Loretta McNeill recalled a moment early on in the COVID-19 pandemic when President Donald Trump suggested injecting bleach into the body to stop the virus.
For McNeill, a Democrat who has served on the Scotland County school board for more than a year, Trump’s off-the-wall remarks in 2020 demonstrate the importance of electing officials dedicated to serving their constituents and keeping them safe.
“There’s times in our lives when we have to say something, and if we don’t say it and we let some fools speak for us, we’re really in trouble,” McNeill told a crowd of about 30 people at a listening session on Monday hosted by the North Carolina Democratic Party.
The party is hosting listening sessions in rural counties across the state as part of a long-game strategy to prioritize grassroots campaigns and organize voting blocs, said Anderson Clayton, chair of the state Democratic Party.
Democrats won key statewide races last fall, including governor, attorney general and schools superintendent. But Donald Trump won the state, as he did the previous two elections. Clayton said the listening tour is a way to gear up for the 2026 midterms and the 2028 election season.
“We’re coming out and talking to Democrats and trying to educate them,” Clayton said.
North Carolina has the second largest rural population in the United States, behind Texas. About 31% of people in North Carolina live in rural counties, according to the Office of State Budget and Management.
Clayton said rural voters are often ignored by candidates, and she wants to give them the tools to organize and help their neighbors realize the importance of engaging with the political process.
Like much of southeastern North Carolina, Scotland County was a sure thing for Democrats for decades. Voters here picked Democratic candidates for most federal and statewide contests as late as 2016, when Hillary Clinton won nearly 53% of the vote for president. Four years later, Trump won almost 51% of the vote. Trump widened his margin of victory in Scotland County last fall to more than 53%.
Voters have also increased their support for local Republican candidates in Scotland County, home to 34,000 people.
Republicans gained control of the Scotland County Board of Commissioners for the first time last fall. Darrel “BJ” Gibson, who serves as chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party’s rural caucus, lost his seat on the board to a GOP challenger.
Gibson helped organize the event Monday at the I. Ellis Johnson Community Center in Laurinburg, where about 38% of residents are Black. He said many local voters have become apathetic and disillusioned by the highly charged political climate.
“Things are presently in such disarray, on all levels,” Gibson said at the event. “The heart of our county has been ripped into pieces. We have fought across this nation for so many years for equal rights and to protect the civil rights of people.”
Garland Pierce is the only Democrat in the state legislature representing any county in the 200-mile stretch between Charlotte and Wilmington, once a stronghold for Democrats.
Pierce, who has served in the state House for more than 20 years, lost in Scotland County last fall, but he garnered enough votes in Hoke County to fend off a GOP challenger. He criticized mailers sent by the North Carolina Republican Party that accused him of wanting to legalize prostitution and hard drugs.
Pierce spoke during the event on Monday, along with N.C. Court of Appeals judges Tobias “Toby” Hampson and John Arrowood, and Jamie Adams, district attorney for Anson, Richmond and Scotland counties.
Some people at the event asked questions about education, long waits at the Department of Motor Vehicles and trusted sources of information.
Clayton focused on the importance of organizing politically. During a listening tour in Jones County, she said, the discussion focused on the lack of an organized effort to support Democratic candidates.
Clayton said she hopes to educate and train voters in Jones County to knock on doors, make phone calls and host their own listening events—a goal she has for every rural county across North Carolina.
“We’re getting every piece of this state unlocked,” she said.
Clayton pointed to Wisconsin, where voters in November flipped 14 seats in the state legislature from Republicans to Democrats
“The playbook is there,” she said. “What took Wisconsin 12 years to do, could take North Carolina six. We want power in this decade, versus in the next one. Slowly but surely.”
The listening tour will stop in Hoke County on July 24, Columbus County on July 28 and Bladen County on July 29.
