(The Center Square) – Massachusetts’ Sen Elizabeth Warren, supporter of the Zohran Mamdani socialist view for their party, campaigned alongside U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper on Saturday night at the annual convention of the North Carolina Democrats.
Invited as the keynote speaker, Warren said in part, “North Carolina, the rest of the country is counting on you.”
Since America celebrated 250 years as a nation on the Fourth of July, Warren has traversed the country in support of Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Minnesota U.S. Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan and Georgia first-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. As late as June, she was encouraging voters considering then-candidate Graham Platner in Maine to look the other way toward present-day growth in sending him to the U.S. Senate.
That despite already knowing of his chest tattoo resembling the Nazi-era death’s head symbol; his social media posts of a misogynistic, racist and homophobic nature; dismissal of sexual violence; interactions with antisemitic podcasts; text messages early in his marriage suggesting infidelity; and ex-girlfriends’ depictions of a heavy drinker with aggressive behavior.
Cooper and the state party welcomed her Saturday in the Raleigh Convention Center at the Unity Dinner.
“Cost of groceries is up, cost of gasoline is up, cost of rent is up, cost of utilities is up, cost of healthcare is up,” Warren said.
She tied all to Republicans, most specifically to second-term Republican President Donald Trump.
Warren, once upon a time identifying as a “capitalist to my bones,” says Mamdani’s movement represents what the party should look like.
The Democratic Party, on a national scale, has tension in an ideological tussle for control. Democratic socialism is on the rise, replete with a desire not only for social reforms but also restructuring, including abolishing the U.S. Senate, having Congress pick the president and U.S. Supreme Court, defunding the Pentagon, and allowing all residents, regardless of citizenship, to vote.
What's commonly called the establishment Democrats, meaning mainstream members supportive of traditional institutional norms and pragmatic changes rather than complete overhauls, are being tested in their "big tent" slogan. Not all candidates connected to the rising tide agree with all tenets, and that's no different from either main party today or in yesteryear.
The Democratic Socialists of America have 2026 primary wins by incumbent U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York’s 14th Congressional District, Claire Valdez in New York’s 7th Congressional District and Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York’s 13th Congressional District; Christopher Rabb in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District; Melat Kiros in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District; and Mai Vang in California’s 7th Congressional District.
On its website “about us” section, the Democratic Socialists of America say, “Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with a democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.
“We want to win ‘radical’ reforms like single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, the Green New Deal, and more as a transition to a freer, more just life.”
Cooper faces Republican Michael Whatley and Libertarian Shannon Bray on Nov. 3.
This U.S. Senate seat is a viewed as a major player nationally in the quest for majority in the chamber. Republicans have 53 seats today. In no particular order, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Maine, Iowa, New Hampshire, Alaska and Texas are the other top battlegrounds among 35 races.
“I believe our state needs leaders in Washington who are actually looking out for the people,” Cooper said. “Leaders who are going to roll back these chaotic tariffs that are crushing farmers and small businesses and sending your grocery prices through the roof. Leaders who will find the way to end a reckless war that’s driving up gas prices and claiming the lives of brave American soldiers.”
Another key race drawing vocal support at the dinner was the one seat on the state Supreme Court on the ballot. There, incumbent Democratic Justice Anita Earls is challenged by former state Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-Surry.
Absentee ballots go into the mail Sept. 4 – four weeks from this coming Friday. North Carolinians will choose a U.S. senator, all 14 members of the U.S. House, and all 170 members of the General Assembly. Democrats have only 20 of 50 Senate seats and 47 of 120 House of Representatives seats.
In the state Supreme Court race, Stevens in June stepped down from serving District 90 in the North Carolina House to focus on her election. Earls has continued to campaign even amid her January announcement of a breast cancer diagnosis.
The race is pivotal to also shape the 2028 ballot. Republicans are in five of seven seats, and the ballot in two years will have the chief justice seat and seats 2 and 4. Occupying those spots, respectively, are Republicans Paul Newby, Phil Berger Jr. and Tamara Barringer.
This means if Stevens prevails, Democrats will need to sweep 2028 to gain a 4-3 majority. Justice Allison Riggs, winner 184 days after Election Day in 2024, is the other Democrat on the bench.
It was just eight years ago when Democrat Michael Morgan's win turned the Supreme Court majority to Democrats 4-3 just as Cooper stepped into the governor’s office. The courtroom was called upon several times when the Democrat disagreed with a General Assembly sporting GOP majority in each chamber.
Democrats held a 6-1 edge going into the 2020 election. In that one Democrats lost all three state Supreme Court races – Justice Paul Newby won one to elevate to chief justice, and Barringer and Berger joined the court. Democrats' advantage was still 4-3.
In 2022, Republicans won both races to gain a 5-2 majority. Allison Riggs’ win in 2024 kept it there, though the Democrat with hardly any bench experience appointed by Cooper had to survive a drawn-out litigation that meandered through the State Board of Elections decisions and court rulings at Wake County Superior Court, the state’s Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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