Row seat to democracy. Announcer now a discussion on youth and world but are out of reach with the North CarolinaDemocratic Party anderson clayton, who happens to be the youngest state already chair in the country. She highlighted ways young people can get involved in the political process while speaking with the washington post. This is basically a lot of things that are falling on your shoulders, and i want to talk to you about how you are advising the campaign and what are some of the things you are doing in North Carolina to make a lot of voters feel the Democratic Party is listening to them. That is a great question. Joe biden laws North Carolina in 2020 by 74,000 votes, and a lot of people look at it as though that is the opportunity stake this year, and i agree with them. We have a huge opportunity to reach out to democrats that did not turn out in 2020 and also did not turn out again in 2020 2022 for Cheri Beasley because they have not felt into tapped into or energized or motivated by what is happening. So part of what i think the Bidenharris Administration and their campaign this next year needs to do is show up in North Carolina more than they ever have before, because i think that the idea right now is that the Democratic Party has a messaging problem and i dont believe that. I believe we have a showing up problem because the Democratic Party has done so many Amazing Things for everyday americans, including two major programs, the Affordable Connectivity Program and something that came out of the infrastructure act, and also 35 a month of insulin relief for people on medicare right now, that is something those two programs are directly impacting seniors and working families in North Carolina, and not to mention that when we talk about the amazing impact of bidenomics bringing manufacturing jobs back to North Carolina, places that have not seen Economic Development take place in them in a really long period of time, so i want joe biden and Kamala Harris to come to North Carolina and run strong on their record and drum up that energy and excitement that we did not have in 20202022. My part and that is going around to all of these counties. We are crisscrossing the state, i was just in bear county last week and Clayton County and Watauga County and wilkes county, and we were trying to get active everywhere that we could. You mentioned that there is not necessarily a messaging problem, but you just have to show up. When these candidates are out and about whether it is biden or someone running for senate or governor, who are these voters that the Democratic Party should be talking to . I think everybody, i dont think that we take it for granted this election cycle, and my job as party chair is to do two things, protect my incumbents and get out to my base. If i do both of those, joe biden does win reelection, because we no know 134,000 people who set up before have followed the same trend in florida, where democrats get beat up like by every election cycle where it feels like our votes dont matter anymore. And theres racial gerrymandering in our state, and its hard to see how we can come around from that in peoples minds, honestly, where voters go to the ballot box every year and want change and voted for it and we have seen that and we have been able to keep a democratic governor and a democratic attorney general along with donald trump on a ballot. North carolina is not a big monolithic state and we have to treat voters like that. People are independent and think on their own and they want to see what a candidate is bringing forward and offering them versus whats happening right now. Because i really think that folks are disenchanted with both parties and that is because the parties have not done a good enough job and the Democratic Party is getting out in places and showing people that we are there to listen to them and the can you talk a little bit more about that, because from my point of view on capitol hill, a lot of democrats are starting to realize that if we want to mobilize not just our base, we have lost that working class union voter, many of whom live in rural districts. When were not going out there as much. Can you talk about that and how much you have seen that change and how much you yourself are trying to encourage people to listen to this base . 2016 was a big wakeup call for folks went on the cut truck got elected and people looked at me and said i dont know how this happened, and me, living in a rural part of the country, said i completely do, because folks felt like they were not heard by either party, and nobody felt like they could take this route up anger, and thats what and trump tap into that, and my dad voted for trump because he was angry. He was angry at the Democratic Party and he felt like they had left him behind in some way. For me, that is because the Democratic Party stop showing up in communities that looks like mine. For me, i think it is a big part of rebuilding and reenergizing the trust that row committees had in the Democratic Party pare point in time. That is not to say i do not understand the racial dynamic we are dealing with. For me, rural North Carolina has the secondhighest rural comes to people and we have one of the most diverse rural populations, especially thinking and i think that people often times forget that road does not mean white, and i know folks listing from iowa might be like anderson, i dont know about that. But in the deep south, that is the truth. I think the Democratic Party has t of the party and thinking about how we build a strategy that helps state legislatures in the deep south utilize the brought black and brown power we have in these states to listen to them and have them become elected officials and put them in positions of power because i think that is what we need to be doing across North Carolina. That is what we did in 2021. I came back to North Carolina after being on national campaigns. I worked for the Kamala Harris and amy mcgrath campaigns. I thought the way to begin organizing communities was to go home again. 51 of the city of roxborough had never had their voices fully represented on the board before. We did that. I think that is possible across all of North Carolina also in places where we did not expect it because we did not have democratic infrastructure built before. You mentioned how people want their voice to be heard, to be represented in some way. What are the top issues people are concerned about in North Carolina . If someone in the National Party wanted to call you and say, what should we be talking about to these people coming you are like, this is what i hear all the time . I think housing. I think people would be surprised how much folks worry about how to pay their next bill. The economy right now might be working for some folks in some cases, but it has not had that effect yet on everybody feeling it. That is something the Democratic Party needs to own, that the pandemic is still here for a lot of folks. Not everybody bounced back as quickly as we expected or anticipated. Really talking to folks as though, what do you need right now . And going back to the party we were in the pandemic of mutual aid and making sure we are helping folks Access Programs the Bidenharris Administration has put in place to help pandemic bounceback. A lot that happens at the federal level never makes it to the local level. That is the part the state party has a huge obligation to play. Every day people are not living right now, they are surviving. We need to make sure we are helping them do that. One issue that really riled up the Democratic Base across the country is abortion. Is that something you have been hearing from voters . Is it the issue itself or people who say i do not want the government in any part of my life . How are you looking to message on that issue . I think it depends on where you are. In rural communities, i know people say you dont have to give a different message, it just has to be one, but i think it does. I think you change your message depending on who you are talking to. If i am on a college campus, i want to talk about the fact that abortion is a human right and something we had our entire generation and it has been taken away at the federal level and is about to be completely at the state level. This whole election for young people is about losing rights or gaining rights. We decide in this election what we do together. I am talking about bodily autonomy. Im talking about the fact we want women to be able to enter the workforce and not feel like they are forced back into the 1950s where all we were meant to do is stay home and breathe children. In rural america, at one point, that was a womans place. We have to talk about the fact that women offer much more to a family than just being a mom. It is not that being a mom is the only thing you do. Women in the workplace is such a huge part of our economy and culture and women do not want to regress backwards. Rural women understand that better than anybody from where we have been in the past. Talk about voters and what they are thinking about. I want to talk about candidates and recruiting them. That is another big component to making North Carolina more reliable for the Democratic Party. You mentioned your frustration that 44 seats were uncontested in 2022. Are you on path to make sure there is a democratic candidate running and just having the chance to win and represent those voices you have been talking about . Absolutely. In 2023, we have 1600 municipal races going on in North Carolina. Filing last friday for all of those races. While the Democratic Party was not able to contest all of them, the dream is in 2025 to be able to in every one of those races. Really building out a longterm vision for what the Democratic Party should be doing year after year. We did have over 1000 democrats file for those seats so i do not know that so many went uncontested. We did have a few in places where we could not find people to run. That means we run harder in the next cycle and Start Building the bench in every part of North Carolina. Going into 2024, we are utilizing all of the bench for municipal races to recruit people to run for the state house and senate seats because i want to make sure all of the seats are filled. We know republicans are not [indiscernible] we have someone running in every seat. We also know democrats want someone to vote for in every election cycle. 3 million north carolinians did not have someone to vote for in 2022. I want to make sure that is not the case against. Want to ask you about yourself. It is impressive that you at 25 years old are trying to overhaul a state party in many ways. Something interesting to me is a lot of people in our age range, and you have said this too, people are like i want to be involved in politics but literally nothing changes, so what is the point in getting above if i wont have any effect . You did not have that perspective i am assuming. When talking to younger voters, how do you make sure you engage young voters and say, look what i am doing, this is how i got here, and you could possibly do this as well . I tell that story, that City Council Story all the time, to the point i hope people get tired of hearing the story because i think it is such a testament to what you can do without knowing youre going to win an election. It was never about winning. It was always about putting up a fight in a rural county i grew up in where people did not did not expect democrats to win. People said, why do you care about those races . Because i know if i can get people to leave at this level, i can get them to believe that every other level. When people see changes in their own backyard, they are able to envision it elsewhere. There is power in getting young people to realize that young person a young person got people energized around something people in this city and county were not beforehand. I think there is a huge opportunity for young people to make change in their own backyard and not just be the people running campaigns but also being the candidates. I want to see more young people run for office. While i think both parties might be broken, there is one party worth fixing and calling young people into it to help do that. That is the Democratic Party. I think young people have every opportunity right now to get engaged and bring their ideas into this party make it something we can all be proud of and have ownership over. That is what is inspiring me to keep going and helped me run for this office. I did not do it by myself. I did it with a great group of young people that ran with me and behind me to make this happen. I think the Democratic Party will start hearing the Younger Generation much louder in leadership roles within our party, not just outside our party. I think that is exciting important. Have a question from lia from texas. It is easy to register young people. But getting them to go vote is difficult. What have you found to be the number one motivator to get young people to the polls . Other young people. I think the mistake we often make on campaigns is bringing younger folks just out of college back onto College Campuses to get out the vote and help organize, we need to be tapping folks already on the campuses who are heavily involved and have an interest. Shout out, boone, North Carolina. They do the most amazing job of this i have ever seen. They go out every year and grab up College Democrats and train them on how to be field directors and field managers and data directors and make them have jobs on campaigns that allows them to lease skills but also ask questions and Gain Knowledge about how to organize their own campuses. It creates this machine of young people who are organizers coming out of the mountains of North Carolina. They do that every year. In 2016 when North Carolina went red, Watauga County went blue for the first time in history because students turned out to vote in droves. Students registered people to vote. They contacted them about elections coming up and also went back and knocked on doors, made phone calls, saw them on campus. It was hard to ignore them at the end of the day. I think that is the success we have had. Age is something we talk about a lot more in politics nowadays whether it is joe bidens or Donald Trumps age. Young voters feel like they might be doubted simply because they are younger. You are in this position. Im curious what your experience has been with ageism and your advice to others who might feel put off about jumping in because they are young. It has not been easy. Everyone doubted when i came into the job. They set a 25yearold will not be able to raise money. Im happy about the reports that have come out recently because we have showed them we have showed them we have and people are energized by the vision of how we make this happen. They have seen that come out of North Carolina in a way we have not been able to articulate or envision beforehand of what that is supposed to look like in the long game we have been talking about and how we play it. The advice i would give to young people is i never expected to win this election. I think that has been the beauty of every election i have been involved with since i got out of college. I never expected to win but i ran it hard like i going to get more than anything. I showed people there was another option. I believe that is what young people are going to shop this party and country show this party and country. There is another way of doing things. We have an idea it will bring everyone together in a coalition that is multigenerational that does not just include young people but is led by young people with the advice and opinions of people who have come before us and fought these fights on before us. I would say dont give up and dont be afraid. And remember your why. The first time i decided to run for this position, someone told me as long as you know that and trust that, you will never regret running for something. I did not. My why was because i was angry. I was ready to see something change in my party. I knew if i wanted that, i had to be it. The secretary of state who is in arizona right now has a great quote for that. He says, if it is to be, it is up to me. I think young people have to hear that and own that because we do not feel that right now in a lot of ways. Before we go, i have to ask as well, you are filling out an impressive resume. Are you thinking about running for Higher Office anytime soon . No. I told everyone when i got into this, i want to help the Democratic Party. I did not know that i wanted to be state party chair. I kind of fell into it in a lot of ways im just wanting to see changes happen. I think there is a huge opportunity for us to continue this fight over the next 6, 8, 10 years. I know i will be a good foot soldier along with everybody else in the trenches. Thank you for giving us the time and your perspective. Good luck out there and thank you again for joining us. Thank you. I appreciate it. Also, thank you for interviewing young people. I think this is so amazing. Cspans washington journal, a life form involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics and Public Policy from washington across the country. Coming up friday morning we talk about corporate form and the state of the progressive Legal Movement with the cofounder and outgoing executive director of demand justice and the president of the national right to work Legal Defense foundation. Cspans washington journal, join the conversation live at 7 00 eastern friday morning, on cspan, cspan now, or online at cspan. Org. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more, including comcast. You think this is just a Community Center . No, it is way more than that. We are partnering with a thousand committed dissenters to create wifi so that students from low income families can get preparation for anything. Comcast supports cspan as a Public Service along with these other Television Providers giving you a front procedure democracy