We’re back from our summer publishing pause and it’s already been quite a week. Nationally, most attention is rightfully focused on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
In North Carolina, campaign season moves forward. Today’s story looks at the other end of the spectrum: down-ballot races.
About half the U.S. labor force qualifies as working class: people with manual, service-sector, and clerical jobs. But they rarely see themselves reflected in their elected leaders.
People with current or recent working-class jobs make up just 1 percent of all state legislators, and zero percent in our state, according to data compiled by political scientists Nicholas Carnes at Duke University and Eric Hansen at Loyola University Chicago.
Tanya Robinson and Tameka Harvey are two candidates looking to shake things that up in Ashe and Alamance counties, respectively.
Most elected officials, “can’t identify with our issues, because they didn’t live the lives we’ve lived,” said Robinson, who most recently worked as a shift manager at a Pizza Hut.
As Barry Yeoman reports, both women have been part of an effort that Down Home North Carolina, a nonpartisan but progressive-aligned group, is leading to train more blue-collar candidates to run for office.
How Blue-Collar Candidates Could Change Politics
An upstart effort to get more working-class people to run for political office takes root in Ashe and Alamance counties.
“The first barrier is just having the conversation that you can run,” said Vicente Cortez, the group’s political director. “We live in a system that teaches us that if you are not wealthy, or if you have not gone to an elite four-year institution, that somehow you’re just not qualified to govern.”
Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.
Back in the News
Last week, Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the sentences of three men convicted of robbing a church in Mitchell County 16 years ago.
Reporter Kyle Perotti wrote about their case in February. Josiah Deyton, Andrew Deyton, and Jonathan Koniak were barely adults when they were given sentences of 53 to 71 years in prison. Their age, lack of previous criminal records, and fraught home lives drew the attention of clemency advocates.
Cooper noted their good behavior and the efforts they’ve made in education, vocational training, and volunteer work while in prison. Without the commutations, all three could have remained behind bars until 2061.
What We’re Reading
Rally Response: USA Today rounded up reactions to Saturday’s shooting from North Carolina lawmakers.
Crisis Care: N.C. Health News looks at a state House effort to send opioid money to abstinence-based recovery centers, which concerns experts who say access to medication is crucial to fighting the crisis.
Adopt-a-Mom: Guildford County is taking a unique approach to addressing disparities in care during pregnancy, 19th News and Triad City Beat report.
In Medias Res: ABC 11 got a look at warrants UNC-Chapel Hill Police obtained to search the social media of a pro-Palestinian student organization during the spring protests.
More Like VinSlow: Vietnamese electric vehicle maker VinFast now says its North Carolina plant won’t start production until 2028, the N&O reports.
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