Reaching Out to North Carolinians

Since 2017, Team Up NC (formerly County-to-County/Neighbors on Call) has been working to strengthen Democratic party infrastructure and help elect Democrats to the NC General Assembly. Ann has been part of that work since the very beginning, working with Team Up NC since 2017. Today, she serves as the County and Candidate Partnerships Director.

Raised in a tiny Mississippi town surrounded by large and small farms, she felt very familiar with the cultural terrain of Eastern North Carolina. As a professor of English at NC State for 25 years, she used that sense of familiarity to reach her students. She discovered “if I had a better idea of what kind of school they went to and what kind of background they had,” she could reach them in a way that had real impact. She began to memorize the names and locate all 100 counties in North Carolina, an exercise she finds very handy today in her work for Team UP NC.

Her talent for connecting with strangers has resulted in some great local stories. Here’s one of her favorites: “A few years ago, I approached Sonny McLawhorn, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Pitt County for many years and a member of a Fundamentalist Baptist church. He was not pleased and replied, “This is a deep blue county and always will be. We really don’t need any help from Orange County, thank you very much.” However, Brian Farkas, who had lost a race in 2016 in that county for HD9, was gearing up to run again in 2020. He knew TEAM UP NC’s resources could help him win, so it was in his interest to have Ann meet Sonny. After that, it was touch-and-go, but a real friendship began to emerge. Later, when Ann couldn’t get the Wilson County chairman to return a call, she asked her friend Sonny to help her. Sonny didn’t know the chairman, but that afternoon he called an old friend, Tom Sallenger, the county Treasurer. They had a good warm talk, and toward the end of the conversation, Tom said, “Jim Hawley’s the county chair. Sure, give him a call, but don’t call him right now; he’s mowin’ his yard.”

Ann understands North Carolina’s culture and people from a genuine place. As County & Candidate Partnerships Director for Team Up NC, she works with county partners and candidate teams across the state to ensure campaigns have the resources and support they need to succeed. By building relationships with Democrats in Eastern NC counties, strengthening connections between campaigns and communities, Ann helps bridge the gap between candidates and voters so leaders who truly understand their communities can rise to the top. This work helps to bridge the gap between legislators and their constituents and to emphasize the issues citizens of North Carolina are most concerned about: healthcare, the cost of living, better jobs, and schools.