Why We Support Nimasheena Burns
The People’s Alliance endorses Nimasheena Burns for the Durham Board of County Commissioners. Nimasheena is a North Carolina native with an experience working with local, state and the federal
government. With a strong background in cyber security and economics, Nimasheena currently manages an economic development partnership for the Department of Defense which helps small businesses diversify their
portfolios and contracts. The interview committee was impressed with Nimasheena’s experience with managing massive budgets and ability to work effectively with all levels of government. Throughout the
entirety of her professional career, Nimasheena has also advocated for Durham’s most vulnerable communities through several charitable organizations. Nimasheena’s record speaks for itself and she has proven that her
positions on education, criminal justice reform and fair housing align with those of the People’s Alliance. Although she has yet to have held public office in Durham, the interview committee firmly believes that
Nimasheena’s unique skillset, experience and passion will make her a fantastic member of the Board of County Commissioners.
Why We Support Nida Allam
The People’s Alliance endorses Nida Allam for the Durham Board of County Commissioners. Nida is a uniquely talented candidate that brings experience in budgeting, analytics, and strategic thinking – including
serving as a political director for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign. More importantly, she shows a passion in using her talents to empower marginalized communities, and be inclusive when finding solutions. Nida is a
staunch advocate for universal pre-K, increasing access to affordable housing, and addressing poverty. Overall, the People’s Alliance believes that the parts of her platform that target the Durham’s systemic inequities
strongly align with the values that PA strives for.
Why We Support Wendy Jacobs
The People’s Alliance endorses Wendy Jacobs for the Durham Board of County Commissioners. Wendy is seeking her third term as County Commissioner and we believe she will continue to fight for progressive solutions to the issues that we face in Durham. Throughout her last two terms Wendy has made it clear that she is devoted to combating the structural racial and economic inequities in our community. We are convinced that Wendy’s hard work and leadership will continue help unify the elected boards in Durham to fight for the needs of vulnerable communities. In her first two terms Wendy has taken a leading role in establishing a plan for Durham’s aging population. Wendy has also proven herself as a fierce advocate for
Durham’s early childhood education programs and expanding solar energy in our schools. During her time as a County Commissioner Wendy has shown that she is able to give the time to offer leadership and her expertise
on the myriad of programs funded by our County. We believe she will continue to be a strong presence for another term.
Why We Support Matt Kopac
The People's Alliance supports Matt Kopac. He is the candidate who can help us grow in line with our values of equity, health, and environmental sustainability. We are at a pivotal moment in our county planning process when we must consider how climate change affects us as a community, all of us. Matt will work to bring the Green Deal to Durham to make our community more resilient in the face of environmental injustice and climate change. Matt is uniquely able to lead on these issues even as he promises that he will not and knows that he can not do it alone. As a bridge-builder, he brings people together to listen and to understand their lives, their truths, and their joys in Durham. He has a unique perspective from his work in the Peace Corps, grassroots work in the U.S., public policy, local organizing, and his career at Burt’s Bees. He sees the world differently from most politicians and makes the effort to meet people different from himself to better understand the world from other people’s points of view. That is important in a public servant, and we look forward to seeing the difference he will make in Durham.
Why We Support Ronnie Chatterji
PA PAC endorses Ronnie Chatterji for State Treasurer. We singled out Ronnie Chatterji for endorsement because we found his vision of how the State Treasurer’s office can be used to better achieve an equitable, green and just North Carolina compelling. Ronnie understands that the primary functions of the Treasurer’s office are to manage the state health plan for employees and retirees in a way that assures high quality health care for all employees and retirees and to manage the state’s $95 billion pension fund to assure that it provides a secure retirement for all state retirees. But he also understands that as Treasurer, he can leverage the buying power of the health plan to lower health care costs and improve quality of care for everyone in North Carolina and that he can leverage the huge investment power of the treasurer’s office to generate very real environmental and social returns. In his words: “having $95 billion under management is akin to having 95 billion votes on the future of how the economy works and who benefits from economic growth. I want North Carolina to be a leader in that conversation and make sure that we are building a portfolio that will perform well over the long-term as issues like climate change, racial diversity and gender equity only become more important.” Ronnie backs up this vision with considerable expertise. He is an expert on healthcare and social impact investing. He served as a senior economist on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors as well as on two state level commissions in Governor Cooper’s administration.
Why We Support Natalie Murdock
PA PAC endorses Natalie Murdock for North Carolina Senate, District 20, the seat recently vacated by Floyd McKissick. We are impressed by Murdock’s deep alignment with public school students, parents, and teachers, especially black and brown youth. Murdock attended North Carolina’s public schools from kindergarten to college. She understands that needs of students and teachers go beyond funding - as important as that is - that respect for the profession of education and addressing systemic discrimination are key to ending educational and wealth disparities. Murdock will fight for librarians, psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses, and other health professionals in every public school. Murdock’s experience as Durham’s Soil and Water District Supervisor have convinced her that a Green New Deal for North Carolina is essential to preserve and enhance our state’s quality of life. She will fight for higher environmental standards and to fully fund North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality. She is committed to ending environmental racism. We like her answer to our questions regarding local government. Murdock believes that state preemption of local governments’ right to determine taxation and zoning regulations negatively affects residents, that rent control can combat gentrification, and that local government should be granted the right to mandate affordable housing. Murdock has strong progressive ideals, and a wide base of support. We also like Murdock’s deep experience in the trenches working within government and outside it to advance a progressive agenda. In the North Carolina Senate, Natalie Murdock will uphold progressive ideals held by the People’s Alliance and she will fight for the interests of Durham residents, especially those most in need. She is ready to hit the ground running.
Why We Support Heidi Carter For County Commission
Why we strongly support Heidi Carter for County Commission
The People’s Alliance PAC strongly re-affirms our support for the re-election of County Commissioner Heidi Carter.
No one has fought harder for Durham’s schoolchildren over the past 16 years, and nothing has more impact on advancing our community’s racial equity goals than the success of our public schools. Carter is our community’s preeminent champion of universal pre-K. She led the County’s first-ever involvement in affordable housing by moving forward the initiative to build 300 affordable units downtown. She is the County Commission’s leading advocate for initiatives to end hunger, and the leading advocate for improving our bus system and spending the money necessary to do so. She authored the school board’s living wage policy, and she led the fight for higher wages for the County’s lowest-paid workers during this past year. She led the school board’s work to drastically reduce suspensions of children of color, disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. She fought to reform the schools’ AIG program to open up gifted education to many more children of color. All of this work is the work of racial justice, and that is exactly why Carter is an advocate for these causes. When the protestors toppled the Confederate monument downtown, it was Carter who pushed the commissioners to say that the statue had no value so that the protesters would not be charged with a felony. This was an explicit act of anti-racist leadership, and that is the kind of leader we want on our County Commission.
Carter has long been concerned about the need for new schools and other capital spending in our rapidly growing county. Carter and other members of the County Commission have often clashed with County Manager Wendell Davis over the county’s support of Durham Public Schools. Carter has been impatient with Davis and the county staff about the need to develop a plan for funding new schools. This week, the County Manager wrote a letter to Carter which was distributed to the press in which he attributes Carter’s impatience and criticism to what he perceives as her racial bias against him. Davis is African American and Carter is white. Carter denies Davis’s allegations. Writing in support of Carter, School Board Chair Mike Lee has accused Davis of playing a dangerous game of politics – writing and releasing his letter in the midst of early voting in the elections for county commissioners. Lee suggests that Davis is motivated by a desire to elect more compliant commissioners who will take his side on school funding and other matters. Lee notes that Davis’s contract as manager is up for renewal in 2021, after the newly elected commissioners take office.
We agree with Mike Lee. We share Carter’s impatience with Davis over support for Durham’s public schools. Davis has shorted school funding in his budget proposals and the Board of Commissioners, including Carter, have insisted on more funding. People’s Alliance members have observed this tension between Davis and the board for some time and have routinely turned out at county budget hearings to argue for increased school funding.
For her part, while she denies Davis’s allegations, Carter acknowledges that she, like all of us, live in a country permeated with white privilege that fosters anti-black racial bias. Carter has held herself accountable to those she works with and represents. One thing we hear repeatedly in conversations with her colleagues is that Carter actively works to address inherent racial bias. We support Carter’s willingness to explore how living in a culture of white privilege affects her and her efforts to confront bias. Ultimately, we believe her conflict with the county manager over Durham Public Schools is founded in her abiding concern about the welfare of Durham school children, not racial bias. Durham needs strong advocates for schools. Durham deserves County Commissioners who will support policies and funding priorities that change the systems that perpetuate inequity.
Heidi Carter is such a County Commissioner, and we support her bid to serve a second term.
Why We Support Alexandra Valladares
We enthusiastically and unequivocally endorse Alexandra Valladares for School Board At-Large.
Alexandra is exactly the kind of qualified, empathetic, experienced candidate that Durham needs. A Durham Public Schools graduate and now a DPS parent, she is an innovator in STEM education, with publications in environmental justice and health science education. She has spearheaded engagement opportunities with DPS students and families through STEM teaching and mentorship, bilingual storytelling, and offering culturally relevant pedagogical content She served as a PTA Latinx outreach coordinator building a coalition of historically underrepresented community members and organizers. Alexandra convened a Superintendent-Parent Forum Series for Latinx families, served on the Superintendent’s strategic planning committee, and collaborated with public school educators, community leaders and parents to conduct the needs assessment for the first Community School in DPS. She offered mental health resources and support to DPS parents by hosting meetings with medical providers and researchers speaking on ADHD and learning disabilities, as well as supporting work related to ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences). She has hosted talking circles in schools and community centers for families, and for members of the People's Alliance.
PA PAC Hosts Biggest Endorsement Meeting in its History. Members Endorse Cooper for Governor and Others Up and Down the Ballot
On Tuesday evening, January 14, members of the People’s Alliance PAC in Durham met to debate and decide which candidates running in 2020 would get the group’s endorsement. Approximately six hundred people attended the meeting, the largest in the PAC’s forty-five year history. During the check-in process before the meeting, candidates from all over North Carolina running for nearly every office on the ballot, from Lieutenant Governor to local school board, were present to work the crowd.
PA PAC is a political action committee that shares a common vision and membership with the progressive People’s Alliance in Durham. In recent years membership in the People’s Alliance has swelled and the PAC’s influence in elections has grown. Nearly every currently-serving official elected by Durham voters was endorsed by PA PAC. In the weeks before this year’s endorsement meeting, PAC committees solicited responses to questionnaires from candidates running in eleven state and local contests and interviewed more than forty candidates.
Endorsement decisions are made by the PAC membership at a meeting in advance of elections every year. At the meeting, PAC committees who have studied the candidates make recommendations, but ultimately the endorsement is decided by a vote of the members after rigorous debate. During Tuesday’s meeting, more than fifty people rose to speak just during the debate over county commissioner endorsements. The entire meeting ran late into the night, but members stayed until the last endorsement decision was made. Candidates value the PA PAC endorsement and work hard within transparent PAC rules to make sure their supporters in the organization get to the meeting. PAC members attend to persuade and be persuaded.
When Governor Roy Cooper learned he had won PA PAC’s endorsement for 2020, he wrote, "I’m honored to receive this endorsement from People’s Alliance PAC. Whether it means fighting for real pay increases for teachers and other educators, pushing for Medicaid expansion, building a true line of defense against climate change, or protecting our communities, I'm committed to fighting for the issues that matter to North Carolinians." PA PAC shares Governor Cooper’s commitment.
The PAC’s support of its candidates only begins with the endorsement. PA PAC campaigns for its candidates with organizing, events, mailings, social media, canvassing and poll work. This work is managed by a committee of PAC coordinators elected by the membership. Members give money to support the PAC campaign and volunteer for poll work and the many other tasks that are necessary to win elections.
On Tuesday, PA PAC members voted to endorse...
Read moreOver 40 Candidates Seek People's Alliance PAC Endorsement
This year, your People's Alliance PAC was honored to have larger participation by candidates in its endorsement process than ever before. That candidates up and down the ballot want to be a part of the PA PAC's endorsement process speaks to the value of our endorsement locally and state-wide.
The PA PAC relies on volunteers to vet candidates and make thoughtful recommendations to the membership. For the 2020 election, we had four interview committees.
- The state interview committee interviewed 20 candidates, including candidates for US Senate down to State House. More statewide candidates than ever before sought our endorsement in 2020.
- The education committee interviewed all five of the candidates for the Durham Board of Education
- The law committee interviewed eight candidates for NC Court of Appeals and NC Supreme Court.
- The local interview committee interviewed nine candidates for Board of County Commissioners.
All told, 25 people volunteered to serve on interview committees and vetted over 40 candidates. Please join PA PAC in thanking everyone who took part in the process. It's been a heavy lift in a very short amount of time, and we appreciate the volunteers and the candidates who helped make this the largest endorsement process in PA PAC's history.
The People's Alliance PAC endorsement is valuable because voters trust the process, and we are able to publicize our endorsements by sending mailers to likely voters and placing paid pollworkers at high-turnout early voting and election day polls. Paying for mailers and for the time of our pollworkers is expensive and worth every penny; we ask that you support the continued influence of the PA PAC by making a donation today.