Ch-ch-changes

Senator Sydney Batch replaces Senator Dan Blue as leader of North Carolina Senate Democrats

North Carolina Senate Democrats made a generational change this week. They chose Sidney Batch as their leader, ending Dan Blue’s long tenure as Senate Minority Leader. The move comes after an election where Democrats failed to break the GOP’s veto proof majority in the Senate.

It was probably a good decision. Batch is an immensely talented politician who has won tough battles in competitive districts. She knows what it takes to win and she’s probably more in tune with the changing media and political environment that Democrats face.

Her ascendancy shows her political prowess and the respect of her peers. She leaped-frogged several other legislators who have served in the body for much longer. Batch has only been in the senate for two terms after being appointed to fill a vacancy in 2021. She served a single term in the house before losing her seat in 2020. In my experience, most candidates learn more from losing elections than from winning them. She brings a valuable perspective to the position responsible for increasing Democratic senate seats.

But I want to talk about Dan Blue. He was an important part of my political education. I first met him at a political rally at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds in 1994 when I was helping a state senate candidate who would eventually lose by 98 votes. I doubt Blue remembers that meeting, but I do. He was the first African American speaker of the house in North Carolina history and the first from a southern state since Reconstruction. I thought he was a political rock star.

A few years later in 1997, I started hanging around the legislature without much of a job and trying to figure out how to make a living—a state I’ve been in ever since. I had managed one of the most competitive state senate races in the state in 1996, and my candidate, Walter Dalton, had beaten an incumbent Republican. My main gig was writing a legislative newsletter for a new environmental organization using the newfangled medium of email to distribute it.

Democrats had lost their house majority in 1994 and were struggling to regain control. After Blue lost his speakership, the caucus had chosen Charlotte optometrist Jim Black as their minority leader. Not all of the Democrats were happy with the choice.

I fell in with a group that wanted to see Dan Blue return to his post as Speaker if and when Democrats regained the house majority. The core group of the loyal opposition within the loyal opposition included Blue, Asheville Representative Martin Nesbitt, Wake Representative Bob Hensley, Wilson Representative Toby Fitch and Brunswick Representative David Redwine. They believed that Black was too ambitious and lacked firm Democratic principles. History would prove them mostly right.

My role was mainly political. As the 1998 election came into focus, I worked with Blue and company to find primary challengers to Jim Black loyalists in districts mostly in northeastern North Carolina. I helped recruit and work with three candidates. Dan and his cadre helped them raise the money to fund the campaigns.

In the end, all three of our candidates lost. Jim Black became Speaker of the House when Democrats took back the state house that fall. Throughout the process, I watched Blue deftly keep his band of renegades loyal and engaged while he kept lines of communication open with Jim Black and his faction. Watching Blue, I saw palace intrigue up close and learned about wielding and conceding power.

Several times I was a fly on the wall, sitting in Blue’s office listening to the stories of a group of Black legislators who came of age during an important period of North Carolina history. They had grown up during a time of segregation and protests. Many broke barriers, becoming the first African Americans to serve in the legislature from their counties or districts. They were the children of the Civil Rights Movement.

I heard stories about protests on campus, meeting legendary Civil Rights leaders, and running from police. But they weren’t stories told to interviewers. They were stories of people relating shared experiences, laughing and joking about a time in their past. I was just fortunate to hear those unguarded conversations. They helped shaped my understanding of the Black experience in the era of Jim Crow as it came to an end.

I owe Dan Blue a debt of gratitude. He introduced me to the give-and-take of legislative politics and helped me understand how it differed from electoral politics. More importantly, he gave me a glimpse into a world that few people of my race and generation ever got to see. The stories I heard in his office helped shape my view of politics and reminded me how recently injustice and discrimination were taken for granted in our country.

It’s time for Blue’s generation to pass the torch, but we should long remember the struggle they faced to achieve equality. Our freedoms are tenuous without people defending them. We need a new generation of leaders who better understand a world that is rapidly changing, but will also protect the progress we’ve made.

Thanks, Dan.