Claire Kempner Could Flip HD 9

 

This campaign looks much healthier on the ground than her campaign bank account would lead you to expect. Claire Kempner is running in House District 9 (Pitt Co.), her second attempt to unseat Republican incumbent Tim Reeder, ECU emergency physician, who's frankly rolling in the dough. In her entire 2024 campaign against Reeder, Kempner raised $42,008 to his $556,287. She spent about $30,155; he spent about $426,963 and beat her with a 5,000-vote margin. This year, according to 2nd Q reports, Reeder has roughly eighty times Kempner's reported contributions, but sometimes piles of money don't mean much if the tectonic plates are shifting against you. Though she lost badly in 2024, has almost no money compared with Reeder, yet she is behaving like somebody who has every intention of making Reeder work for the seat.

Dist. 9 is rated by Civitas as R+3, "Lean Republican," which is well within striking distance for a flip if there is a wave.

Kempner has a real campaign underway, having learned some voter contact lessons from 2024. She says on her Facebook that she's been canvassing neighborhoods all summer. She has established an email/text volunteer recruitment operation along with an organized phone bank, with training on the campaign's script and voter-contact system. She appears to have a well-organized door-knocking operation with training and pairing inexperienced volunteers with experienced ones. 

Claire Kempner is a Pitt County mother of three, married to Greg Kempner. She was long described as a stay-at-home mom, but she now works as a Demand a Seat Recruitment Lead for Everytown for Gun Safety, which trains grassroots volunteers to run for office. She's also served in several volunteer and organizing roles with Moms Demand Action, including regional data work. She has served as secretary of the Pitt County Democratic Party and has been active with the Humane Society, United Way, and a maternity home for unhoused women and their children. She is, in other words, one of those people who apparently cannot be persuaded to sit still, especially when there is a need for action.

She's attracted the attention of the progressive community, earning endorsements from Lillian's List, 
Down Home NC (which brings more volunteers for door-knocking, phone banking, and canvassing), Equality NC, and Planned Parenthood. The Progressive Turnout Project has a paid campaign-fellow position specifically for “Claire Kempner for NC HD 9.” She made the second wave of Carolina Forward endorsements.

In other words, she's working it hard and could win.