|
|
|
Every Third Saturday Polk County Dems Hold a Food Drive at their HQ in Columbus
|
|
Resident Anne Schneider, right, hugs her friend Eddy Sampson as they survey damage from Hurricane Helene on Oct. 1 in Marshall, North Carolina. (Jeff Roberson/AP)
|
DHS is delaying millions in already approved North Carolina recovery funds, documents showBy Brianna Sacks and Maeve Reston for the Washington Post
August 8, 2025 Communities across the region still need to be reimbursed for about a hundred projects including debris removal, waste water treatment repairs, roads and bridges, damaged buildings and parks, as well as for emergency protective measures. The Department of Homeland Security is holding up more than $100 million in preapproved funds intended to help hurricane-battered North Carolina clean up storm damage and fix infrastructure still in disrepair almost a year after Helene hit the region, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and officials familiar with the process. |
Jamie Ager’s entry into the NC-11 Democratic Primary Election had long been anticipated. Cory Vaillancourt photo
|
Jamie Ager Enters NC-11 Race By Cory Vaillancourt for Smoky Mountain News - July 29, 2025
On a fourth-generation family farm nestled in the hills just outside of Fairview, Jamie Ager spent his childhood watching the seasons change, the animals grow and the land evolve with the rhythms of life in the mountains. Today, that land is not only the site of a thriving regenerative agriculture business, but also the launching pad for a campaign that could reshape North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. Ager, 47, is a Democrat running for Congress in a district long dominated by conservatives, but he believes his experience as a farmer, businessman and community builder offers a compelling alternative to Republican incumbent Chuck Edwards — one rooted not in ideology, but in pragmatism, problem-solving and shared values across party lines. “I’ve worked with my hands, I’ve been on a farm, I’ve done these things,” Ager said. “I’ve seen the challenges of being a working person trying to make it work. That’s different than a lot of people.” Read More... Other Dem candidates for NC-11 Moe Davis Zelda Briarwood Chris Harjes Jacob Lawrence |
List of Vetoes overridden by NC Senate
|
NC Senate Overrides 12 of Governor Josh Stein's VetoesBy Michael Garrett, NC Senate District 27 – July 29, 2025
Today, the NC Senate overrode 12 of Governor Josh Stein’s vetoes in a display of raw power that will echo through generations. Senate Bills 50, 153, 227, 254, 266, 416, and 558, along with House Bills 193, 381, 402, 549, and 805, each one a wound inflicted on the body politic of North Carolina. But this story isn’t just about legislative defeats. It’s about who we are when the lights go down and the cameras turn away. It’s about the choice between the North Carolina we inherit and the North Carolina we create. The mathematics of injustice are stark: More North Carolinians voted for Democratic candidates than Republicans, yet gerrymandered maps handed the GOP a supermajority that renders meaningless Governor Stein’s decisive 15-point victory. When the will of the people can be so brazenly nullified, we are not witnessing politics, we are witnessing the slow strangulation of democracy itself. Read MORe...
Senate Bill 50 transforms our communities into armed laboratories of chaos. Picture your child’s school pickup line, your neighborhood grocery store, your house of worship, now imagine hidden weapons carried by individuals with zero training, no background verification, no understanding of the awesome responsibility of carrying an instrument of death. Our law enforcement officers, who today can reasonably assume most citizens are unarmed, will tomorrow treat every traffic stop as potential Russian roulette. We are not lowering standards; we are obliterating them entirely in service to an ideology that mistakes recklessness for freedom. Two weeks ago in Guilford County, federal agents stuck a boot in a family’s door while Mohamed Naser’s 8-year-old daughter hid behind that same door in terror. They arrested this hardworking father, here legally with a valid work visa, based on a false tip, refused to look at his legal documentation, and detained him despite knowing their intelligence was wrong. His crime? Being Libyan in America while someone falsely claimed he was Iranian. Under HB 318, the constitutional violations he suffered become standard operating procedure. The Fourth Amendment doesn’t have an immigration exception. Due process doesn’t disappear because someone has an accent or was born in another country. This is the North Carolina they are building: where teenagers carry hidden weapons without training, where legal immigrants live in fear of warrantless detention, where the Constitution becomes a suggestion rather than our sacred covenant. But here’s what they don’t understand about North Carolina: We are the people who birthed the sit-ins in Greensboro when justice called. We are the state that stood up during Moral Monday when democracy needed defending. We are the inheritors of a legacy that says when power tramples on principle, we don’t just get angry, we get organized, we get strategic, and we get to work building the world our children deserve. Elections have consequences, but so does the long arc of justice. History doesn’t move in straight lines; it moves through the hands and hearts of people who refuse to accept that today’s defeat means tomorrow’s surrender. Every map can be redrawn. Every supermajority can be broken. Every abuse of power carries within it the seeds of its own destruction. This is our generational moment. Not just to resist, but to rebuild. Not just to organize, but to imagine. The North Carolina of tomorrow lives in the phone calls we make tonight, the voters we register this month, the conversations we have with neighbors who haven’t yet realized that their values are under attack. I’ve walked through the valleys of legislative defeat before, and I’ve learned something that keeps me going: When North Carolinians feel that righteous fire in their hearts, when we see our children’s future threatened and our values trampled, we don’t just fight back. We fight forward. We build the infrastructure of change. We create the networks of hope. We forge the coalitions that don’t just win elections, but transform the very soul of our state. The next election isn’t just about flipping seats, it’s about reclaiming the promise of North Carolina. It’s about proving that gerrymandered maps and supermajority power grabs are no match for a people united by love of community and devotion to justice. The question before us isn’t whether we can outwork their machine, it’s whether we have the moral courage to build something better. Mohamed Naser’s daughter deserves to grow up in a state where constitutional rights aren’t suggestions. Our children deserve to go to school without fear of untrained individuals carrying hidden weapons. Our communities deserve leaders who see diversity as strength, not threat. They may have the maps today, but we have something that can’t be gerrymandered: We have each other. We have the truth. And we have the unshakeable faith that North Carolina’s best days aren’t behind us, they’re in front of us, waiting to be built by hands willing to work and hearts brave enough to hope. The resurrection of our democracy starts now. The question isn’t whether you’re with me – it’s whether you’re ready to be part of the generation that saved North Carolina’s soul. Who’s ready to build tomorrow? Read more... |
|
|
Polk Dems Have Another Successful Food Drive to Benefit Families in Need
By Matt Pickett for Polk Dems - July 23, 2025
Every third Saturday the Polk County Democratic Party hosts the "Neighbors Caring for Neighbors" food drive. They collect food from local residents for Share Thy Bread and Outreach Ministries food pantries that serve our local communities. Saturday's event was well coordinated and staffed. A steady stream of good-hearted Polk County residents dropped by to drop off their donations. In total 1,348 lbs. of food was collected to help local families who are food insecure. This work is more important than ever before due to federal funding for food assistance programs being severely cut back by the Trump administration. Help a neighbor by dropping off a donation of non-perishable food at our collection location on the third Saturday of the month between 9am and 12pm. People don't have to go hungry. An estimated 40 families in the Polk County area benefited from last months food drive! If you or someone you know is experiencing food insecurity please use the links below for more info about receiving food assistance. Share Thy Bread - Tryon NC Outreach Ministries Food Bank - Columbus NC |
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper speaks during a Get Out the Vote rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on October 30, 2024. | Ryan M. Kelly/AFP via Getty Images
|
Roy Cooper to Jump Into North Carolina Senate RaceBy ELENA SCHNEIDER for Politico - July 23, 2025
Roy Cooper is expected to announce his campaign for the North Carolina Senate as soon as Monday, according to two people directly familiar with the former governor’s decision. The popular, former two-term governor’s entrance into the Senate race — for a seat Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is leaving open with his announcement last month that he won’t seek reelection — is expected to transform the Senate race into the most competitive of 2026. Democrats, facing a difficult path to seizing control of the Senate next year, landed their dream recruit with Cooper, who would enter the race as a favorite. Read More... |
Good Trouble Protesters at Stearns Park, Columbus, NC
|
Good Trouble Comes to Stearns Park and NationwideBy Matt Pickett for Polk Dems - July 17, 2025
COLUMBUS — Protests in Spindale, Hendersonville, Asheville, at Stearns Park in Columbus and elsewhere around the country sent word to our elected officials that "Good Trouble" will persist until they take heed of our demands. That they MUST uphold their oaths and defend the Constitution. Over 100 strong from the surrounding communities braved the heat to have their voices heard by the community at large that we will not rest until sanity is restored to government. That may take awhile, but we aren't going anywhere. Protesters at Stearns park were greeted with many an enthusiastic car horn toot and waves from well wishers on Main Street in Columbus. Almost all were jovial and supportive of our cause. |
North Carolina State Board of Elections, Dobbs Building
|
North Carolina-Trump DOJ Voter Purge Plan Is Illegal, Democrats WarnBy Yunior Rivas for Democracy Docket - July 14, 2025
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) charged that a North Carolina plan — hatched alongside the Trump Justice Department — to effectively remove nearly 100,000 registered voters from the rolls would violate federal voting law. In a letter sent Friday to the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE), the DNC blasts the controversial new plan approved by the board in June. The plan would block tens of thousands of voters from having their ballots counted unless they submit additional ID information, such as a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. The board devised the plan after the Department of Justice sued the state, alleging that it had failed to collect information from voters that’s required under the Help America Vote Act. READ MORE...
At a board meeting last month, NCSBE executive director Sam Hayes, a former top GOP legislative aide, said he had been in “discussions” with the federal government to resolve the issue. Hayes added that he “planned to work with the DOJ” to bring the board into compliance with federal law. In response, both the DNC and a pro-voting group, the North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans, filed motions to intervene in the case, asserting that neither the state board nor the DOJ was representing the interests of voters. The DNC says in its letter that enforcement of this plan “effectively removes approximately 98,000 registrants from the ‘official list of eligible voters’ in violation of Section 8(a)(3) of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).” The new policy would force affected voters to cast provisional ballots, but those ballots will only be counted if state officials are satisfied that the ID information voters provide is “correct.” The DNC argues that under the NVRA, states are permitted to remove a voter from the rolls only under narrow circumstances: if a registrant requests removal, is convicted of a felony, is mentally incapacitated, dies or moves away. The new North Carolina policy introduces an unauthorized reason: “their voter-registration records purportedly lack certain identifying information.” Moreover, the DNC outlined the political and operational harm to the party and its voters. The letter notes the plan “will force the DNC to expend and divert funds and resources that it would otherwise spend on voter outreach and mobilization efforts toward informing voters about their registration status.” The letter gives the State Board until October to resolve the issue before the DNC pursues legal action. “If the violations are not corrected … the DNC may file claims seeking declaratory or injunctive relief,” Seth Waxman, former U.S. Solicitor General, wrote for the DNC. “I hope that these violations may be resolved without the unnecessary expense of additional litigation.” Late Update, 7/15: The North Carolina State Board of Elections responded in a statement: “The Executive Director’s plan to collect missing registration information from voters was unanimously approved by the State Board of Elections at its June 24 meeting. We believe that it fully complies with state and federal law, including the National Voter Registration Act, and we expect that it will also receive approval from the United States Department of Justice.” More info here... Call your local state senator and rep and complain loudly. NC Reps List NC Senate List Contact: Jake Johnson (R. NC District 113) email: [email protected] phone: 919-715-4466 Contact: Timothy Moffitt (R. Sentate District 48) email: [email protected] phone: 919-733-5745 The North Carolina Alliance for Retired Americans is represented by the Elias Law Group (ELG). ELG Firm Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket. |
Over 250 citizens turned out in a strong rebuke to the Un-American activities of this administration. Stearns Park, Columbus, NC.
A 20-foot tall balloon of President Trump in a diaper is seen among people taking part in a "No Kings" protest in Los Angeles
ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
|
NO KINGS Protests Locally and Nationwide Are a Huge SuccessA Clear Message of Defiance to the Trump Administration
By Matt Pickett for Polk Dems
Stearns Park, Columbus NC and Nationwide - June 14, 2025 Over 250 like minded citizens took to the turf at Stearns Park in Columbus, NC to add their voices to the millions of Americans that turned out for the nationwide "NO KINGS" protest. The over 2,000 NO KINGS protests nationwide were designed as a rebuke to Trump's policies that are undermining democracy and destroying America. Current estimates show five plus million people nationwide participated . The Columbus protest was led by Robbie terKuile and the Polk County Women's Club. It was a REAL show of strength and a counterpoint to the "low energy" military parade in Washington DC. That parade was sparsely attended and overshadowed by bad weather that seemed to mirror the glower of the President. Ivon, a sixteen year old Hispanic boy, walked to Stearns Park after his father told him Democrats were rallying. He wants to join our Young Dems! The 25o people strong that turned out at Stearns Park to have their voices heard all carried signs critical of the current administrations policies. Democrats, Republicans and Independents rallied = all Americans - who are deeply dismayed by what is happening to our country. Many cars passing honked their approvals and very few dissented. The overall atmosphere was one of great comity and optimism as "the people" felt the power of the first amendment in action.
The Columbus event wasn't the largest for sure - but given the small size of the local community and the short notice, it was a VERY big turnout. Other local "NO KINGS" protests in Hendersonville and Asheville had enormous crowds. The 3.5% rule Whereas, if 3.5% of a population makes a sustained peaceful effort to protest - the ruling government cannot remain in power and collapses. The protests against the Trump administration have steadily climbed since his inauguration just 6 months ago. Fingers crossed. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world |
|
Help Make Our Monthly Food Drive a SuccessJune 21st 9-12 at Polk County Democratic HQ
With reduction of federal food benefits and a worsening economy, our local food pantries are facing increased demand and reduced donations. We need to help! The Polk County Democratic Party is sponsoring a monthly food drive to help our neighbors and reduce hunger in our county. What you can do- Volunteer on June 21st at headquarters to collect donated food or deliver food to the pantries on June 23rd. If you want to volunteer email Mike Silverman at [email protected]. And Encourage your friends and neighbors to bring non-perishable, non expired items to headquarters located at 64 Ward Street, Columbus, NC on June 21 between 9-12:00. Let’s show our neighbors that Democrats care and are working to address issues that are affecting our neighbors. |
|
Update: This Bill Passed
|
Polk County Dems Headquarters in Columbus NC
We Believe...
- Helping people in need strengthens our community
- The health and safety of our neighbors is important
- Censorship through book banning and teacher harassment harms public education
- Capitalism is at its best when it works for everyone equally
- My "freedoms" should not hurt or infringe on anyone else's "freedoms"
- Racism and discrimination are wrong
- Violence and hate are NOT "legitimate political discourse"
- Government is not the enemy; Hate, fear and disinformation are the enemy
- Rules and laws must apply to everyone equally
- Climate change is a real and immediate danger
