Competitive NC Democratic Party chair race brings test for establishment
Members of the North Carolina Democratic Party will soon decide whether their top official should be held accountable for what many in the party considered disappointments in the midterm elections.
Former state legislator Bobbie Richardson, who has served as the party’s chair since 2021, is seeking reelection against three challengers who believe the party needs a change in direction. The party’s executive committee, which has about 600 members, is scheduled to vote on its leadership positions on Saturday.
Political insiders say North Carolina Democrats failed to win key elections last year for a host of reasons — from being outspent in the U.S. Senate race, to facing GOP-friendly headwinds in the legislative races. But some Democrats say the state party struggled to coordinate operations with organizers at the county level, and see problems in how the state party used its resources.
In recent years, the party’s leadership elections have been relatively uneventful. The incumbent, if they run, usually wins. But this year’s race is shaping up to be more competitive than usual.
At least one poll shows big support for campaign organizer Anderson Clayton, who chairs the Person County Democratic Party. Richardson also faces retired Marine Eric Terashima, chair of the Brunswick County Democratic Party, and educator LeVon Barnes, a precinct chair and party official who lives in Mebane.
“We are getting postcards and emails and texts like I never have [seen] before,” said Randy Voller, who chaired the state party from 2013 to 2015.
“If Bobbie felt that she had this in the bag, you probably wouldn't see that,” Voller said. “So I think this is going to be a very competitive race.”
If Richardson is ousted, she would be the first chair in at least 10 years to run for reelection and lose.
Former state chairman Wayne Goodwin, now commissioner of the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles, didn’t seek reelection after serving two terms as party chair between 2017 and 2021. And former state Rep. Patsy Keever of Asheville didn’t seek reelection after her term from 2015 to 2017.
Goodwin and Keever presided over something Richardson hasn’t: a major statewide election win.
Democrats last year won the congressional seats they were expected to win, as well as a closely watched toss-up race in the greater Triangle. But Democrat Cheri Beasley lost the U.S. Senate race to Republican Ted Budd. The party lost every North Carolina Supreme Court race. And Democrats lost seats in the state legislature, where the GOP is now only one vote away from being able to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes.
That performance has led to infighting and soul-searching among party members, with some supporting Richardson’s challengers. Others demand a change.
Success in past elections often determines whether a chair stays or goes.
Goodwin led the party as it broke the GOP’s legislative supermajority in 2018, and then as Cooper won his second term in 2020. Keever chaired the party in 2016, when Cooper defeated incumbent Republican Pat McCrory.
In 2014, Voller cited the party’s performance in that year’s midterms as his reason for not seeking reelection. The late former U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan lost her reelection bid to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. He took responsibility for that loss.
David Parker, who led the party from 2011 to 2013, declined to seek reelection after paltry Democratic performances in 2012.
Although many Democrats have expressed frustration with the party’s election results last year, Richardson has not lost support from top party figures. Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein endorsed her reelection campaign, for instance.
Richardson, 73, acknowledges that the midterm elections provided “many lessons” for the party under her leadership. Richardson’s experience leading the party through the last year’s trials gives her unique insight into how the party can implement changes, she said.
She knows she’ll need to spend more time calling donors so the party can invest more in its year-round organizing program.
“Experience matters,” Richardson told WRAL News, which interviewed each chair candidate. “I have a relationship and an engagement with leaders on the local level, on the state level, and on the national level. That puts me in a position that when I call people, touch base with people, I will get a call back immediately.”
Richardson says challengers are bringing new ideas to the table. But, she said, “I do not think that ’23 and ’24 is the year for us to experiment.” The party has year-round organizing and training programs in place that she believes will be even more successful as time goes on.
“We need to continue on that course because it did have some successes,” Richardson said. “And we don't need people coming in, starting something new right here at a time that we are really in a major democratic process.”
Anderson Clayton, the candidate from Person, fears Democrats will be reluctant to invest their time and money in an organization that came up short in many midterm races. In a swing state, North Carolina Democrats will need all the help they can get.
“I'm not saying that we're not going to raise money. We are,” said Clayton, 25. “I think that people are going to want to see a state party, though, that has wins under their belt and that's able to actually perform and show them where the potential is,” Clayton said.
Clayton touts her role in helping Democratic state Rep. Ray Jeffers flip a seat in the legislature last year, and in guiding Democrats to seats on the Roxboro City Council. She believes she’s best-suited for the role of party chair because she’s shown she can win in rural areas. And, as president of the party’s Association of County Chairs, Clayton is familiar with the biggest needs of local Democrats.
“We're trying to rebuild what grassroots organizing looks like across the state,” Clayton said of her campaign for chair. And as a young person from a rural area, “I'm going to be able to get in places and talk to people in ways that this party doesn't really do right now.”
Eric Terashima, the Brunswick candidate, served in the Marines for 30 years. He says he’s witnessed the party’s deficiencies as a county chair and legislative candidate. He said the party is bad at communicating with officials across the state and is out-of-touch with the needs of its members.
“The North Carolina Democratic Party is highly dysfunctional, and I've got the right skill set to attack those problems,” said Terashima, 54. “We need strong leadership, reorganization and better communication.”
As a candidate running in a Republican-leaning district, Terashima says he didn’t feel supported. He says he was largely ignored when he sought help from the state party on voter turnout, for instance.
“That kind of behavior is normal out of the state party,” Terashima said. “The volume of complaints that I've heard about the state party, writ large, is a lot. So my expectation is that there's going to be a lot of [state party voters] who are going to go for change.”
Richardson said that it’s unrealistic to expect the party to hand-hold every candidate. When she was a candidate for the state House, she said, she appreciated help from the state party but didn’t rely on it to run her campaign. “I did not sit there and wait for the party to come to me.”
Educator LeVon Barnes, 40, says he’s seen what he described as the party’s shortcomings as a former candidate, precinct chair and caucus chair in Durham County. The problems within the state party have lingered since before Richardson became chair.
“This is not about running against somebody,” Barnes said.
“It wasn't just this year, this cycle, or last cycle. There's been quite a few cycles where we as a party have had no real direction,” he said. “And that's because we have not communicated well. We have not coordinated well.”
As a teacher and youth basketball coach, Barnes believes he’s developed the skills required to manage the party.
“There are a lot of people who have great leadership skills, they can inspire, but they do not do well in the management part,” he said. “Then there are some who are really good at managing systems, but they can’t inspire and move people. I feel as though I can do both.”
Reforming the North Carolina Democratic Party isn’t something that will take years to accomplish, the candidates said.
Whoever wins will immediately be tasked with unifying disgruntled party members. They’ll need to hire a new executive director. They’ll have to convince donors and party officials that their vision is worth investing in.
Then they’ll have to recruit hundreds, if not thousands, of Democrats to volunteer for the next general election — one that could be a losing effort at the presidential level. A Democrat hasn’t won North Carolina since Barack Obama in 2008, after all.
And the North Carolina GOP is expected to enter election season with less internal turmoil.
Barnes, musing on the race for Democratic Party chair, said: "You have to have a level of insanity to want to do the job.”
