Dear BCDP Members, Thank you for your outstanding and tireless work on behalf of our party this year! It was genuinely an honor and privilege to work with you as Acting Chair. Thank you also to all twelve of our candidates on Brunswick County ballots for mounting impressive campaigns in spite of significant headwinds. We’re grateful to them for being individuals we could truly be proud to support because they were running to make our lives better and to defend our democracy. Although we did not prevail on election night in Brunswick County, we joined with the majority of American voices around the country to largely reject the politics of the radical right. There is much work still to do, but we are on the right path. This year was spent enhancing and strengthening our BCDP organizational framework. We are better positioned than ever to make inroads into getting more officials elected in the future. Let’s reflect on some of our team’s accomplishments:
We firmly established a Democratic voice and fighting presence in this county, as reflected by: our year-long letters to the editor initiative of weekly letters in county newspapers, prominent campaign digital billboards, Facebook ads, regular press releases, our legislative team presence at local board meetings, the GOTV postcards project, attendance at festivals and events throughout the county, multiple candidate forums and meet & greets, an expanded Social Media presence, and a retooled and regularly updated, informative website.
We mounted fundraising efforts that exceeded expectations -- Golf Tournament, VoteFest, Mardi Gras, Mosquito 2 Lasagna Dinner.
We garnered the attention of district and state-wide candidates Cheri Beasley and Charles Graham with multiple visits/rallies, in spite of our status as a solidly red county.
We increased our communications to members through Newsletters and twice-monthly Notices and by establishing BCDP Zones with Precinct Coaches. We’ve gained 66 new subscribers to our Newsletter in the last month alone.
We maintained a steady outreach to Democrats in the county with call team efforts to precincts and with monthly lists to all precinct chairs of newly registered voters.
We increased our networking and established or improved relationships with affiliated groups like SOBAD, Carolina Forward, BCNAACP, Southport Indivisible, We Will Not Go Back Coastal Carolina, and Red, Wine, & Blue. Similarly, we continued outreach to the other counties in our district.
We heavily staffed Early Voting sites and staffed the polls on Election Day at least part-time at almost all of our 27 precinct locations.
Soon enough we can do a post-mortem and begin planning for the next time around. Until then, thank you again to all who offered support, guidance, encouragement, and constructive feedback as we kept our party going while our chair ran for office. I look forward to continuing to work with you as we welcome back Eric Terashima as BCDP Chair.
Our county-wide meeting is Thurs., Nov. 10, 7:00 pm via Zoom. Onward, and Go Team Blue!
Warmly, Shelley Allen 1st Vice Chair Brunswick County Democratic Party “Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he could do only a little.” -- Edmund Burke