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John, have I ever told you about Christmas the year I decided to run for office?
Let’s turn back the clock to 2017. We’d just elected Roy Cooper the year before, but with a Republican supermajority in the legislature, the North Carolina I lived in seemed to resemble the North Carolina I grew up in less and less every day. Eventually, it got to the point where I knew I couldn't sit on the sidelines anymore, so I got in touch with the NC Democratic Party and let them know I wanted to help break the supermajority.
But running for office isn’t as easy as just saying you’re going to do it. Especially that year, it was a major uphill fight—our party was still reeling from Donald Trump’s upset victory in 2016, and no one was really sure how to deal with our new political reality. In many ways, we still aren’t. That election probably gave every Democrat over the age of eighteen permanent trust issues.
I’m also not exactly a candidate out of central casting. I’m not wealthy. I don’t come from a political family. I have a PhD in economics, not a law degree. Hell, when I told my family I was planning to run, I don’t think they thought I was very serious. Even my mom’s first reaction was, “Nobody knows who the hell you are.”
Honestly, John, I thought about not even filing.
And then Christmas came that year—but amid the presents and the cookies and the lights, my mind was far away from the festivities. Was I going to take this leap and run for office? Did I stand a chance at making a difference? How could I expect people to believe in me when it seemed like even my own family wasn’t sure about this whole thing?
But as I sat there with everyone on Christmas morning, in my parents’ house in Statesville, gathered around the tree, my middle sister, Lauren, passed me her gift. Turned out it was a large old map of NC (if you’ve ever been on a Zoom with me from my apartment, it's the map that's in the background). I love a good wall map, so that was exciting enough, but as I unrolled the map, something else fell out of the package.
A car magnet. A car magnet with my name and a logo on it. And then my family told me told me to go outside—because out in the driveway, the same magnet was already on everyone’s cars: “Wesley Harris for all of us”.
A dark blue car magnet with the text ''Wesley Harris for all of us NC House District 103'' [[link removed]]
Fun fact, originally I was going to run in District 103—but this was 2017, when if you didn’t like our districts, you just had to wait five minutes and they’d get thrown out in court.
John, if you’ve ever wanted to see a grown man cry, Christmas Day 2017 was your chance.
My mindset changed completely after that. You know the rest of the story—after some shuffling with the maps, I filed for District 105, ran hard against the GOP incumbent, and became the first Democrat to ever represent my seat.
I was able to do that because no matter how tough things got over that next year, no matter how often it seemed like the world was against me, I knew that if nothing else, I had my family in my corner. For every campaign, they’ve been all in ever since that day, and it makes all the difference. Running for office seemed impossible and, truth be told, terrifying at first because I felt like I was alone.
But I wasn’t. No one runs for office alone. My family had my back, and so did my community. And because of that, I helped break the GOP supermajority. Because of that, now I’m running for Treasurer to make sure that North Carolina has its people’s backs the same way that my family had mine.
And just like flipping District 105 in 2018, flipping this seat isn’t going to be easy. In case you missed it, the first public poll in our race came out last week and it showed that more than three-quarters of voters are undecided . In other words, they’ve probably never heard of me or my opponents, and they’re not even thinking this far down the ballot yet.
So our biggest need in 2024 by far is going to just be getting our message out there where voters can hear it. Especially in this media environment, funding the level of operation we need in order to break through the noise is going to be a pretty heavy lift. And with our end-of-year reporting deadline coming up in just a few days, this week is going to be do or die for our campaign.
So, John, can I count on you to believe in me, just like my family has since the first time I ran? And can I ask you to step up and make a contribution today to help ensure we have the resources we need to reach every voter who hasn’t made up their mind yet? Anything you can spare will help. [[link removed]]
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Thanks for always having my back.
Talk to you soon,
Wesley Harris
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Wesley Harris is a North Carolina native and the only PhD economist in the General Assembly. First elected in 2018, he has been fighting hard for the residents of southern Mecklenburg County and working to make our state the best place in the country to live, work, and start a family. Now, Wesley is running for Treasurer to make an investment in our state's greatest asset, its people. Together, Wesley believes that we can unlock our potential and build opportunity for every North Carolinian.
www.harrisfornc.com [[link removed]]
Paid for by Wesley Harris for NC
Wesley Harris for NC
P.O. Box 77764
Charlotte, NC 28271
United States
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