Democrats on the offensive in North Carolina

Democrats in North Carolina are going on the offensive early. They’re expanding the playing field in legislative races and turning a GOP talking point into a Democratic advantage. They’re already starting to communicate in areas that were thought to be safe for the Republicans.

In a memo sent to prospective Democratic donors, NCDP Executive Director Kimberly Reynolds lists 15 seats that Democrats are targeting that until recently weren’t even on the radar screen. All are in eastern North Carolina and all stood to benefit from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline fund that the Republicans scrapped. Most of those counties supported the pipeline as an economic development tool for areas that have struggled to recover from the Great Recession. Now, counties those legislators represent will either need to find a way to pay for access to the pipeline themselves or hope that the GOP finds money in an upcoming session.

According to WRAL, Democrats are already dropping mail in those districts to let voters know that Republicans killed the fund meant to provide jobs to eastern North Carolina. Communicating this early shows Democrats are confident in both their fundraising ability and the message they’re pushing. They believe they can make Republicans spend serious money to defend seats that they once thought were safe and that the issue of economic development is salient enough drive a wedge between the GOP and voters in those counties.

Republicans, for their part, have been trying to turn the fund into a Cooper scandal. So far, nobody’s biting. I’m sure they’ll blame the press but the circumstances of the deal are far too complicated and removed from most people’s lives. They’re not accusing Cooper of having misappropriated funds. They’re accusing him of setting up a fund that might have allowed him to abuse those funds sometime in the future. Since they confiscated the money, it’s pretty much a moot point anyway. At best for them, it’s a process argument and process arguments don’t fly in politics.

Read more: https://www.politicsnc.com/democrats-on-the-offensive-in-north-carolina/