Building Power for Working-Class People in NC
WDN Action is proud to support Down Home North Carolina and their important work to organize in rural communities in the state. We had the chance to speak with their Co-Director Dreama Caldwell to dive deep into how and why they are building something that right-wing North Carolinian politicians have been trying to stamp out since the Reconstruction era – a deep-rooted, multiracial, working-class coalition.
Give us a window into your state; what does building power for working families mean in North Carolina?
North Carolina isn’t an easy place to live if you are poor or working-class. Our state’s $7.25 minimum wage, incredibly low unemployment benefits, and lack of worker protections named us the worst place to work in the United States (Oxfam, 2021). Our conservative legislature has refused to expand Medicaid, creating an enormous healthcare gap for working families. Even in our most rural areas, housing prices are skyrocketing, childcare costs eat up a parent’s earnings, and our social services and schools are being gutted by austerity.
Building power in North Carolina means putting poor and working people at the center of our politics and our elections. Down Home knows that to make the changes we need, working people need to have a seat at the decision-making table in their hometowns and also in Raleigh. Down Home utilizes local campaigning, deep canvassing, field programming, and member training to build power in rural North Carolina.
When you ran for Commissioner in your home county of Alamance, your campaign priorities were bold and fresh. You reached people who were being ignored. You didn’t win that election, but you saw voters mobilize around you. Tell us what the campaign journey was like for you. What did it mean for the long run to mobilize those voters?
I was a long-time Down Home member before I became the co-director of Down Home. When I was a member, Down Home supported me and endorsed me as I ran as the first Black woman for County Commissioner in the history of my Southern, rural county. My campaign focused on reaching community members who were no longer engaged in politics or had never voted at all. That involved spending time with people in their own communities allowing their voices to be heard. When talking to people in my county, I heard the frustration they had with politicians who only came around at election time. Quickly, I realized this was key to mobilizing people and building a base: Building relationships builds trust.
While I did not win that election, many of my voters continue to stay engaged with Down Home and local politics and are busy holding elected officials accountable and getting family, friends, and neighbors involved.
In a time when you see nothing but polarization between Democrats and Republicans in national media, Down Home North Carolina is open to all. Why is that important, and how is your organization building progressive power across all working people?
Down Home wants to build a bigger “we.” Since Reconstruction in North Carolina, the people in power have sought to keep working people with shared interests from organizing together. At Down Home, we think it's finally time to build a large, multiracial working-class coalition so we can finally get the things we need. The ethic of deep canvassing infuses everything we do: We believe that brave, exploratory, and compassionate conversations can uncover the places where we overlap.
We organize on the ground in local communities around member-identified local issues (against a jail expansion in Appalachia, against a Confederate monument in a small Piedmont town, for Medicaid expansion, for the safe reopening of schools). Not only do we work to win these fights, but we then mobilize the people we engage on these issues to the polls.
Our work isn’t done there. Voter turnout is essential, but to truly shift power we also need to move our members into leadership, including into holding elected positions themselves. Down Home gives tools to our members and trains them so that they can be leaders in their community – and candidates.
What has WDN Action’s support meant for Down Home North Carolina?
With the support of WDN Action, we’ve been able to engage deeply in both the 2021 municipal elections and in preparing for the 2022 election cycle. We conducted on-the-ground canvasses in small towns having municipal elections, knocking on thousands of doors in rural communities where most organizations do not go. We encouraged local residents to engage with the municipal elections and equipped them with the information they needed to vote. However, our canvassers also listened carefully to the concerns of local residents and helped to connect their concerns with the political process.
We also are conducting two large deep canvasses in rural North Carolina with the support of WDN Action. These canvasses are exploring effective messaging with economically struggling white rural voters – something that we know will be key to winning in our state’s rural communities in 2022.
What’s next for Down Home North Carolina? What’s coming that our readers should be aware of?
Down Home is significantly expanding our footprint in rural North Carolina. We carefully focused on 5 politically strategic rural counties during our first years; however, our reach has expanded significantly and we now have supporters in every rural county in the state. In 2022, we will shift to a regional approach to organizing, allowing rural counties to organize with each other and lend each other support. This will help us mobilize more fully for statewide elections, activating voters across an entire district. We will be expanding our staff to reflect this growth and deeply investing in our 2020 electoral field program as a result.
Down Home is also working to safeguard our democracy from the threats from the far-right that we see, every day, in our rural communities. We are tracking “bad actors” and creating communications, messaging, and engagement opportunities for our members to learn about the tactics of the far-right so that we can inoculate our communities against misinformation, disinformation, and far-right recruitment in 2022.
In 2020, singer and banjo player Joe Troop wrote a song about Dreama called, “The Rise of Dreama Caldwell.” Watch him perform it for Dreama.
Learn more about Down Home North Carolina on their website or follow their work on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
