'People are fed up': As NC Democrats reflect on election missteps, a party shake-up is underway

North Carolina Democrats were optimistic about their chances in the midterm elections. But following disappointing results, party insiders are dwelling on missed opportunities, and a party shake-up is underway.

Meredith Cuomo, who had served as the North Carolina Democratic Party’s executive director since 2019, said Saturday in an email to party officials that she had stepped down from the state party’s top staff position. She moved into an advisory role on Dec. 1.

Her decision to leave was made prior to the election, Cuomo said in the email, which was obtained by WRAL News.

In the coming months, some party insiders expect more leadership changes.

“I would be absolutely shocked if more than half of the officers kept their positions,” said Ryan Jenkins, president of the state party’s progressive caucus. Jenkins spoke to WRAL before Cuomo's announcement.

Asked about the state of the party, he said: “People are fed up."

Going into November, the party had several reasons to believe key races might swing their way. With Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr retiring, Democrats had their first chance in 20 years to flip an open North Carolina seat, a win that could’ve helped protect the party’s majority in the chamber.

Despite low approval ratings for President Joe Biden — which can affect voter sentiment in the midterms — Democrats thought voters might be inspired by Cheri Beasley, the state’s first Black Senate candidate in 26 years. And they banked on moderate voters being angered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to revoke a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

Yet on election night, as the party triumphed in other swing states, North Carolina Democrats had less to celebrate.

They won the congressional seats they were expected to win, as well as a closely watched toss-up race in the Raleigh area. They also stopped Republicans from gaining a supermajority in the legislature.

Political insiders believe North Carolina Democrats would have performed better if national groups had spent more on the U.S. Senate race, if the state party hadn’t left legislative races uncontested, if they had organized more quickly, and if the party had done a better job of turning out its base. Election data show that turnout among regular Democratic targets — young voters, Black voters, and voters in metropolitan areas — fell short of participation levels in 2018.

Since Election Day, Democratic factions have been examining the North Carolina party’s weak spots and devising plans to become better organized. Who will lead those efforts is now unclear.

Cuomo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Saturday. On Sunday, she issued a statement to WRAL. She had been talking to leadership for several months about her departure and said that she needed to spend more time with her family.

“I’m proud of my team and the work we’ve done over the last few elections. This work is never easy, but I will never regret fighting for North Carolina,” she said. “It is my hope that my successor will keep pushing forward in the fight for the values we hold as North Carolina Democrats.”

Digital Director Lillian Taylor is serving as state party’s interim executive director while the party searches for a permanent director. The party also announced that it was laying off nine staff members due to financial constraints, a move that’s not uncommon in the wake of elections.

“This is not a decision we took lightly and is in no way a reflection of the fantastic work they accomplished in their tenure at the NCDP,” Cuomo said in the email. “But the financial landscape over the course of 2022 was much different and the money is not there to continue to staff at the capacity we had.”

With the party set to elect new leaders early next year, some insiders expect even more changes.

“I’ve talked to people in almost every caucus. I’ve talked to Democrats from Transylvania County to Pamlico County," Jenkins said. "No one is completely happy with the direction the party is going. Pretty much everyone I’ve talked to has expressed extreme anger and frustration.”

North Carolina’s total turnout was 51.4% this year, about 2% lower than the 2018 midterms. Voter participation declined in each of the state’s largest voting hubs: Wake, Mecklenburg, Guilford, Forsyth, and Durham counties.

Jane Whitley, chair of the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party, said in an email that “being able to connect earlier with the statewide coordinated campaign would have helped” get-out-the-vote efforts.

“My records show that the coordinated campaign was organized and holding volunteer events here by June 2018,” Whitley said. “There were some volunteer GOTV events held this past summer, but the coordinated campaign was still hiring field organizers here in August and September 2022.”

Beasley lost her race by 121,737 votes. If the same registered Democrats who voted in 2018 also voted this year, Bitzer found that Beasley likely would have won her race. Nearly 820,000 voters skipped out on this year’s election after participating in 2018, he said. About 333,000 of those lapsed voters were registered Democrats.

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It’s also possible that Democratic voters stayed home because they assumed their votes weren’t needed to win the local races that are traditionally won by Democrats, said Matt Hughes, the Hillsborough mayor pro tempore and a vice chair for the North Carolina Democratic Party.

“People who live in blue counties can take a lot for granted,” Hughes told WRAL News. “Because Democrats control boards, county commissioners, they control city councils. And there can be a situation where people get complacent.”

Close election losses almost always generate discussions about what could have been done differently. Should the candidates have delivered different campaign messages? Should the party have knocked doors in different areas? Did the most capable organizers hold positions of leadership at the county and precinct levels?

Party members have been considering those questions. And the need for some kind of reform is obvious to both donors and grassroots activists, said Jonah Garson, chair of the Orange County Democratic Party. Unlike other counties, Democratic-heavy Orange saw an increase in voters — 60.1%, up from 58.7% in 2018.

“You don’t need to be steeped in data to know what a losing season we just had as Democrats in North Carolina, both on absolute terms and relative to the rest of the country,” Garson said in a phone interview.

“While there are a few bright spots to celebrate — some hard-won congressional victories and some truly innovative work by local Democratic organizations — those of us who have been working hard to win North Carolina know that we can do much better and that there are things we can do to change our trajectory,” he said. “We as a state Democratic Party continue to struggle to develop and implement effective strategic plans to coordinate with county parties, and the effects are evident in bottom-line electoral outcomes that we need to own.”

Anderson Clayton, chair of the Person County Democratic Party, said the party can overcome some of the challenges posed by the growing urban-rural political divide by devoting more resources to rural areas.

“There is a need for folks to step up and run for office in their local communities, but those candidates deserve training and support on how to run those campaigns,” Clayton said. “We need a stronger state party that values the voices of those on the ground and works from the grassroots up.”

Party insiders expect reform-minded members to seek the position of NC Democratic Party Chair next year. The current chair, former state Rep. Bobbie Richardson, announced three days after the election that she plans to seek reappointment.

“The results of the election were not the blue wave we worked and hoped for,” a post on her Facebook page said. “Now is the time to [begin] organizing for the 2024 election.”

In emails to WRAL, the party touted its efforts that helped Democrats pick up congressional seats and protect Cooper’s veto “despite headwinds and gerrymandered legislative districts.”

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“In 2021, NCDP launched a year-round organizing and training program to engage with voters early and often,” the party said in a statement. “Through these critical investments, organizers and volunteers on the ground made millions of voter contacts to get people out to vote and lead Democrats to victory in key races across the state.”

The party acknowledged that it must improve before the 2024 election, when presidential and gubernatorial races will be on the ballot.

“The numbers also bear out that there is a lot more work to do to mobilize a multi-racial, multi-generational, and geographically diverse coalition needed to win in North Carolina,” it said.

Beasley’s campaign routinely outraised Budd’s campaign. But GOP groups invested far more in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race than liberal groups, which prioritized spending in states with more recent histories of electing Democrats.

High-profile celebrity Republican candidates Herschel Walker and Mehmet Oz served as big targets for Democrats in Georgia and Pennsylvania. In North Carolina, though, Budd was a lower-profile candidate. He entered the race with little name recognition and was content to run his campaign out of the spotlight.

Beasley and Democrats did what they could to cast Budd as an extremist, highlighting his anti-abortion comments and his reluctance to accept the results of the 2020 election. Budd, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, voted against certifying the results of the election that year, when Trump lost.

It wasn’t enough. Morgan Jackson, a top Democratic strategist in North Carolina, said Budd was lucky to run in a GOP-friendly year and benefit from a significant financial advantage.

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In a statement to WRAL, Beasley’s campaign said its ability to visit every county and host more than 500 interviews “forced National Republicans to invest nearly $80 million to get Ted Budd across the finish line.”

By tying up GOP resources, Beasley’s campaign said it “was instrumental in helping to secure the U.S. Senate for Democrats in the process."

Even in a loss, Beasley received the largest vote share of any Democratic senate candidate since the late Kay Hagan won in 2008.

“These results should put a spotlight on North Carolina as a key swing state that Democrats can win with powerful candidates and sufficient investment,” the campaign said.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee defended its spending decisions. "Senate Democrats just had the best midterm campaign cycle in modern history because we made strategic investments that maximized our ability to protect and expand our majority – the result speaks for itself,” David Bergstein, the committee’s spokesman, said in an email. “In North Carolina, Democrats supported Cheri Beasley with millions of dollars, including investments in advertising, campaign infrastructure and direct financial contributions.”

A legal battle over redistricting prompted court intervention earlier this year. While Democrats opposed the final state Senate map, the state House map received bipartisan support and both were expected to reduce the GOP's odds of winning a supermajority.

If either party gains a supermajority in both the state House and state Senate, it can override the governor after he vetoes legislation. In North Carolina, Republicans gained a supermajority in the Senate and came one vote short in the House.

The Democrats lost ground in both chambers. One possible contributing factor: a lack of candidates.

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The legislature features 170 seats. Democrats left 14 of 50 seats uncontested in the Senate and 30 of 120 uncontested in the House. None of those districts favored Democrats. But Republican strategists say that the lack of competition enabled them to pool money and resources into the most hotly contested races.

Stephen Wiley, the House GOP caucus director, said he was surprised that Democrats didn’t find candidates to run against incumbents Kristin Baker, John Bell, Donny Lambeth or Matthew Winslow. Although their districts favor Republicans, Baker’s district offered less of an advantage than the others, and Wiley thought Democrats could make the race competitive if they fielded a strong candidate.

A Democrat filed to run against Baker but then dropped out on March 18. Per state law, the Cabarrus County Democratic Party could have replaced the candidate anytime before Aug. 25. But they didn’t.

“There was a big push to find another candidate and replace them and ultimately, the local party just didn’t do it,” he said. “I think that was a mistake.” The Cabarrus County Democratic party didn’t respond to emails requesting comment.

Those vacancies alone freed up $1 million, Wiley estimated, allowing him to spend more money not only on close races but in districts thought to be safe Democratic seats.

Take a Henderson-area seat in the state House. State Rep. Terry Garrison, a three-term Democrat, was running for reelection in the Democratic-leaning district. But with extra cash in hand from the races left uncontested by Democrats, the GOP was able to spend more to support Garrison’s Republican challenger, political newcomer Frank Sossamon.

Republicans paid someone to dig up Garrison’s court records, finding his ex-wife’s 28-year-old restraining order against him. The GOP then used it to attack Garrison in ads.

Garrison lost by 732 votes.

“If [Democrats] had put up somebody against Bell, Lambeth and Baker, I would not have had the money to go do the research on Garrison,” Wiley said.

In an interview with WRAL, Garrison referred to the allegations as “a misunderstanding on a very private matter.” He also disputed the notion that the ads cost him the election, attributing his loss to a change in the district’s makeup.

Garrison said the attacks were unfair because the conflict was a long time ago, it was covered by local newspapers when he was a Vance County commissioner, and because he’s now on what he described as friendly terms with his ex-wife, who he said helped his campaign.

Garrison’s district was one of five where Democrats lost by fewer than 900 votes, or less than 3 percentage points. In two House districts — District 9 in Pitt County and District 98 in Mecklenburg County — Democrats lost by less than 2 percentage points. Incumbent Democrat Brian Farkas lost that Pitt County seat by only 354 votes.

As for the uncontested races, Jackson pointed to low Democratic enthusiasm during the late February filing period — months before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – and the prolonged redistricting process. After the North Carolina Supreme Court approved the legislative maps on Feb. 23, candidate filing opened on Feb. 24 and closed on March 4.

That created the logistical issue of finding strong candidates in districts “where the ink was hardly dry,” Jackson said, adding that he doesn’t think it’ll be an issue in future elections.

“That feels like a one-cycle challenge to me,” he said.

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“It’s a grueling process running for the state House and state Senate,” Reives said. “It’s no longer about the issues. You get things said about you, your family, your friends and they’ve got the money to put it all in print and on the internet.”

In the state Senate, experts predicted the senate supermajority would come down to two incumbent Republicans’ races: state Sen. Michael Lee against Democrat Marcia Morgan in New Hanover County, and state Sen. Bobby Hanig against Democrat Valerie Jordan along the northeastern coast.

Hanig won by 3,000 votes and Lee won by 1,700 votes. Dylan Watts, director of the GOP’s state Senate caucus, said he doubted that Democrats could have done any better.

“They could have done resource-allocation differently, maybe,” Watts said, suggesting Democrats could have diverted more money to those two key districts. But both parties spent heavily on the New Hanover race, where Watts described Lee as a perfect candidate. And in Hanig’s district, “we really ran up the score.”

According to Jackson, Democratic senate candidates came close to doing much worse.

The party also prioritized campaigns for Democrats Sydney Batch in southern Wake County, Val Applewhite in Cumberland County, and Mary Wills Bode in the northwestern part of the Triangle.

Each Democrat won her race, even though polling in the weeks before the election suggested those victories were in danger.

“We were thinking the red wave was really coming,” Jackson said during an interview shortly after the election. “There was a world, three or four weeks ago, where we lose all of those targeted races.”