25岁的安德森·克莱顿被赋予了一项艰巨的任务:改善民主党在北卡罗来纳州的记录。
今年2月，克莱顿当选为该州的新任主席，任期两年，取代了第一任主席鲍比·理查森(Bobbie Richardson)，他比她大48岁，是该职位的第一位黑人。
这一意外使克莱顿成为美国民主党最年轻的州主席。尽管理查森得到了整个州民主党国会代表团、民主党州长罗伊·库珀(Roy Cooper)和民主党司法部长乔希·斯坦(Josh Stein)的支持，但她还是赢得了胜利。
在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时，这位土生土长的北卡罗莱纳州人说，她从来不认为自己是在政治上长大的，但她对弗吉尼亚州北部边境农村Person县社区的爱推动她在选举和组织方面走上了一条道路。
克莱顿说:“农村社区的许多年轻人觉得他们被赶出了自己的家乡，他们不得不离开家乡，以便在生活中有所作为或取得成就。我一直想确保农村人不会有这种感觉。”
她说，作为北卡罗来纳州山区的阿巴拉契亚州立大学的毕业生，克莱顿最初参与了校园选民登记。
然后，她在北卡罗来纳州众议员凯西·曼宁的竞选活动中工作。她作为副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯和马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦的2020年总统竞选工作人员进入了国家政治。
之后，她为肯塔基州民主党人艾米·麦格拉思(Amy McGrath)在2020年与参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)的竞选中失败而工作。克莱顿说，这是一次大开眼界的经历，激励她回到家乡和其他农村地区，她觉得这些地方值得更多的关注。
“我真正想改变的一件事是，我们看待和看待农村社区的方式是一个问题，而不是值得投资，”她说。
她在2021年成为Person县民主党主席，并帮助翻转了当地罗克福德市议会的控制权。
然而，作为该州的主席，她将面临更大的挑战:尽管库珀两次赢得该州州长选举，但民主党总统候选人在过去40年中只赢得过一次该州的选举——2008年，巴拉克·奥巴马以不到15，000票的优势击败共和党人约翰·麦凯恩。同年，该州选出了最后一位民主党参议员，但他在连任选举中落败。2010年，共和党人赢得了州议会两院的席位，他们现在仍掌握着这些席位。
在最近一轮选举中，共和党取得了更多胜利，获得了参议院提名泰德·巴德击败民主党人切丽·比斯利超过100，000张选票，民主党输掉了州最高法院的竞选。共和党人几乎赢得了州议会的绝对多数，这将使他们能够推翻库珀的否决。
克莱顿说，她已经反思了是什么促成了民主党在2022年的结果。在她看来，该党未能转出其基础并保护其现任者。
她说:“我想确保的最重要的事情是，我们在我们所有的县都部署了我们的部队。”。“我认为，我们有很多工作要做，重建党的基础设施，确保北卡罗来纳州的每个县都有一名民主党信使。”
克莱顿还表示，她希望投入更多资源来支持民主党的关键集团，一些特工认为，在过去的选举周期中，这些集团没有被大量招募出去投票。
“我们的全美有色人种协进会在上次选举中没有真正完全[组织起来]，这是非洲裔美国选民的巨大投票驱动力，”一名州民主党工作人员告诉ABC新闻。“我认为现在有太多的组织起步较晚，他们很晚才制定计划。他们没有做他们需要做的事情。”
北卡罗来纳全美有色人种协进会没有回应ABC新闻的置评请求。前州主席理查森说她无可奉告。
民主党全国委员会(Democratic National Committee)成员、州民主党前第二副主席马特·休斯(Matt Hughes)表示，克莱顿“以我认为她希望的方式(与理查森)开展竞选活动，即100个县的战略。”克莱顿是由该州执行委员会通过排名选择投票以多数票选出的。
休斯认为，克莱顿愿意在提出解决问题的方案之前与党员交谈，这是她赢得主席职位的原因之一。他强调了在农村地区弥补损失的重要性。
他说:“她非常坦率地谈到了事实，这是我多年来一直在说的，就是你不能以如此大的差距输掉一些农村县，然后还指望在全州范围内获胜。”。
克莱顿还认为，尽管过去十多年来，北卡罗来纳州的种族一直被全国民主党人忽视，他们反而更关注亚利桑那州、佐治亚州和其他地方的战场。
克莱顿说:“我绝对认为，我们在国家一级被边缘化了，我认为这是因为我们需要向(国家党)表明，北卡罗来纳州值得投资，我们有一个实现这一目标的计划。”。
其他人同意北卡罗来纳州的民主党人必须证明他们值得投资。
该州工作人员告诉美国广播公司新闻，国家民主党人确实在该州投入了大量资源，但这与其他战场的资源不匹配，因为党内人士意识到，民主党人保持参议院多数席位的道路并不经过北卡罗来纳州。
“我们必须留住我们的(现任)参议员，并翻转宾夕法尼亚州……在一个你必须管理你的资源的环境中。我认为民主党全国委员会和国家党做了他们需要做的事情。
此人还表示，该州前首席大法官比斯利没有与总统乔·拜登一起竞选，这一点并没有被忽视:“让全国民主党伙伴问你，你的参议院候选人打算什么时候邀请总统来竞选，这是令人不安的。”(在中期选举之前，拜登身边的人试图淡化这种观点。)
虽然其他摇摆州的候选人，如佐治亚州和亚利桑那州的参议员拉斐尔·沃诺克和马克·凯利，没有与总统一起竞选，但这位工作人员说，他们有一个立法记录要竞选。比斯利没有。
展望2024年，北卡罗来纳州民主党人希望保住州长官邸，同时努力赢得罕见的总统选举。克莱顿说，她意识到自己肩负的“责任”，在新的岗位上代表着她这一代人。
“我确实感到有很大的责任，要确保年轻人觉得这也是他们的胜利，”她说。“如果你现在对民主党感到失望，没关系。但驯服它的唯一方法是参与其中，让人们听到你的声音。”
Can this 25-year-old help solve North Carolina Democrats' problems?
At 25, Anderson Clayton has been given a difficult task: improve Democrats' record in North Carolina.
In February, Clayton was elected to a two-year term as the new chair of the state party, ousting first-term chair Bobbie Richardson, 48 years her senior and the first Black person in the role.
The upset made Clayton the youngest state chair of the Democratic Party in the country. Her win came even as Richardson had the backing of the entire state Democratic congressional delegation, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Democratic attorney general, Josh Stein, who is running to succeed Cooper.
In an interview with ABC News, the born-and-raised North Carolinian said she never saw herself as political growing up -- but her love for her community in rural Person County, on the northern border with Virginia, pushed her to pursue a path in elections and organizing.
"A lot of young people in rural communities feel like they're forced out of their hometown, that they have to leave it in order to do something with their life or make something of themselves," Clayton said, "and I always wanted to make sure that rural people didn't have to feel like that."
A graduate of Appalachian State University, in the mountains of North Carolina, Clayton initially got involved with registering voters on campus, she said.
She then worked on one of North Carolina Rep. Kathy Manning's campaigns. She made her way to national politics as a staffer on the 2020 presidential campaigns for Vice President Kamala Harris and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
After that, she worked for Kentucky Democrat Amy McGrath's failed 2020 campaign against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Clayton said that was an eye-opening experience that motivated her to return to her hometown and other rural areas, which she felt were worthy of more attention.
"One of the things that I really want to change is the way that we look at and perceive rural communities as a problem versus worth investing in," she said.
She became chair of the Person County Democratic Party in 2021 and helped flip control of the local Rockford City Council.
As the state chair, however, she will face bigger challenges: While Cooper twice won election as the state's governor, a Democratic presidential nominee has only won the state once in the last 40 years -- in 2008, when Barack Obama beat Republican John McCain by less than 15,000 votes. That was the same year the state elected its last Democratic senator, who then lost reelection. In 2010, Republicans won both chambers of the state legislature, which they still hold.
The most recent cycle saw more GOP victories, with Senate nominee Ted Budd beating Democrat Cheri Beasley by more than 100,000 votes and Democrats losing races for the state Supreme Court. Republicans nearly won a supermajority in the state legislature, which would have allowed them to override Cooper's veto.
Clayton said she has reflected on what contributed to the Democrats' results in 2022. In her view, the party failed to turn out its base and protect its incumbents.
"The main thing that I want to ensure is that we have our boots on the ground early in all of our counties," she said. "We have a lot of work to do, I think, with rebuilding party infrastructure and ensuring that there is a Democratic messenger in every county across North Carolina."
Clayton also said she wants to dedicate more resources to turning out critical blocs of Democratic support, which some operatives believe were not as heavily recruited to go out and vote this past election cycle.
"Our NAACP was not really fully [organized] on the last election and that's a huge turnout driver for African American voters," one state Democratic operative told ABC News. "There are so many organizations out there that I think started late, and they put their plans together late. They didn't do what they needed to do."
The North Carolina NAACP did not respond to ABC News' request for comment. Richardson, the former state chair, said she had no comment.
Matt Hughes, a member of the Democratic National Committee and former second vice chair of the state Democratic Party, said Clayton "ran her campaign [against Richardson] the way I think she would want to run the state party, which is a 100-county strategy." Clayton was selected by a majority of the state party's executive committee, through ranked-choice voting.
Hughes believed Clayton's willingness to talk to party members before prescribing solutions to the problems contributed to her winning the chairmanship. He highlighted the importance of shoring up losses in rural counties.
"She spoke to the fact, quite frankly, and this is something I've said for years, [which] is you can't lose some of these rural counties by such large margins and then still expect to win statewide," he said.
Clayton also argues that North Carolina's races are, despite the last decade-plus, being overlooked by national Democrats who have instead focused more on battlegrounds in Arizona, Georgia and elsewhere.
"I absolutely think we got deprioritized at the national level and I think that's because we need to show [the national party] that North Carolina is worth investing in, and we have a plan to get that done," Clayton said.
Others agree that North Carolina Democrats must prove they are worth the investment.
The state operative told ABC News that national Democrats did put an ample amount of resources into the state, but it did not match what was given to other battlegrounds because people in the party realized that the path for Democrats to maintain their Senate majority did not run through North Carolina.
"We had to keep our [incumbent] senators and flip Pennsylvania … in an environment where you had to manage your resources. I think the DNC and the national party did what they needed to do," the operative said.
This person also said that it did not go unnoticed that Beasley, a former chief justice in the state, didn't campaign with President Joe Biden: "It was uncomfortable to have national Democratic partners ask you when your Senate candidate was going to invite the president to come campaign." (Ahead of the midterms, those around Biden sought to play down such optics.)
While other swing state candidates such as Sens. Raphael Warnock and Mark Kelly, in Georgia and Arizona, did not campaign with the president, the operative said they had a legislative record to run on. Beasley didn't.
Looking toward 2024, North Carolina Democrats hope to hold the governor's mansion while striving for a rare presidential election win. Clayton said she realizes the "responsibility" she carries, representing her generation in her new position.
"I do feel a lot of responsibility to making sure that young people feel like this is their win too," she said. "And if you're frustrated with the Democratic Party right now, that's OK. But the only way to tame it is to get involved with it and to make your voice heard."
