Six months after the inauguration of North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, 500 members of the North Carolina Democratic Party convened in Talley Student Union Saturday evening for a party fundraising dinner.
The “Unity Dinner,” as it was called, was arranged for its attendees to “recommit to” their “democratic values” and celebrate the progress made by North Carolina Democratic politicians in the past six months toward party platform goals.
“I don’t know about you, but for those who are familiar with NC State, this is the most blue that we have ever had in this room,” chair of the NCDP Wayne Goodwin said. “Tonight’s dinner … is a time to celebrate with other Democrats across the state our party’s unity. Under the leadership of Governor Cooper, our party is stronger than ever and growing. Tonight is also a time to recommit to our democratic values.”
Speakers at the event included Cooper and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. Cooper motivated attendees by restating his gubernatorial goals and encouraging attendees help support the next statewide legislative election.
“Through executive orders, through putting people who know how to administer the law fairly, we are making progress in this state,” Cooper said. “But you and I know the biggest obstacle that we face: a supermajority of Republican legislators who want to take us backward instead of forward … I have had enough of it, what about you?”
The major focus of both speeches was North Carolinian gerrymandered legislative districts. On May 22, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court found North Carolina to have unconstitutional, racially gerrymandered districts, and the decision to determine the group responsible for redistricting and the possibility of 2017 fall legislative re-elections will be presented before a federal court on July 27.
“We know about the effects of gerrymandered districts,” Cooper said. “We know that we have pretty much a 50-50 state of Republicans to Democrats but a 70-30 legislature, and that’s because we gerrymandering on steroids … Politicians are choosing their voters instead of the voters choosing their politicians, and that’s wrong.”
Referring to various executive orders of the Trump administration, Holder further emphasized the need for fair legislative districts in North Carolina.
“We are here tonight to help send more Democrats to Raleigh and more Democrats to Washington D.C.,” Holder Jr. said. “North Carolina has the opportunity to send a message to the — I’ll just say the present occupant of the White House … that we will not allow for the dismantling of the great social compact between the people of this nation and the government that serves them.”
Holder cited research projects and organizations to describe the extent of gerrymandering influence on NC legislative elections.
“North Carolina is no longer considered a true democracy,” Holder said. “The election integrity project, based at Harvard University, looked at over 200 elections around the world. They concluded that if North Carolina were a country, its overall electoral integrity would be the same as an authoritarian pseudo-democracies like Indonesia, Sierra Leone and Cuba. The Brennan Center put out a report … and they said that North Carolina is one of the three most gerrymandered states in the country.”
Cooper previously worked with Holder during his time as North Carolina’s attorney general and expressed a hope for party unity in promoting Democratic candidates in the next North Carolina legislative election. Both speakers expressed a dire need for party support and political activism preceding the election.
“Our party must be clear on the issues of the day,” Holder said. “Now is not a time for this party to be beholden to ideological Leibnitz tests. The stakes are too high for us to be divided where there is … so little that does … divide us. Our party is made up of disparate parts, but we’re held together by common interests … Ours is the party of the common man.”
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the 2017 North Carolina Democratic Party Unity Dinner on July 15 in Talley Student Union. Holder emphasized his support for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and all of North Carolina’s Democratic office holders.
