Anderson Clayton Makes Me Want To Do Better

 

I saw a clip of some of NC Dems Party Chair Anderson Clayton's speech at the “What’s Next” post-election conference held in Denver, Colorado, on November 12–13. In an opening session titled “What Needs to Change?” Clayton delivered an impassioned dressing down of the entire Democratic Party power-class for failing to believe in Black people and especially in Black candidates, who were too often in this most recent election cut off from the big money that could have boosted them ... like Angie Nixon, dissed by the DSCC in Florida.

(Anderson said many other things on other topics in that speech, but I only saw the one clip, so that's my experience of the speech.) 

The Denver conference was put on by Majority Democrats, described as "centrist" (pro-business, pragmatic), and Anderson was scheduled for the opening program, "What Needs To Change?" She was on fire for a South raising up new Black legislators who were counted out because they were Black. Too many white establishment Democrats expect a Black candidate to lose against a white one, all things being equal (and a gay candidate to lose against a straight one, for that matter). Judging from audience reaction in the clip I saw, Anderson both hit a nerve and got loud amens.

Clayton: "I ask why are we not investing in a region of the country that on Tuesday night proved everybody wrong of what is possible .... To me, Tuesday night was possible because of those who dared to dream bigger, who fought an uphill battle. And you ask me what needs to change? We need to fight every fight like we know that we can win them." 

Did I say "hit a nerve"? I confess it hit mine. Approaching a general election, I tend to spend a good deal of time surveying candidate prospects in many, many different jurisdictions -- particularly the districts for NC House and Senate seats -- and I make decisions about which contests look promising for Dems, the ones I'm more likely to research and opine on. But I define "promising" by the standards I have ruefully accepted from disappointing elections in the past -- I gave up my daily life for Harvey Gantt running against Jesse Helms in 1990 and was crushed in spirit by his loss. Never again would I believe so firmly what the Old South was not ready to accept -- Black office-holders with actual power.

November 3rd changed that, I hope forever. Just look at what better believers in democracy did:

3 new members of the US Congress

Raymond Smith (NC-03)

Cyril Jefferson (NC-06)

LaKesha Womack (NC-14)

and reelection for Don Davis (NC-01)

3 (at least?) new members of the NC House*

LeVon Barnes (HD 64)

Rodney Sadler (HD 106)

Elma Hairston (HD 59)

(*I saw one reference to 10 new Black House members, without listing them, but I haven't gone further to catalog them.) 

1 new member of the NC Senate

James D. Gailliard (SD 11)

My shame, I hadn't bothered to learn the background on any of them (except Don Davis, but he was an incumbent), or to write about their races, thinking like 1990 all over again, especially with North Carolina still under the control of very conservative forces and a MAGA-aligned legislature and courts. I was one who was afraid to believe, and Anderson Clayton exactly nailed "What Needs To Be Changed." I'll be better in 2028.