Politico reports:

At 25 years old, Anderson Clayton could pass for a college student. The North Carolina Democratic Party chair’s persona is reinforced by the bag slung over the shoulder, her colorful overalls and bright yellow Croc sandals, the half-consumed Venti iced coffee in her hand, and the youthful southern drawl with which she speaks.

But she’s not a student. She’s the linchpin for Democrats winning over her state. And a lot of pressure is now falling on her after she ousted a 73-year-old-incumbent with the backing of a number of top state Democrats earlier this year.

There are a lot of unknowns, too: Whether the vigor she brings to the job is enough to overcome her lack of experience for it; whether the national fascination in her as the youngest chair in the country will be justified. It’s not just reporters who have taken notice. Biden campaign officials speak of her as a rising Democratic star.

Clayton has a theory for how to get North Carolina — which Joe Biden lost to Donald Trump in 2020 by just 1.4 percentage points — to turn blue. She wants to tap into colleges and universities in North Carolina, and she wants a presence felt in even the reddest, most rural parts of the Tar Heel state, with a personal goal of visiting all 100 counties by the end of the year. She obsessively points to the same stat over and over again: In 2022, Democrats lost 44 state legislative seats to Republicans without putting a candidate on the ballot. She vows it won’t happen again. [Continue reading…]