In a swing state, Democratic women mobilize to help Kamala Harris win NC

Featured photo: Vice President Kamala Harris visits Greensboro in July 2024. (photo by Carolyn de Berry)

This article was first published by NC Newsline.

On a morning typically reserved for grocery shopping, laundry and household chores, an army of women cleared their Saturday schedules to hop on a Zoom call.

More than 800 joined the first ever NC Women for Harris virtual call, riding a wave of enthusiasm that started just a week earlier when President Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential contest and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the top of the ticket.

But amid the enthusiasm, the women on Saturday’s call acknowledged that with roughly 100 days remaining until election day, they needed to be focused and united in their messaging.

Rhonda Foxx, the national Women for Harris engagement director, told those on the call to expect a tight, competitive race between Harris and former president Donald Trump.

Over 270 campaign offices have been set up across the country staffed by 1,200 employees and team members focused on helping Harris make history as the 47th president and the first Black woman to hold the nation’s highest office.

“We’re asking everyone that’s fired up for the Vice President to do 47 actions for 47. What are 47 people you can call today to get them plugged into our grassroots movement? What’s $47 you could give today or $4.70 you could give to make sure that we’re able to continue building our campaign infrastructure?”

Those resources will be needed to create a pathway to victory, said Foxx.

A renewed focus on Trump and Project 2025

U.S. Rep. Alma Adams said sustaining the momentum was crucial, but so was understanding what was at stake in a second Trump presidency ushering in many of the ideas detailed in Project 2025.

“It is dangerous,” warned Adams. “It’s going to gut all of the checks and balances that will give Trump virtually unlimited power. Call it what it is. Most people are saying Project 2025, but it’s correct name is Project 1825 because that’s where Trump wants to take us back to a time when Blacks were enslaved in America, a time when women had no rights. And Social Security was not contemplated as benefits for our seniors and a time when there were no civil rights for Black folks, when there were no laws to protect our environment.”

Trump has claimed not to know who is behind Project 2025, despite the fact dozens of staffers in his administration — including former chief of staff Mark Meadows — were advisors on the 900-page document from the Heritage Foundation.

Senator Rachel Hunt, a Mecklenburg County Democrat vying to become North Carolina’s next lieutenant governor, picked up where Rep. Adams left off.

“Trump’s Project 2025 calls for the elimination of the Department of Education and will get rid of programs that make education more accessible for learners with fewer resources,” Hunt said. “He wants to get rid of the Head Start program, which will deny access to quality early learning for low-income families. Donald Trump would let millions of public-school students who rely on free or reduced lunch go hungry.”

Hunt worries Project 2025 would also reverse course on student debt relief. Hunt’s own bill (SB 196) to establish a Student Borrowers’ Bill of Rights was introduced last year and never given a hearing in the Republican-controlled legislature.

Rep. Julie von Haefen, recognized as one of the strongest voices for public education in North Carolina’s legislature, wanted mothers on the Zoom call to turn their attention to gun violence.

“This is an issue I care deeply about as a mom of three children, especially my children growing up in a community that they’ve had to deal with school shootings their entire life,” said von Haefen. “I know this is something that so many women and moms care deeply about, but we know that President Trump has picked the gun lobby time and time again. He’s made the gun epidemic worse by standing in the way of common-sense gun reforms.”

In contrast, Rep. von Haefen said the Vice President Harris worked alongside President Biden in passing the most significant federal bipartisan gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years.

Renewed worries about pre-existing conditions, women’s health

Former state senator Terry Van Duyn urged women to think about healthcare, and how that might change if the Affordable Care Act were gutted.

“Trump’s Project 2025 agenda ends health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions,” said Van Duyn. “Before I was a state senator I worked as an ACA navigator, so I got to see firsthand what happens to people when they simply can’t afford to go to the doctor. What the Republicans want to do is cruel and it’s immoral and it’s our job over these next three months to make sure that every single North Carolinian knows what’s at stake for them and for their families. Our healthcare is at stake.”

Van Duyn reminded the group that, ultimately, incentives offered by the Biden-Harris administration convinced North Carolina’s legislature to expand Medicaid after a decade of blocking the issue. In the first six months of Medicaid expansion over 500,000 North Carolinians have signed up for access to life-saving care.

Jenny Black of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said the election puts a spotlight on a public health crisis that has stripped women of their right to bodily autonomy, further deepening the maternal and infant mortality crisis across the South.

“The entire region is completely consumed by bans on abortion care. From Texas to Florida and up to West Virginia, North Carolina is one of only two states that allow access to abortion after just six weeks of pregnancy, which is before people know they are pregnant.”

Black said the fall elections will determine what that care looks like moving into the future.

A door-to-door fight through Election Day

Sen. Val Applewhite, a Cumberland County veteran, reminded women the health of veterans is also on the line in November, crediting the current administration with the passage of the PACT Act and creating more jobs for military families and their spouses.

The Trump campaign has used Harris’ first week on the campaign trail to attack her on inflation and border security, calling her “the most incompetent and far left vice president in American history.”

To preserve policies women care about, Sen. Applewhite said progressive women should be prepared for a real dogfight through Election Day.

In the 2020 presidential race, Trump bested Joe Biden in North Carolina by more than 74,000 votes.

“This is going to be a door-to-door fight, this is going to be in the gutter, in the street, and I have never been in a fight that I backed down from.”

Applewhite encouraged Harris supporters to take out their mobile phones, find all their friends and family members, and then go to the state board of election website.

“Look them up to see if they’re registered to vote, to see if they are active and bring information to them because North Carolina’s legislature, they try to make voting real tricky,” she warned. “You got to make sure that they are ready to go.”