Poor People’s Campaign targets low-income voters in NC
“Wake this sleeping giant!”
That is the message voters impacted by poverty, faith leaders and coordinators of the Poor People’s Campaign chanted at a press conference held Tuesday in front of the North Carolina state legislative building.
The campaign was announcing North Carolina’s involvement in the “Moral March to the Polls Tour” in which the campaign hopes to mobilize 15 million low-income and poor voters nationwide.
The North Carolina sector of the Poor People’s Campaign is hoping to reach the over 3 million poor and low-wage eligible voters in the state.
Low-income voters make up 41.45% of the North Carolina electorate, according to the campaign.
“If poor and low-income eligible voters went to the polls at the same rate as higher-income voters, they would have the power to sway election outcomes in every state,” according to the Poor People’s Campaign North Carolina fact sheet.
The campaign’s roots stretch back to 1968 when people fought for economic justice in a march organized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Although many years have passed since then, the Poor People’s Campaign is still fighting for things like a living wage, more funding for healthcare, more accessible voting, better funding of public schools, an end to racial gerrymandering, investment in social welfare programs and action toward climate change.
Landing in Raleigh comes after stops in Asheville, Charlotte and Hickory. Their tour is not only a North Carolina effort, but also includes mobilization in over 30 other states and the District of Columbia.
The group will also rally on the last day of early in-person voting, Saturday, March 2, outside of the North Carolina Capitol.
Caitlin Swain, co-director and cofounder of Forward Justice, explained that this campaign is also about voters holding elected officials accountable.
“The people are the checks and balances when the General Assembly is out of order,” Swain said. “The people are the checks and balances when the courts have lost their way.”
One of the group’s main demands is a $15+ minimum wage, explained by the Rev. Rob Stephens, organizing coordinator with the Repairers of the Breach North Carolina, a committee working with the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign.
“At the state’s minimum wage, for a family to actually afford a modest twobedroom apartment at the $7.25 poverty wage that is our low wage, they would have to work 106 hours per week,” Stephens said. “There’s no amount of hard work and dedication and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps that’s going to cover that 106 hours.”
Their demands became evident in personal stories shared at the press conference too.
Catie Lawson said she has to work a full-time job and a part-time job all while also running her own business to make things work.
For a healthcare worker that spoke at the press conference, her $11 an hour wage left her working so much that she missed out on family life.
“Having to work so many hours, I’m missing so much life with my daughter and my father is struggling now with dementia,” she said. “And it hurts me so bad I’m losing hour and minute by minute.”
Later, Stephens led the group into the Statehouse to deliver a letter of intent to Rep. Robert Reives, House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger. The campaign’s goal is not only to get low-income voters to the polls, but it is also to meet with legislators before the next congressional short session beginning on April 24.
The Poor People’s Campaign does not endorse candidates, rather they say that their votes are demands for their agenda items.