Being
from North Carolina, I decided to write my latest blog post on something close
to home. For the past few presidential and midterm elections, North Carolina
has seen much more intense mobilization strategies than other states. North
Carolina, like some other states that lie between the old south and the north,
has had a significant increase in new groups of people moving into the big
cities. Cities such as Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro look much different
than they did even 20 years ago. This new demographic has forced leaders and
the parties to change their dynamics when attempting to mobilize voters for
their party.
The new
saying is that leaders must “appeal to two North Carolinas1.” There
are different needs and methods that work for the old, rural towns, and there
are other tactics that are more efficient at getting votes in the bigger, urban
cities. My focus in this blog is on the minority voters and tactics that are
used in order to get these voters to the polls. Minorities predominantly live
in the larger cities of North Carolina. As we can see on the map, these larger
cities almost always vote Democrat, and this was no surprise for the 2012
presidential election. The presidential elections are now closer than they used
to be, and the past few have elections have had a different party winning than
each previous election. This has encouraged the Democratic Party to target
minority voters in hopes of getting them to the polls.
With a
recent legislation passing through the Republican legislature of North Carolina
that would ban same-day voting and force people to need ID in order to vote,
the Democrats increased efforts to mobilize minority voters in 2014. Not only
are party leaders attempting to make contact with potential voters to get them
to the polls, civic leaders are also helping citizens register, get a photo ID,
and know when and where they can vote3. Also, church leaders are
inviting their delegations to participate in civic activities. More than just
contacting voters, Reverend William Barber encouraged dissatisfied minorities
to participate in weekly protests, sit-ins, and civil disobedience backed by
coalitions that were continually growing4. The group also
implemented a “Moral Monday” that encouraged poor, minority voters to make it
to the polls and elect a candidate that would stand for welfare programs,
education, and equal voting rights. Though these groups did not endorse a
specific candidate, it was clear that they inclined voters to choose Kay Hagan,
the Democratic candidate for Senator. Unfortunately, all of these efforts did
not get enough people to the polls. North Carolina saw one of the largest
drop-off of Democratic and minority voters in the entire nation, and the
Republican challenger won the election for Senator.
In
class, we covered an article by Gershetenson that discussed parties and their
efforts to mobilize voters. The article discussed at length the choices that
parties must make in order to maximize efficiency in contacting voters. In
better terms, how could parties target potential voters and get them to the
polls? We discussed in class that both parties typically try and contact those
that have similar ideologies to their own party. Other than this factor,
parties also tend to go after the same type of people. Voters and those
contacted by parties are more educated, are wealthier, are older, and have
voted in previous elections. It was found that these types of people vote more
often and are, therefore, contacted by the parties and encouraged to vote.
With
this in mind, it is not surprising that the voter mobilization tactics of the
Democratic Party and other civic leaders was not successful. The first error
they made was investing too much time and money into one group of people. Even
if all of the people targeted in these ideas made it to the polls, it probably
would not have been enough to change the election. The biggest mistake,
however, was attempting to mobilize people that did not fit Gershetenson’s
description. The 2014 efforts were towards less-educated, poorer, younger
people that had never voted before. Because of their poor mobilization efforts,
the Democrats failed to reach many other potential voters and ultimately lost a
Senate seat in North Carolina.
Sources:
1 http://www.politicsnc.com/category/demographic-trends/
2 http://jointcenter.org/sites/default/files/Joint%20Center%202014%20Black%20Turnout%2010-29-14_0.pdf
4 http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-in-nc-populist-mobilization-buoys-democrat-kay-hagan/2014/10/14/49057624-52e8-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html
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