Mecklenburg County, North Carolina: A path to victory!
October 5, 2024
Dear friends and readers,
This weekend, I am asking you to do me (and you) a favor. Please find twenty minutes to watch Jessica Craven (of Chop Wood Carry Water) and me interview Drew Kromer, the Chair of the Democratic Party in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
I guarantee that if you invest the time to watch (or listen to) the video embedded above, it will educate, motivate, and inspire you. It will encourage you to help get out the vote by canvassing, texting, and phone banking. Most importantly, it will help mediate and control unguided anxiety about the election.
If Kamala Harris can win North Carolina, her chances of victory in the electoral college increase substantially. VP Harris has other paths to victory without North Carolina, but Trump has almost none.
The interview with Drew Kromer is important on many levels:
It will give you a sense of the ground efforts party organizations are making nationwide, especially in Mecklenburg County, which is critical to winning North Carolina.
It will help you understand that Democrats do not face the challenge of convincing voters that Kamala Harris is the right choice but instead face a “turnout” challenge.
It will address your concerns about voter turnout in North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
It may cause you to pack your car and head for Mecklenburg County to knock on doors!
There is more, but i encourage you to watch the video for the jolt of confidence and inspiration I felt after speaking with Drew.
If you are moved to donate or volunteer for the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party, the links are here:
Friday was a busy news day! Here are the top stories to consider over the weekend
Joe Biden appeared at a press conference in the White House briefing room.
President Biden showed up unannounced in the White House briefing room and addressed disaster relief following Hurricane Helene, the status of the conflict in the Middle East, the strong jobs report that left MAGA critics stunned, and the successful negotiations in the dockworkers strike.
Full video here: President Biden takes questions for first time at podium of the White House press briefing room.
President Biden said that he was confident that the election would be free and fair, but was worried that comments by Donald Trump threatening violence might threaten the peaceful nature of the election. See video clip HERE.
President Biden responded to comments by Senator Marco Rubio claiming that the strong jobs report was “fake.” Biden said, “Anything MAGA doesn’t like they say is fake.” See video clip HERE.
President Biden addressed the situation in the Middle East in his prepared remarks and in responses to several questions.
Fighting disinformation about disaster relief for Hurricane Helene victims.
In a cruel and grotesque display of depravity, many leading Republicans—including Trump, Elon Musk, and Rupert Murdoch’s media outlets—are deliberately spreading lies about disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Helene.
Juliette Kayyem (who served in Homeland Security in Obama administration) urged Americans to sign up for FEMA’s Daily Operations Update newsletter, which provides definitive information about FEMA’s disaster recovery efforts. If you are involved in those efforts or need to monitor them to help respond to voters’ questions, please consider signing up for the FEMA daily operations newsletter.
Separately, FEMA has established a website devoted to responding to disinformation about the federal government's response to Hurricane Helele. See FEMA.gov, Hurricane Helene: Rumor Response.
The White House has issued a memo with an extensive summary of efforts being undertaken by the federal government to provide relief. See FACT SHEET: UPDATE: Biden-Harris Continues Life-Saving Response Efforts in Response to Hurricane Helene | The White House.
The White House also issued a memo that specifically rebutted lies by Donald Trump, calling them “poison.” See The Bulwark, A Torrent of B.S.: Trump-led Lies About Hurricane Relief Spark Fears.
Trump lies about an endorsement by Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase
On Friday, Trump announced on Truth Social that Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, had endorsed Trump. See NBC News, Trump falsely claims he was endorsed by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.
A spokesperson for Dimon quickly issued a denial, saying “Jamie Dimon has not endorsed anyone. He has not endorsed a candidate.”
Trump later claimed that the post on his account on Truth Social was a surprise to him, saying that he didn’t know about the post on his personal Truth Social account. Trump is shameless. When caught in a baldfaced lie, he simply makes up a new lie.
Kamala Harris rally in Flint, Michigan
Kamala Harris held another packed rally in Flint, Michigan, that featured Governor Gretchen Whitmer (here) and former NBA superstar Magic Johnson (here). During his remarks, Magic Johnson made an appeal to Black men to support Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris’s remarks begin (here).
Harris spent much of her speech on economic and workers’ rights issues—appropriate for a state that is undergoing major shifts in its industrial and business base. She also addressed environmental issues, Project 2025, and reproductive rights. She ended her speech by urging the crowd to vote and to encourage others to vote.
Although many of Harris’s comments were part of her stump speech, she has changed the order, tempo, and details. But most importantly, she stayed “on message,” which stands in stark contrast to Trump’s unhinged campaign appearance in North Carolina. See LIVE: Donald Trump's SURPRISE Visit to North Carolina MAGA Rally.
Trump's appearance was a lie-fest, which began with a promise to change the name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, “a name that honors a Confederate general from Warrenton, North Carolina, who was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles that contributed to the Confederacy's downfall.” Trump said he would avoid “WWIII” by bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, and repeated lies about relief efforts relating to Hurricane Helene.
Let’s hope that the lead in Saturday’s major press is the stream of lies issued by Trump on Friday. If you see such a story, please feel free to post in the Comment section.
Opportunities for Reader engagement
Join me in a discussion with Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Colin Allred
Reminder: Join me for Today’s Edition fundraiser for US Senate candidates Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Florida) and Colin Allred (Texas). Both are key to helping defend and expand the Democratic majority in the Senate.
I will chat with both candidates about the state of their races in Florida and Texas, the election in general, and local issues that are driving voters to the polls. The event is being co-hosted by Senate Circle.
The Zoom fundraiser will take place on Friday, October 11, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern / 3:00 p.m. Pacific, and I will sign on 20 minutes early to chat with readers who join the call. Please RSVP or donate now on the ActBlue page. The minimum donation to participate in the Zoom is $100. (Note: We tried to change the date because of the conflict with Yom Kippur, but there was no other date available for a joint appearance.)
Join Walk the Walk!
Wednesday, October 9, at 5:30pm PT / 8:30pm ET
Zoom event - Walk the Walk USA’s 2024 Democracy Preservation Portfolio.
Join Walk the Walk USA for crucial updates and a brand-new recommendation. Our grassroots partners’ staff and volunteers are making repeat contacts to fight disinformation and Get Out the Vote. Their work in select micro-geographies, some long ignored by political campaigns, has outsized impact up and down the ballot, nationally and locally. This kind of trusted local outreach is the most effective strategy.Since Walk the Walk USA is run entirely by volunteers and has no overhead, every dollar raised goes to its effective grassroots partners.
Concluding Thoughts
Mail ballots have arrived and early voting has started in some states. See Early Voting Calendar - Vote.org to see when voting begins in your state. Voting early will help organizers focus on voters who have not yet voted!
If you watched the Mecklenburg County video (above), you know that this election will be decided by turnout. For the next month, we need to be unabashed, unrestrained, and uninhibited in our efforts to tell everyone we know that they must vote! In 2020, a Democratic candidate for statewide office lost by 401 votes in an election in which 5 million people voted! Your efforts at the margin may make the difference! But don’t be satisfied with working at the margin, help Democratic organizers reach voters who will support Kamala Harris.
Did I mention this election will be decided by turnout?
The good news is that we have the ability to increase turnout through diligent effort! Let’s do it!
And if you haven’t yet been inspired by the Mecklenburg County video, I urge you to watch it sometime this weekend!
Talk to you tomorrow!
Daily Dose of Perspective
My second attempt at imaging Pleiades resulted in a proper, pleasing image. The “Seven Sisters” are clearly identifiable (see the annotated photo below). The photo has the right amount of exposure and nebulosity to approximate an observation with a telescope or binoculars.
Note also the dim glow of reddish dust in the left third of the photo. Although the reddish dust field is frequently omitted from images of Pleiades, the star cluster is nestled in a vast sea of red dust. See this NASA photo.
The photo below annotates the Seven Sisters (using the spelling convention adopted in Wikipedia). The Wikipedia article notes that many cultures have mythologies and observations of Pleiades dating back thousands of years.
North Carolina, hurricane devastation, and the down ballot:
The hurricane damage in North Carolina is devastating, and once again, a Republican controlled state legislature has contributed to untold harm. Just in the past year, it passed two laws prioritizing short-term profits over longer-term building codes. When Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed those laws, the Republican supermajority overrode them. See "How the North Carolina Legislature Left Homes Vulnerable to Helene" NY Times gift article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/03/climate/north-carolina-homes-helene-building-codes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.P04.WL_m.AXB0qdlX6n73&smid=url-share
The Tending to Democracy Giving Circle has already been fundraising to break NC's supermajority for at least two other very good reasons. The right wing Republican state legislature had passed an abortion ban that severely restricts access for 2.4 million North Carolinians, and it eliminated widely popular background checks on gun sales, making communities and children less safe.
The States Project has vetted a North Carolina slate of very good Democratic state legislature candidates. NC needs them to win to break the one-seat Republican supermajority and support NC's next Governor Josh Stein. As we know from David Pepper, what happens in the states does not stay in the states.
Thank you for supporting North Carolina through the Tending to Democracy Giving Circle:
https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/1XQhnyD/Tending-to-Democracy
Thanks also for the link to the President's press conference. He remains at the top of his game. We are so lucky to have had him as President the past 4 years. Bravo!