Bishop William Barber II called for a surge in poor and low-income voters in remarks at Raleigh’s Bicenennial Plaza Friday. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar)
Standing in Raleigh’s Bicentennial Plaza on a chilly Friday morning, Bishop William Barber II urged the millions of poor and low-wage voters who stayed home in previous elections to create a “wind at the ballot box” this election.
“Poor and low-wage voters are not to be played with anymore,” said Barber, a national co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. “If we ever needed to vote, we sure do need to vote now.”
Barber, the former head of the North Carolina NAACP who came to national fame a decade ago while leading the “Moral Mondays” movement, joined about 30 organizers with the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, Repairers of the Breach, the NC Council of Churches, Forward Justice Action Network, and the Union of Southern Service workers to kick off a get-out-the-vote tour that will travel first around the state and then the country.
Gaggles of museum and legislature visitors strode by the rally, but few joined the dozen or so spectators. About 300 more viewed the event on YouTube.
“We intend to swing”
Barber said that if just 7% of poor and low-wage voters who did not participate in the previous election do so in 2024, it would be enough to flip electoral outcomes across the board in North Carolina — and similar changes in turnout could do the same across the country.
“When, for instance, President Trump got elected, he got elected by about 200,000 votes over five states. But in those same states, over five million poor and low-wage voters didn’t vote,” Barber said. “We are the largest potential swing vote in the country, and we intend to swing.”
Barber stressed that the Poor People’s Campaign cannot make political endorsements, as it is fiscally sponsored by the Union Theological Seminary, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Instead, the campaign distributes a political scorecard that outlines the records of the major parties and their presidential candidates.
For instance, the score card notes that Kamala Harris and the Democrats support lowering prescription drug prices, raising the national minimum wage to $15, and protecting and expanding abortion access across the country, while Donald Trump and Republicans oppose these positions.
Barber said the campaign had already distributed its scorecard to 2.6 million North Carolinians, each of whom was encouraged to forward the information to 10 other voters. According to Barber, poor and low-wage voters make up over 41% of North Carolina’s electorate, numbering roughly 3.5 million.
Protecting the vote
Caitlin Swain, a co-director of the Forward Justice Action Network, unveiled a new voting rights protection collaboration during the rally between her organization, the Poor People’s Campaign, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
The partnership will bring together attorneys to help resolve voting rights issues in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana. Voters denied the opportunity to vote or who have other election-related concerns can call or text 866-OUR-VOTE to receive assistance.
“We are ensuring that there is no vote that is wrongfully denied,” Swain said. “We know that if you can change the South, you can change this nation.”
Swain reminded attendees that Friday, October 11 is the deadline to register to vote online in North Carolina, but that voters may also register at polling places during the state’s early in-person voting period, which begins Thursday, October 17. She also criticized the state’s voter ID law as an impediment to voting, urging voters who have lost IDs due to Hurricane Helene to still vote and submit a photo ID exception form, citing the disaster.
“We are going to make sure that it counts,” Swain said. “This is an impediment that we know is unconstitutional and we believe should be removed, but we are going to do everything in our power to ensure that there is correct information getting out to all voters.”
Hurricane Helene’s aftermath
Two workers from western North Carolina with the Union of Southern Service Workers spoke at the rally about the challenges of surviving in the aftermath of Helene without wages or access to basic supplies.
Jamey Gunter, a fast-food employee from Asheville, said her home flooded after a fallen tree damaged her ceiling.
“I’m getting no wages, I’m not going to be able to buy medicine, the electric bill is due — it actually came in yesterday — even though I haven’t even had power in 12 days,” Gunner said. “Some of our workplaces are completely gone, it’s just the foundation. Some of the foundations ain’t even there.”
Nakeesha Pickens, who works at the Asheville retailer Five Below, said she was inspired by churches coming together to support the people in need and called for greater assistance from government officials.
Barber said Helene exposed bad public policy that had already left many in the region in poverty, adding that he hoped the storm wakes up voters to the lack of support for poor and low-wage people around the country. Quoting a hymn, he said, “God rose in a windstorm and put something on everybody’s mind.”
He also condemned misinformation around Helene recovery efforts in western North Carolina in his remarks, singling out Trump for spreading falsehoods about a lack of relief.
“We don’t need anybody running for office, Mr. Trump, that’s lying about what’s going on in North Carolina,” Barber said. “People are hurting, and if you want to say something, say something about how you’re gonna’ make people have health care and living wages.”
He clarified that his statement was “not partisan” but “prophetic.”
The get-out-the-vote campaign, billed as a “Rise Up and Revival Tour” will next travel to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greenville at 10 a.m. Saturday followed by Livingstone College in Salisbury on Oct. 19. Barber said he also plans to speak at Riverside Church in New York, Howard University, and Union Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.