Blue and white balloons flanked a folding table outside a Fayetteville rec center. Just behind the table, the American flag is taped to the wall. It’s where some of Cumberland County’s most prominent Democrats gathered to kick off the 2024 election season in May. The $500 raffle drawing was cash only, a possible missed opportunity for those only wielding credit or debit cards. Mugs emblazoned with “Cumberland County Senior Democrats” were sold in the back for $20 apiece next to $5 hot dog, chips and drink combos.
Former Cumberland County Commissioner Charles Evans emceed, and the event featured performances from a local cheer team whose chants ended in “Go vote!” Those words drew applause and delighted whoops from Sen. Val Applewhite, who is running for a second term against Republican newcomer Semone Pemberton.
The energy at the event wilted slightly when Evans announced state party chair Anderson Clayton, a fiery Roxboro native who garnered national attention for her election to the position at 25, could not speak as previously scheduled. There had been a miscommunication with her team, he said, and Clayton was on her way to Arizona. (She could not be reached for comment.)
But the crowd brought the energy back as speaker after speaker gave the same message: Fight for the Democratic Party’s values in November. Fight for public education, for affordable healthcare, for voting rights and for clean water.
The candidates who spoke shared powerful words with the crowd. But in a county where the Democratic Party has hemorrhaged voters in recent years and with a heated gubernatorial election on the line, is messaging enough?
Steady decline
Except for 2020, the Democratic Party has consistently lost voters, according to Cumberland County voter registration numbers. An analysis of those numbers shows that the party saw its biggest loss from 2020 to 2021 with 11,035 voters; every other party lost voters during that time period, too, with the Republican Party’s numbers dropping by 5,601 voters.
This year, the Democratic Party has 86,527 registered voters in Cumberland County as of June 1. The second- and third-largest groups were unaffiliated voters at 74,921 and Republicans at 48,794 voters, records show.
“There are two things happening,” Derrick Montgomery, the chairperson of the Cumberland County Democratic Party, told CityView. “Our unaffiliated registration has increased. Our turnout in Cumberland County is on a consistent decline.”
Montgomery said success rests with not just encouraging “neighbors,” as he calls them, to vote, but also showcasing recent positive efforts in the community. Inspiring hope is important, he said, so people don’t feel that voting is a moot point.
Younger voters especially need attention from party officials, he noted.
“Our 20-to-35-year-olds, there’s some huge gaps there in their showing to the polls,” Montgomery said. “We want to turn that around in this election if we can.”
But the party isn’t just contending with low voter turnout and engagement this year. Local Democrats say the county party has evolved to be more individualistic, promoting an attitude where candidates campaign alone rather than as part of a larger Democratic slate.
“People don’t vote straight tickets anymore,” said George Breece, a local political analyst and former state representative who formerly served as the county’s party chair. “The straight ticket days are gone.”
It’s a change both major parties are seeing, he noted.
“When I was coming along many, many years ago, all of the Democrats ran as a ticket,” Breece said. “If there were three people running for county commissioners, they ran as three-in-one. If they were running in the legislature, if there was five candidates for the legislature, they ran as a team.”
Now, the larger proportion of unaffiliated voters in the state has decreased the two traditional parties’ influence, especially at the local level, he said.
“You see today candidates that will have their stuff at a party headquarters and will go to events at a party headquarters, but the truth of the matter is, successful candidates are really campaigning on their own,” Breece said. “Quite frankly, all of the candidates that are Democrats or Republicans are trying to get elected themselves. And some of them don’t want to be asking their friends to vote for somebody else who may be on the same ticket with them.”
Rep. Charles Smith (D-44) told CityView he believes the local party plans to focus on a unified ticket in coming years.
“That’s something Derrick [Montgomery] has spoken to me about and to other candidates,” Smith said.
Former Rep. Elmer Floyd said he experienced a lack of support from the party, especially after officials saw he wouldn’t toe the party line if it didn’t mesh with his beliefs or what his constituents wanted.
“Do you realize in 12 years, the Democratic Party only gave me less than $100?” Floyd said.
Campaign finance records show that in 2018, Floyd listed a $98.59 “in kind” contribution from the North Carolina Democratic Party. Otherwise, reports for Floyd’s campaigns dating back to 2012 show no evidence of contributions from the party.
He questioned what he perceived as the party picking favorites, noting the party was happy to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on other candidates.
Former Sen. Kirk deViere is intimately familiar with that feeling of losing favor. He infamously lost a primary in 2022 after Gov. Roy Cooper, angered by deViere’s support of a Republican budget that brought money to Cumberland County, made public his support for Applewhite, his Democratic opponent.
“There’s consequences,” deViere told CityView. “It’s the political machines within the parties.”
That division only hurts the party, he said.
“I think a lot of local Democrats questioned what happened to me,” deViere said. “I fought for our values and delivered back to our community, and I was penalized for it because of a political machine … I think that’s what has eroded some of the involvement, not just here at the local level but at the state level within the party as well.”
Lack of enthusiasm
Those who saw the party in late former Sen. Tony Rand’s heyday highlight decreased passion and engagement from Democrats as another issue.
Former Cumberland County Superior Court Judge and former party chair Coy Brewer told CityView that annual conventions and official positions once held greater importance.
“The annual Democratic convention [in Cumberland County] would have 300 to 400 people or more,” Brewer recalled. “Politics is now more on radio, TV, social media, and all of that. So the grassroots, hands-on politics that you had even through the early 2000s, you do not have that anymore.”
That has lessened the party’s influence, he added. However, North Carolina’s importance as a swing state in presidential elections will likely boost grassroots efforts here, Brewer said.
Nevertheless, Brewer still thinks of Cumberland County as a “reliably Democratic” county.
“[In] Cumberland County, the change has not been as dramatic as in some of the surrounding counties,” he said. “It is part of a national trend. Rural voters are becoming more Republican. Urban voters, and particularly suburban female college-educated voters, are becoming more Democratic.”
Within the county, rural areas like Stedman, Judson, Beaver Dam and Gray’s Creek used to be more competitive but are now more Republican, Brewer noted.
“I would say that Cumberland County has always been a bellwether county for the Democratic Party,” Breece said. “Democratic candidates come here because it’s always been a county that has delivered for the Democratic Party statewide. But that has been dwindling down.”
Still, to get elected in Cumberland County, candidates can’t survive without at least “a few” Democratic votes, he said.
Overcoming obstacles
Smith said engaging young voters will be crucial to the party’s success.
“Listening is something that I think we’ve gotten away from,” he said. “And not just giving them lip service — giving them responsibilities and some leadership role. I think that’s important, letting them know that their opinions are valued and heard.”
In a similar vein, Montgomery believes party officials must address residents’ frustrations when chatting with them and prove change is possible.
“The task of the party, and I would hope the task of all organizations surrounding the election process, is making preparations to talk about what our local leadership has done, the funds that have come, and what those funds have done for our local community,” he said.
Top issues he has heard include the E.E. Smith High School relocation debate, crime, teacher pay, homelessness and clean water, Montgomery said.
“I am particularly proud of our [Fayetteville] City Council, our previous and our current [members],” he said. “We have brought millions of dollars into this community. We have invested in the community.”
Looking to November, the Cumberland County Democratic Party will especially focus on the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners race (deViere is a candidate), the school board race and the Dist. 43 race for the state House of Representatives, Montgomery said.
“We are doing more events, more community activities than I can say we’ve done in a long time,” he said. “I want our neighbors to not only show up to volunteer, but to show up and express how they feel about what they’re seeing and what’s happening in their neighborhood.”
Resisting party infighting and refusing to abandon Democrats who work across the aisle will be part of that effort, deViere said.
“If we want to begin to grow the Democratic Party and to grow Democrat voters, we’ve got to eliminate this litmus test that we’re seeing,” he said. “Most people are just trying to get by and live their day-to-day life and take care of their family and keep some money in their pocket.”
Reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.
This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.
