Gerry Broome/AP Photo
North Carolina state Sen. Erica Smith in January 2020
If there was one Senate race that Democrats absolutely had to win, it was in North Carolina. Thom Tillis, the incumbent Republican, a Tea Partier and Trump diehard, sported a negative approval rating in his home state, per a July poll from High Point University, and was considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the nation. Outside of sure-thing victories in Colorado and Arizona, this was the highest-priority true flip in the country. It was well within reach; Democrats just had to be sure they didn’t screw it up.
That was the justification for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Chuck Schumer intervening swiftly and decisively in the Democratic primary, plucking out of thin air an inoffensive moderate in Cal Cunningham who hadn’t held public office since 2003. Schumer bestowed upon him significant financial and institutional support, and he used it to crush his primary opponent Erica Smith, a Black woman and rising star in the state Democratic Party, before the race really began. Smith, despite leading Cunningham in the polls at the time of endorsement, was not worth the risk of letting the voters decide.
Cunningham boasted polling advantages over Tillis of better than ten points throughout the summer; he raised a mind-boggling $47 million, more than twice Tillis. But Cunningham stumbled to a disastrous defeat, a failure of his particular candidacy, and one that also featured elements of the party’s struggles nationwide. Cunningham ran on his own character, then got popped for prodigious low-grade sexting. Tillis, who isn’t even liked in the state (certainly not like Susan Collins is in Maine), put up a bigger margin of victory than Trump, blowing out Cunningham in rural districts and faring shockingly well with minority groups. “North Carolina ranks number two in the nation in rural geography. In the last three election cycles in the state, Democrats have lost rural and first American [Native American] voters,” says Smith, who represents the state’s rural Third District. “The DSCC pattern of interfering in primaries and often elevating moderates at the expense of progressive people of color is disappointing and ultimately hurt us in multiple races across the nation in the 2020 cycle.”
What happened? Of course, no one in Democratic leadership has bothered to ask Smith. Schumer retained his leadership position in the Senate, and Catherine Cortez Masto, head of the DSCC, skated as well. But just because Democrats refuse to look inward, that doesn’t mean there aren’t answers. In an interview with the Prospect, Smith shared some thoughts about what Democrats might learn from the race, if they were so inclined. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Alexander Sammon: If Democrats were going to have any real shot at a Senate majority, this was a race they had to win. Obviously, they didn’t. What from your perspective in North Carolina went wrong?
Erica Smith: I think it was an epic fail because there was too much undue influence in this race, whether you’re talking about interference by the DSCC, career politicians, dark money. There’s no good way to do something bad, no right way to do something wrong. From the very outset of this race, they had it wrong.
AS: So in your mind, the DSCC settling on a candidate early and throwing support behind him wasn’t a solid strategy?
ES: I do get it, there’s this picture-perfect image of what the political establishment perceives to be a winning candidate. But we’re living in a new America today. People want real elected officials who are real people who know how to solve the real problems that people face every day. I don’t come from wealth, I come from hard work.
AS: Do you think that the party has a problem developing young and diverse talent?
ES: I think that’s a big problem. I’ve been working towards this goal since 2005, really all of my adult life. The Congressional Black Caucus sent me to a political boot camp so that I could work my way up through grassroots leadership to party leadership to local elected office to statewide elected office to the congressional level. I followed that plan and earned my stripes and paid my dues and played by all the rules. That’s why I was a front-running candidate in early June when this race started. In the straight polls, neither Sen. Tillis nor Cal Cunningham were outpolling me. The people of North Carolina were speaking, but I don’t think the outside influence listened.
AS: The Democratic Party does have a reputation for struggling to elevate its rising stars.
ES: I was pushed aside for someone else who had not been in office in 17 years. I thought I was checking off the boxes that they wanted. That’s a failure of the party to listen to the people of North Carolina. It’s not just D.C., it’s leadership within our state, who are no longer listening to the people they’re elected to serve. The DSCC pattern of interfering in primaries and elevating moderates at the expense of progressive people of color has been disappointing. It’s hurt us as a party and it hurt us in multiple races across the nation. Royce West in Texas, M.J. Hegar was selected over him, and Amy McGrath in Kentucky over Charles Booker. I know for my race, there was no one more qualified than I was.
AS: Do you think that progressive policies can win in North Carolina?
ES: That Senate race was about convincing people to vote against Thom Tillis. As Democrats in public service, our priority should be giving people something to vote for, not something to vote against. I believe the reason why our party lost many races across the state and why we lost the presidential race here is because people want bold ideas that can actually improve their everyday lives. Not empty platitudes. If we’re gonna build a winning coalition, we have to talk about health care for all and about clear goals for addressing climate change. That was very important for people in North Carolina. A livable wage. These are the things we need to be running on, not running from. I believe that contributed mostly to the outcome of this race. There was no one to speak to the agenda, whether you want to call it progressive or just a survivor’s agenda, which is what I prefer to call it.
AS: What was Cal Cunningham running on?
ES: Other than what I saw on the commercials? I believe he was running on character, on family values, and improving the Affordable Care Act.
AS: What were the commercials?
ES: We were inundated with ads with Sen. Thom Tillis talking about how Cal Cunningham was a family man and running on character. That was awful, those political ads towards the end of the cycle, after the scandal was revealed, they were very detrimental.
AS: You think the sexting scandal actually hurt him then?
ES: Absolutely. Honoring character mattered to the voters, and I think that was underestimated by many. For North Carolinians, we tend to be a little more conservative when it comes to character and integrity. That mattered, and it played a tremendous role.
AS: I guess if so much of your pitch is based on character and decency and not policy, to have a scandal like that does really hurt.
ES: Yes. If that’s your main platform, and then that turns out to be false, that’s a fatal blow.
AS: Do you think more vocal support for something like Medicare for All would allow Democrats to finally get over the hump in North Carolina and flip the state?
ES: I wouldn’t go that far, but we do need to at least have Medicaid expansion in North Carolina. If we had more people talking about that, that would’ve made a difference. In the midst of a pandemic, there should’ve been more discussion about health care for all, even if you didn’t want to position it with the language of Medicare for All. Folks are struggling—if there ever was a season to talk about that, this was the time to do it.
AS: Democrats did surprisingly poorly with Black, Latino, and Native American voters, particularly in North Carolina. What do you make of that?
ES: That has been the most troubling thing about this race. When I compare North Carolina with what happened with people of color nationally, it’s not good. I am a curriculum and instructional specialist at Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School. To see us not have a message for tribal communities was deeply disturbing. In North Carolina, our state motto is Esse quam videri, to be rather than to seem, and it just seems we are not meeting that mandate. We are failing to connect with communities of color and indigenous people. Every African American who ran statewide lost except for the lieutenant governor’s race, which was an African American Republican! It certainly showed in the Democratic vote. It’s sad and it’s disheartening, but we have to accept we do not have an agenda that addresses the concerns of minority communities.
