In Guilford County, North Carolina, where Greensboro and High Point are located, it was difficult to engage or enthuse Democrats in the presidential election.
“It used to be a real challenge to convince people to volunteer,” recalls Kathy Kirkpatrick, the chair of her area’s Democratic Party.
People didn’t want to come out and knock on doors when President Biden was at the top of the list. They didn’t want to call or write postcards. She called it ‘a depression.’
But once Biden withdrew and endorsed Kamala Harris, that all changed.
“My goodness, we’re signing up 20-30 new volunteers a day now,” Kirkpatrick said. “We signed up a couple hundred volunteers the first week after she announced it.”
Wake County Democrats Executive Director Wesley Knott speaks with volunteers before they went door to door on Saturday, August 17. More than two dozen volunteers showed up to vote. Wake County Democrats had been working since before the uproar, encouraging people to vote all at once, but with the number of new faces, the party put out a request for experienced volunteers so newcomers would have people to go with them.
In Wake County, home to Raleigh, Democratic Party Chairman Kevyn Creech said people are working hard to get Biden the nominee, but there are also fears about preserving democracy.
Now she believes the campaign is more about hope. Democrats are “rejuvenated, refreshed, re-energized,” she claimed.
“It really changed the whole attitude and maybe even the course of this race,” Creed said. “In the two weeks between her announcing and her going for it, we had hundreds of volunteers sign up.”
“The shift from Sunday to Monday was so great that I was shocked by the enthusiasm,” added Jenny Marshall, chair of the Democratic Party in Forsyth County, which includes Winston-Salem.
Democrats and the Harris campaign see North Carolina as a state they can turn blue in November. Local party officials there believe it is much more viable now than they saw it a month ago.
The last Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina was Barack Obama in 2008.
Since then, Mitt Romney won the 2012 election and Donald Trump won the 2016 and 2020 elections by fewer than 75,000 votes.
But the state has also elected Democratic Governor Roy Cooper twice, despite Trump topping the ballot.
North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday he was having “that 2008 feeling.” The last Democratic presidential candidate to win the state was President Obama in 2008.
“I have that 2008 feeling,” Cooper told the crowd at a Kamala Harris event in Raleigh on Friday, referring to Obama’s victory 16 years ago. “We in North Carolina know what that means.”
New polls show Harris has largely erased the five- to six-point lead Trump had over Biden in the state.
A new New York Times/Siena College poll of likely voters in North Carolina found Harris at 49 percent and Trump at 47 percent.
According to a poll from the Cook Political Report last week, Harris and Trump were statistically tied, with Harris holding 48 percent of likely voters, compared to 47 percent for Trump.
Both campaigns view North Carolina as a very purple state.
Trump has made his voice heard several times in recent weeks, including last Wednesday in his speech in Asheville, where he made comments about the economy.
Former President Trump delivers speech billed as an economic address in Asheville, NC on August 14, 2024
Kamala Harris during her stop in Raleigh, NC on Friday to present her economic plan
Harris has appeared eight times this year, including Friday to deliver her own economic policy speech.
When it comes to state involvement in elections, it likely comes down to turnout, and that means some serious fieldwork, said Professor Michael Bitzer, chair of the Politics Department at Catawba College.
‘“Democrats did what they had to do and what they hadn’t done since 2008: They invested heavily in ground troops instead of airstrikes,” he said.
He pointed to the growing number of Democrats in their offices and the renewed motivation now that Harris is at the top.
Volunteers left leaflets on the doors of non-party Democrats.
“It’s a tough climb, but they’re doing everything they can to reach the top of the mountain,” he said.
Republicans had defeated Democrats in the state in voter registration, but that too has been disrupted in recent weeks.
“Since July 21, we’ve seen a small but noticeable increase in Democratic registrations. That’s likely the Harris effect,” Bitzer said.
‘Overall, Democrats have lost registration, Republicans have remained relatively stable – gaining more than they lose – and the unaffiliated [voters] “They just blow everybody away,” he noted.
North Carolina now has more voters registered as unaffiliated than as Democrat or Republican. driven primarily by voters under 45, including Gen Z and millennials who dislike party registration.
Although these young people are more likely to vote Democratic, they also did not show up in the required manner. turnout levels for Democrats to overcome the GOP’s built-in advantage.
Some Democratic Party officials believe engagement has changed in recent weeks.
Liz Purvis is the Democratic Party chairwoman for Granville County, north of Raleigh, a majority-minority county that Obama won but flipped red for Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Purvis said that, like in Democratic strongholds, there has been an increase in volunteers and enthusiasm that she has never seen before.
“We’ve had a number of new, returning voters in the last few weeks. They’re young voters, not just from Granville, but from Wake County,” she said.
They live in a safe blue neighborhood and believe they can make a bigger difference by moving to Granville.
“I think we’re going to see in Granville how this county does, and how North Carolina does,” Purvis said. “We’re going to act like we’re down 10 points, but there’s a real sense that it could go blue, which I didn’t feel a month ago.”
Volunteers prepare to go door to door for the Democratic Party in Raleigh, NC
On a Saturday morning in Raleigh, more than two dozen volunteers attended a campaign.
Organizers said the numbers were in line with what they’ve seen at volunteer events all summer, but on August 17, nearly half of the volunteers were new.
When the organizers saw all the new names, they put out a call for “experienced” volunteers, so that the new participants could work with someone who had already gone door to door.
Abby Burton, 74, was one of the “veterans” who jumped in early. She said there’s been a 180-degree turn in excitement about Democrats heading into November.
“I keep saying this is not a moment, this is a movement,” Burton said of the change with Harris.
“What I’ve seen since the change is not just in the people I talk to when I go around, but also in people talking about their younger children and grandchildren who now want to get involved in the project as well.”
