Meet the youngest head of the state Democratic Party in the country as he tries to turn the North Carolina battleground blue and prove that Gen Z’s elder Biden CAN win in 2024

There are questions about whether young people will turn out for Democrats in November or whether they have turned against President Biden and the party that typically sees them as an important part of the base.

Polls show this could well happen, amid frustration over the likelihood of a Biden-Trump rematch and the president’s support for Israel as the war rages in Gaza.

But one Democrat leading the Democratic Party in a key battleground state is determined in the battle ahead.

Anderson Clayton is the 26-year-old chairman of the Democratic Party of North Carolina. She was elected last year amid a wave of dissatisfaction with the party’s performance and is the youngest chairman of a state political party in the country.

Clayton, speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com ahead of Super Tuesday, argued passionately that this year’s election is “not” about an 81-year-old, but about the issues: abortion rights, workers’ rights, climate rights, “anything that interests you.” what you are entitled to is stated on your ballot paper.’

In an effort to get more young people to turn out amid questions about whether they will vote in 2024, Clayton argues the election is ‘not’ about 81-year-old President Biden, but about issues and the future of the country .

She said voter education is the party’s biggest issue in the upcoming election cycle.

Touting something like “Bidenomics” doesn’t work in a state like North Carolina, she said fiercely, because the state legislature says it’s OK to keep the minimum wage where it is.

‘What do you want the future of your country, of your state, of your community to look like and become?’ Clayton said about 2024.

‘Because what the other party now believes in is fundamentally something that I don’t think we as people agree with. I hope that’s not the case.’

An organizer by trade originally from rural North Carolina, Clayton is tasked with getting people in the Tar Heel State to show up in November and at every election.

She claims she’s “not coming to play” and is ready for the chance to “map the b***ch.”

To date, North Carolina is a deep purple state. It elected Donald Trump in 2020 by fewer than 75,000 votes, but re-elected Democratic Governor Roy Cooper by nearly 250,000 votes.

The current congressional delegation consists of seven Democrats and seven Republicans, although the redistricting is expected to shift more seats to the Republican Party.

Just over a week ago, the Democratic Party’s executive committee voted to make the state chairmanship a full-time paid position.

But under Clayton the party starts on the ground floor. Last year they participated in 1,100 of the 1,600 municipal races. In 2025, she says they’re coming forever.

“We’ll see what happens in the state this year, but we’re not done fighting yet.”

Clayton has worked to energize Democrats, not just in her state, but everywhere. She previously worked as an organizer in Iowa, Tennessee and Kentucky before returning to North Carolina

Clayton’s strategy to turn North Carolina blue involves Democrats showing up not only just before the election but also regularly, engaging in communities and getting candidates to the polls. She also has her sights set on rural North Carolina. The state has the second largest rural population, after Texas

Part of her approach is tapping into rural North Carolina.

“We have the second-most rural voters in the country,” said Chris Cooper, a professor at Western Carolina State. “These light blue voters are moving into the state, but there is still a counterforce moving from the rural parts of the state and turning red by the day.”

Clayton calls himself a “hopeless romantic” when it comes to conquering rural areas, arguing that everyone is “worth talking to.”

She praised the governor’s high approval ratings even in rural parts of the state, pointing out that he has made consistent efforts to show up in those communities, even if those aren’t the reasons he was elected.

“It’s about putting more emphasis on those communities,” she said, and forcing Republicans to flee there.

She has experience working in such places, first as a field organizer in rural Iowa for then-Senator Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign and then in Kentucky.

Clayton recalled that she sometimes felt like she was the only rural organizer. She said campaigns have left out a whole group of people they don’t want to engage with because they “think they don’t matter.”

“I don’t really believe in that,” she said.

It eventually brought her back to North Carolina, where she led the Person County Democrats. While there, they flipped the Roxboro City Council and a seat in the state House in 2022.

But she has no delusions that the party will face challenges during the vote. She honestly admits that she fears that she will have to eat her words at the end of the cycle, but she believes it will be worth it.

The party left 44 seats uncontested in the 2022 races for the House of Representatives and the Senate, the most in the state’s history. Forty-five provinces lost a democratic representative.

In 2020, a Republican won the state Supreme Court race by just over 400 votes. The court went from a 6-1 Democratic majority to a 4-3 majority that year before Republicans won the majority in 2022.

“This happened because we just couldn’t get enough people to vote,” Clayton said in frustration, noting that it was “really, really, really, really angry” that even prompted her to run for chairman of the state party in the House of Representatives. first place. With the help of young friends, she managed to oust the establishment-backed incumbent.

Now the Democrats are doing early research and her goal is to get people talking to people as quickly as possible. She also doesn’t want Democrats to be known for simply knocking on doors three months before the election.

“We always want to be in your communities,” she insisted. “Right now, we’re eight months away from the election, and I’m saying we’re already out in those communities. I think that’s the change, and I hope it will make a difference this year.”

More than 70 younger Democrats from North Carolina joined Vice President Harris during her visit to Durham on March 1. Clayton said the room was “vibrating” with energy.

North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Anderson Clayton takes a selfie with Vice President Harris as she rides with her in her motorcade on March 1. Clayton says she has urged the vice president to come back and meet with voters in the eastern part of the state.

For Clayton, her experience first as a field organizer for Harris and then as state party chair in one of the biggest battlegrounds came full circle last week when she found herself riding in her motorcade with the vice president during Harris’ visit to Durham.

While there, Harris stopped to talk to young Democrats. And at least for that visit, a group of passionate young people showed up who have been and will be on college campuses to register voters this election year.

“It was one of those moments where I saw her interacting with a lot of young people, people who I think needed to see a very personal side of her,” Clayton said.

Clayton wants the Democratic party to invest in the state. She also wants the vice president, who has been to the state 10 times since taking office, to keep coming back.

“I said when we were in the motorcade together, ‘Eastern North Carolina wants to see you. They would love you.”