RALEIGH: Today, The 19th reported on candidate for the U.S. Senate Cheri Beasley’s strong efforts to build a “winning coalition” in North Carolina. The article notes Cheri’s focus on running a “North Carolina’ flavor-style campaign” that “shows up in the way Beasley champions issues she believes everyone can get behind, such as lowering health care costs, supporting small and rural towns, and expanding benefits for families, such as the child tax credit and paid family leave.”
Reporting from a “standing room only” campaign event, the piece highlighted Cheri’s ability to evoke “energy and excitement from a diverse range of people,” which will be required to win the race this November. The article also described Cheri as “thoughtful,” “measured and steady,” qualities people “seem to love about her.”
The 19th also details Cheri’s commitment to “courting” rural voters and her campaign’s “targeted outreach” to “not only with Black voters in cities but also those in rural communities who tend to be overlooked by politicians from both major parties.”
Read the highlights below:
The 19th: Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?
By Candice Norwood
The Beyu Caffe was standing room only as people packed into the spot in downtown Durham, less than two miles east of Duke University.
Walking up to the stage at the Black-owned coffee shop, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cheri Beasley was greeted by a chorus of claps and cheers from the crowd, a multiracial mix of young and older supporters.
The moment captured what she needs to win in November: energy and excitement from a diverse range of people. If she wins, Beasley will make history as the first Black woman to be elected U.S. senator from North Carolina. The Senate currently has no Black women.
Beasley has already been elected statewide multiple times, as a state district court judge and a state court of appeals judge.
Academics, advocacy groups and voters frequently describe Beasley as measured and steady, attributes that many supporters at the Beyu Caffe seem to love about her.
“She is thoughtful, she’s calm,” said Fay Mitchell, 68, a resident of Durham. “In her presence, in her marketing, she makes overtures for a broad spectrum of people. So she’s branded herself as someone that we can all relate to.”
Beasley’s two decades as a judge included serving as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court; she was the first Black woman to hold that position. That judicial experience required her to evaluate issues without political commentary, and likely factors into her demeanor on the campaign trail. But being a Democrat and a Black woman running for a statewide seat in North Carolina also requires a certain balancing act, experts told The 19th.
“We do a lot of ticket-splitting here in North Carolina, so for Democrats in general, you have to run a very North Carolina flavor of race – running a campaign that is broad enough so that you don’t isolate that small universe of voters that are open to vote for a Democrat, even if they may not be registered as a Democrat,” said North Carolina state Sen. Natalie Murdock. “Justice Beasley knows what it takes to be a Black woman that is running statewide.”
That “North Carolina flavor”-style campaign shows up in the way Beasley champions issues she believes everyone can get behind, such as lowering health care costs, supporting small and rural towns, and expanding benefits for families, such as the child tax credit and paid family leave.
“Access to health care – doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or independent – these are real issues all over the state,” Beasley told The 19th. “We have issues that impact our climate and impact people and our livelihoods every single day. These are not partisan issues.”
She added that she’s prepared to fight for her state without getting “caught up in the pettiness of partisan politics,” though she has been a vocal supporter of abortion rights in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Despite being overshadowed in the national spotlight by other midterm races, the contest between Beasley and Budd has emerged as one of the country’s most competitive in a high-stakes election season when Democrats stand to lose control of the Senate.
Working in Beasley’s favor are the efforts of grassroots organizations pushing to register new voters, and engage more young people, communities of color and rural voters. In 2020, an estimated 1.8 million of the state’s 7.3 million registered voters did not cast ballots.
This means at least some rural voters will be a necessity for Beasley, and she has spent campaign time courting them. She touts that she has traveled to all of the state’s 100 counties, 80 of which are rural.
Beasley’s approach includes targeted outreach to churches, HBCUs and historically Black sororities and fraternities. She is working to connect not only with Black voters in cities but also those in rural communities who tend to be overlooked by politicians from both major parties.
“Nobody pays attention to rural communities. Nobody’s talking to those voters and asking them, ‘What do you care about?’ ‘What keeps you up at night?’ ‘What’s on your mind,’” said Bonnie Dobson, who works with Down Home, a North Carolina-based civic engagement organization focused on small and rural towns. As a Black woman in Mebane, North Carolina, a town of about 15,000 people, Dobson has felt this first-hand.
All of Down Home’s eight county chapters have endorsed Beasley for Senate. Dobson said she thinks Beasley’s judicial experience and focus on people’s core values make her an appealing candidate for the potential voters she speaks with.
Original source can be found here.
