What’s Happening – 09/2026

An amazing coincidence happened to me this week – I discovered that an old friend and former colleague from Anne Arundel County is very involved in North Carolina politics! Janet Surrett and I worked together on a major project more than twenty years ago. On Monday, she and I reconnected because (SURPRISE!) – her husband Roy is running for NC Senate on the Democratic ticket.

You should see the crazy GOPmandered district he’s running in. NC Senate District 2 looks like a palsied hand with curled up fingers, and it spans numerous waterways in its attempt to grab tiny pockets of Republican voters across the central coast of the state and then run up to the border with Virginia. It includes 8 different counties, mostly very lightly populated.

You know I’m laser-focused on Nash County and our 20 candidates, up and down the ballot. The thing is that if we pitch in for Roy Surrett’s campaign, it’s also going to help elect our top 3 – Roy Cooper for US Senate, Anita Earls for NC Supreme Court, and Don Davis for US House. So, I’m just sharing his website if you have a bit of extra cash to donate, or, if you have a mind to get involved in some phonebanking, this is an easy way to volunteer.

Speaking of Anita Earls, she just got a big plug from a wonderful podcast that I recommend –the Hometown Holler. I look to these two local-yokels for in-depth coverage and homespun wisdom about North Carolina politics. I recommend this episode if you have a few minutes. Just scroll down and click!

Finally I want to share with you the audio advertisement that we have running. I’ve attached the audio file – it’s Dr. Conover herself, urging and inviting people to get out and vote – and the message to VOTE EARLY applies to all of us, red states, blue states, swing states, safe states.

Finally, our nashdems.org website is up and running. Take a look! Note one design issue – it’s hard to capture the diversity of landscapes in Nash County in one picture, and our designer nixed either a slide-show or a collage. So the landing-page image simply changes every time you access the site, scrolling through about 20 pictures which I took on my recent trip down to the county.

And… I’d be remiss if I didn’t share the link to DONATE to the Nash County Democrats.

Thanks for all you do to keep democracy alive!

– Barry Kessler