With the general election just weeks away, the Durham Democratic Party is preparing to support its candidates in races throughout North Carolina. 

Emerson Kirby, the 3rd Vice Chair for the Durham Democratic Party said, “The road to a blue North Carolina runs through Durham.” 

Kirby said Durham’s Democratic numbers could influence surrounding rural counties to increase Democratic voter turnout.

“Durham is the bluest county in North Carolina – in red North Carolina,” Kirby said. “We have the highest concentration of Democrats and left-leaning independents anywhere in the state.”

Of 246,122 registered voters in Durham County as of Sept. 30, 2024, 126,237 are Democrats, 23,774 are Republicans and 94,227 are unaffiliated.

Kirby said the gubernatorial race is one of the most contentious in the state, with Democrat Josh Stein, the current North Carolina Attorney General, running against Republican Mark Robinson, who currently serves as the Lt. Gov of North Carolina.   

“I don’t think we’ve seen a Governor’s race look like this before, especially within the context of the greater political national landscape,” Kirby said. 

Both Stein and Robinson have spent significant time campaigning in Durham, one of the most populated counties in the state.  

Stein said he visited the NC Central Homecoming game, the Durham NAACP Freedom Banquet, and St. Joseph AME’s Social Justice Sunday, and spent time touring Durham Tech Community College to discuss investments in technical education and apprenticeship programs. 

“Durham voters are absolutely crucial in this election, and we are working hard to earn every vote,” Stein said

He said he has been endorsed by Durham People’s Alliance, the Durham Committee on the Afffairs of Black People, Durham County Sherriff Clarence Birkhead and all of the county’s state representatives and state senators. . 

“It has been a privilege to spend so much time in Durham throughout this Campaign,” Stein said. “I believe this election is also an opportunity for Durham to achieve record turnout.” 

Steve Rawson, the chair of the Durham Democratic Party, said ongoing polling shows Stein leading Robinson in the race for governor, on the heels of Robinson’s recent porn website scandal. 

“Democrats have fantastic statewide candidates running for every race against some really extreme and disappointing Republican candidates,” Rawson said. 

Kirby said Robinson’s offensive and far-right policies and actions have alienated him from voters. 

“Mark Robinson can easily be described as a far-right extremist,” she said. “He cares about a total abortion ban, defunding public schools, stoking conspiracy theories, and if he won, he would cement North Carolina as a conservative state.”

Aside from the gubernatorial election, Kirby and Rawson said their party is particularly concerned with down-ballot races, such as the campaign for Superintendent of Public Instruction and judicial races. 

“We’re encouraging voters to vote all the way down the ballot – to vote every race – because those races are crucial to the defense of the rights of North Carolina citizens,” Rawson said. 

Kirby and Stein said affordable housing is a major issue for Durham voters in this election. 

“As of right now, Durham isn’t really building for its current residents,” Kirby said. “Durham is building for all the new people that it wants to bring in, that it doesn’t have housing for, that it doesn’t jobs for.”

Rawson said gerrymandering in North Carolina has been a particular problem for the party in encouraging voters to make their voices heard. 

“The idea that we are a 50:50 state, and yet the Republicans have a supermajority in the legislature, is on its face evidence that they’ve rigged the system to protect their power, to expand their power,” Rawson said. 

Kirby said that after the 2020 election, young people have been a focus of the campaigning and outreach efforts by the party. 

“I feel like a lot of us reached voting age around the 2020 election, and I think that made a lot of young people really cognizant about what was going on,” Kirby said. 

She said social media has been a pivotal tool in accessing young voters and informing them about the various candidates and issues on the ballot this election.

“We’ve knocked on over 25,000 doors at this point, we’ve made almost 1,000 phone calls, we have sent 15,000 texts, we’ve got closer to 10,000 postcards that are going to be going out,” Rawson said. “It is our goal to make contact with every voter that we can possibly reach.”

Kirby said the party has been looking for ways to expand voter outreach through voter education efforts and programs such as Durham Drives, which transports voters to polling sites.  

“You can have all of these conversations, you can do all of this work, you can go out and think you’re changing the world,” Kirby said. “But at the end of the day, it’s about getting people to the polls.”