when a new infrastructure project happens or when new jobs come to town due to the CHIPS bill, that Ted Cruz or Sarah Huckabee Sanders or North Carolina Republicans had nothing to do with it (even though they’re there at the ribbon cutting), but that the progress only came due to Joe Biden and Democrats, and that they got it done even though the Republicans at the groundbreaking opposed it.

They will also all be able to explain that the reason schools and communities are struggling isn’t because of CRT or public school teachers or whatever lies the GOP spreads, but because leaders like Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the GOP statehouse politicians they are running against have been attacking local public schools for years.

And so much more!

Then imagine, if no one were running in all these districts, none of these things would be happening. No presence. No door knocks. No messages. No accountability for extremism.

So, great job, North Carolina, Texas and Arkansas!

What Do We Do Next?

This is a long game, folks.

There’s no looking back.

For now on, we MUST run everywhere. For all these reasons and more.

This is our new business as usual. It’s our “no shit” default. It’s what we do.

And if we can do it deep in the heart of Texas, and in North Carolina, and in Arkansas, we can do it anywhere.

It’s hard work, of course. It won’t happen overnight

So in ‘26, we’ll reduce the number of uncontested seats even further. Let’s set our next goal—get it down to zero in these states. And many others.

But reducing that number by over 40% in Texas is a great start. And getting the number down to only 2 in North Carolina is an amazing start.

That’s the starting point—the right direction as far as the long game of democracy is concerned—then we just keep making progress from there.

So that’s my Saturday celebration. In the long battle for democracy, this recruiting success is progress.

But NOW we have our next assignment: to help all these candidates.

To show them in every way that we value that they are running. That we value them now that they’re in even more than we were trying to convince them to run.

And that we understand that those running in tough districts are true Patriots, who by running, are already performing incredibly valuable public service

Thank them for doing so. Help them along the way.

So people and communities feel that value enough so that folks always run.

You might even consider joining Blue Texas, an organization that crowdfunds support to statehouse candidates in the toughest districts while protecting voting rights.

Consider joining HERE.

Or pitch in to what Chairwoman Clayton is doing in North Carolina. Check out how to help her HERE.

Repeat after me, as I said at the top:

“The battle for democracy is a long battle.”

“We must run everywhere.”

“Not running in so many places is doing untold damage to democracy. And it’s fueling extremism. All over.”

“If we are going to succeed in running everywhere, we have to start VALUING running everywhere. And building an infrastructure that values running everywhere. And communicates that value all the time.”

Keep going!