NC’s most successful Democrat shares a secret for winning other Dems should follow | Opinion

In these uncertain times, Democrats would do well to seek guidance from a consistent Democratic winner – Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.

Marshall, 79, has been in office since 1997 and has won every race for reelection by more than 50 percent.

It helps that North Carolina voters like to stick with whom they’ve got in the secretary of state’s office. Thad Eure held the office from 1936 to 1989. But Marshall has had to win repeatedly in a fast-changing state where Republicans are a stronger force and once dominant Democratic voters have been surpassed by those who are unaffiliated.

I spoke with Marshall last week about her political durability, her advice for beleaguered Democrats and her views on the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

When asked about her ability to win elections, she said, “My secret is two things. Number one, run a good agency, because good government is good politics. Number two, don’t decide you’re going to campaign in the last year (of a term.) You’ve got to be out there with people, listening and then doing something about what they’re telling you, if you can. If not, explain to them why you can’t. You’ve got to be open. You’ve got to be transparent.”

But there’s a third aspect to Marshall’s success in a state that has two Republican senators and has gone for Donald Trump three times. Marshall, who grew up on a Maryland farm and is a lifelong supporter of 4-H Clubs, connects with rural voters.

“I especially love getting out in the rural areas,” she said. “Those are my folks.”

Why are other Democrats, not only in North Carolina, but across the nation, having trouble winning over rural voters? Marshall said, “They’re not taking their issues seriously enough.”

It gets back to listening rather than lecturing, she said.

“You don’t tell them what your opinion of their situation is. You listen to them first, especially where their pain points are,” she said. “Just jumping in and telling them it’s this, this and this and they don’t see it that way, that doesn’t get it.”

But Marshall said it’s not just a matter of Democrats paying closer attention to rural voters. Democrats must also overcome what those voters are hearing.

“Social media is appealing to their baser instinct. They’re feeling that somebody has done them wrong, somebody is holding them back, they can’t do what they want to do, so it’s somebody else out there, and dividing people into us versus them,” she said. “That’s poison in our world, unfortunately.”

Marshall enjoys her work, but she’s dismayed about the tone and direction of the state’s politics. She said gerrymandering has “created a system where the votes of certain people are meaningless.” A lawyer, she is critical of the partisanship shown by the Republican-dominated state Supreme Court. And she fears that the legislature will not do enough to help rural western North Carolina after the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

Providing generous state hurricane relief will be the defining task for Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, she said. If Republican lawmakers continue to reduce and delay the relief he requests, she said Stein should call them out.

“He’s got to tell the people of western North Carolina that they have the money, but they are withholding aid from you because they don’t want to spend it.,” she said. “They want to give it somewhere else. They want to give tax breaks to people who are wealthy.”

Along with registering businesses, the secretary of state’s office registers lobbyists, oversees charities and investment advisers, serves as a custodian for records and collects various fees and payments. Like most state departments, the office has seen its workload grow as the state grows, but the General Assembly has not provided enough money to hire sufficient staff to meet the demand.

Yet that frustration hasn’t daunted Marshall’s desire to serve.

“If I get up some morning and think it’s a drag going to work, I will be out of here,” she said. “But I’m fulfilled. I have challenges. I’m doing meaningful work. When I stop having fun, that’s when I’ll quit.