Source: NC Newsline
Less than two months after the primary, groups across the state have turned their attention to the November general election. To get voters ready, one all-volunteer grassroots organization is spearheading efforts to educate North Carolinians around the state court.
Started in 2018, FLIP NC was created in response to Trump’s 2016 presidential win. Co-founded by Amy Cox and Briana Brough, the group organizes volunteers around the state to engage with prospective voters through door knocking efforts and text messaging.
In 2020, FLIP NC made over 400,000 calls to potential voters in competitive legislative districts and sent 1.4 million text messages to voters statewide.
For this year’s election, FLIP NC aims to push back against the ever-growing partisanship happening in the state courts.
“We train volunteers to have the information about how the judges are ruling,” Cox told NC Newsline.”We want people to feel heard, and we want them to come away with, ‘These races matter.’”
Months after Republicans won a majority on the state Supreme Court in November’s election, state Republican legislature leaders asked the high court to throw out previous decisions on redistricting and voter ID.
In response to the Republican-leaning state Supreme Court reversing a ruling issue by the previous Democratic majority just months ago, the group is hoping to flip the court and Court of Appeals.
“We want to be able to fight on a fair playing field for our progressive values, and it doesn’t feel like we can do that in North Carolina without fair maps,” Cox told NC Newsline.
“We can’t get fair maps,” Cox added. “Now we have to flip the court, then the legislature, so that we can get fair maps in 2030.”
According to NC Newsline, FLIP NC aims to protect Justice Allison Riggs’ seat, protect Justice Anita Earls’ in 2026, and flip two of the three seats up for election in 2028 – resulting in Democrats regaining control of the state Supreme Court.
“We need judges who are fair and who are not motivated by these extreme partisan aims, which I think is what we have now,” Brough told NC Newsline. “We focus on the courts because if we don’t have judges who are going to protect the rights of citizens, then we are not going to ever be able to stop the gerrymandering.”
