County convention chair's report: Poking a 'blue beehive'

For those of you who couldn’t attend the BCDP County Convention on March 28, the following is a (lightly edited) report from Chair Shelley Allen:

Greetings Brunswick County Democrats and left-leaning allies! Are you feeling discouraged, alarmed, angry about the state of our country? 

Take heart and remember, in 2024, North Carolina elected a Democratic governor (Josh Stein), lieutenant governor (Rachel Hunt), attorney general (Jeff Jackson), secretary of state (Elaine Marshall), and superintendent of public instruction (Mo Green). These outstanding Democratic leaders are fighting every day to protect our rights and our democracy.  

Also, take heart that BCDP has recruited an excellent slate of candidates at the county and state level for the 2026 midterms. That slate is offering voters a choice: alternatives to the GOP’s failing politicians in our county and district. 

The anecdote to despair is to be active at the grassroots level, doing all we can to get Democrats elected. Then we can begin righting the ship both locally, statewide and in Washington, DC.

The information we share, the candidate support we provide, the committees and teams we’ve formed—from watch teams who track our county commissioner, school and elections boards to the golf tournament committee; the community food and supplies drives we host; the postcards we mail and the T-shirts and tchotchkes we sell – they ALL, collectively, contribute to our main goal as the Brunswick County Democratic Party: GETTING OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS who will fight for us, our quality of life, our rights and our Democracy. 

It’s not always as exciting as a big protest or a premiere candidate visit from Roy Cooper, but everything we do gets us closer to that goal. I sometimes wonder when someone new attends our monthly meetings, if they feel a bit let down by the mundane. Perhaps they hoped for soaring rhetoric and lots of commiseration about Mango Mussolini. Instead, in part, they hear reports about roof repairs, newsletter subscriber numbers, and golf tournament raffle ticket sales. 

Last year, we actually had a person, unknown to our party, who visited our website, saw a tournament promotion, and sent us an angry screed about it. He said we should be fighting the GOP, not holding golf tournaments in order to “pocket money for ourselves!” 

The golf committee can attest that if they were to split the profits amongst their 10 committee members, it would hardly be worth the five months of labor that goes into pulling off our tournament! But the tournament keeps the lights on at this headquarters. Without this building, we couldn’t host premier candidate events like those we’ve had for Cheri Beasley, Jeff Jackson, Josh Stein and Roy Cooper.

All other donations we receive go directly to our get out the vote efforts.

Every person who volunteers with BCDP — whether they are calling new members, writing a letter to the editor, reporting to our communications team on the latest outrageous decision by our county’s all-Republican board of commissioners, knocking on doors, sending a postcard, writing press releases, sending voter data to the NCDP, selling raffle tickets, replacing the toilets in this building, hosting a candidate meet and greet, creating and/or sharing social media messages that inform, inspire, and strive to change minds, bringing water to a protest, or food for this convention — every volunteer doing something in our blue beehive contributes to our party’s survival, growth, and success. We need and appreciate you all! 

Speaking of a swarm of blue bees who will be gathering later today, I’d like to share a portion of a message about the No Kings protests from John Pavlovitz. He’s an author, pastor and activist who writes with great passion and eloquence about our current state of affairs. His message is a dose of tough love, and a call to action about the protests he supports and attends:

“My issue isn’t with NO Kings Day, but with the ease with which we can see events like it as activism, instead of fuel for activism. A protest like [today’s] doesn’t worry this regime, because it is not painful for them (although we hope it shakes their resolve). It won’t impact their plans.

They will gladly allow us to gather on a weekend and blow off steam while they continue to dismantle our democracy unabated.

Beyond Saturday, we need to wield our collective power… in a sustained show of disruptive presence that alters their course. We have to do what the courts and the media and our representatives and our failing systems cannot.

We have to save ourselves. 

The point is, if we see No Kings Day as a landing pad and not a launching pad, pretty soon we’re gonna find ourselves with a king, and we’ll all wonder how that happened.

I’ll see you all on Saturday. It will be beautiful, it will be awe-inspiring, and it will be hope-giving. But what we do after Saturday will be what saves us.”

The Brunswick County Democratic Party is all about what we do after — and what we’ve done before — the day of a protest. It is what thousands of other Democratic county parties and left-leaning organizations are doing all over this country. BCDP is a blue beehive at the grassroots level doing our part to save us. If you aren’t already, we need you to be a part of the hive!