Who Will Lead the Mecklenburg County Democrats? Part 2: Drew Kromer

As Mecklenburg County Democrats prepare to elect a new chair this weekend, we continue our dive into the race to lead the largest county party in the Carolinas.

As we outlined in Part 1, Mecklenburg County Democrats will elect a new chair this weekend. Both announced candidates, Braxton Becoats and Drew Kromer, are Young Democrats who would be the youngest county party chair in the past three decades.

Kromer turned in his questionnaire second, so Part 2 focuses on him. Kromer has also named a running mate, Stephanie Collins Frempong, who is running for the First Vice Chair position on the MCDP Board. You can learn more about the candidates for other offices here.

By the way, Saturday’s convention is open to the public and starts at Noon; you can register to attend here.

Drew Kromer

Name: Drew Kromer
Age: 26
Running Mate: Stephanie Collins Frempong
Website: https://www.facebook.com/drew.kromer

Bio (from campaign email): For those who don’t know me, I am a Charlotte native, a graduate of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, Davidson College, and the UNC School of Law. I am also a licensed attorney, specializing in employment law. With a long history of party involvement, demonstrated leadership, and political fundraising experience, I have worked hard to elect Democrats. Over the years, I’ve been elected to national office as the Vice Chair of the College Democrats of America, been a national delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and served four terms on the State Executive Committee. In addition, I have served at the District level as Third Vice Chair of the 12th Congressional District, and as First Vice Chair of the Mecklenburg County Young Democrats. My experiences span the Democratic party at all levels including national, state, and local organizations.

Drew Kromer (Courtesy Drew Kromer)

Candidate Questionnaire

Editor’s Note: Questions were provided via email to both Becoats and Kromer. No edits were made to either Kromer or Becoats’ responses.

Y’all Weekly: What is the biggest challenge facing Mecklenburg County?

Drew Kromer: Our biggest challenge is the low Democratic turnout. This past November, Wake County—the county most similar to Mecklenburg in terms of size—had an overall voter turnout of 56%. The state average was 51%. Meanwhile, Mecklenburg’s turnout was 45%, making us 93rd out of the state’s 100 counties. This 11-point difference between Wake and Mecklenburg further expanded upon the 8-point difference we saw in 2018. With 33,988 (10.71%) more registered Democrats than Wake County, Mecklenburg’s turnout levels can decide statewide races (Gov. Cooper only won by 10,263 votes in 2016). If Mecklenburg’s turnout rate continues to lag, our statewide Democratic candidates mathematically cannot win—and the likely result will be a Republican as our next Governor.

Our turnout problem is the product of our own success: Democrats easily win the vast majority of our local races. Unfortunately, the more races that Democrats are easily able to win, the fewer local campaigns we need, the less excitement that is generated, and the more complacent we become. Instead of having an entire ticket of candidates—from the national level to the local level—working simultaneously to get out the vote, voters in these reliably blue areas of our county automatically have fewer motivations and reminders to vote. Our local party must step into this void and close the turnout gap.

YW: Turnout in Mecklenburg lags behind both Wake County and the state average. What can a county party actually do to increase turnout? Should turnout be the county party's top priority? 

DK: I wish there was a simple answer to this question. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet that will suddenly get 80,000 more people to vote. Instead, we must attack the problem from multiple angles. Here are some concrete examples of things we can actually do:

• Making it easier for people to vote, including:

  • Helping people know which candidates to vote for (especially in the non-partisan races);

  • Providing information about voting locations, early voting, hours of operation, etc.; and

  • Providing transportation to polling locations.

• Generating energy and excitement around the election, similar to how a local campaign (if the district were competitive) would fire up its voters. Some examples include, social media campaigns, talking to voters, “meet and greet” events, gaining local media coverage, concerts/rallies, public forums/townhalls, bringing attention to local issues/concerns, etc. In the municipalities where Democrats could realistically flip Republican-held town commissioner seats (like in Huntersville), we should recruit candidates and invest in winning those seats.

• Improving public perception around the importance and value of voting. This is the hardest task to address because it’s ultimately the underlying cause of our lower voter turnout; voters who don’t understand how their vote will/can impact their life, aren’t going to see the value in voting, and therefore won’t vote. It’s that simple. Relying on people’s internal sense of “civic duty” is not enough, especially outside of presidential elections. The reduction in quality local journalism has compounded the problem—if you don’t know what your government is doing, it’s hard to understand its impact on your life. If we want to consistently maintain higher turnout, we must make the election outcomes relevant to our voters. Here are some initial ideas:

  • Create more opportunities for people to interface with their elected officials (events, townhalls, etc.);

  • Support constituent services and advocacy;

  • Develop a local party platform (specific to local issues) and advocate for policies consistent with that platform; and

  • Help keep Democrats informed about what’s happening in our local government.

However, before we can focus on the turnout issue, we must prioritize building more capacity for our organization (recruiting more volunteers and raising more money). Regardless of the specific GOTV strategies we use to increase turnout, the quality and scale of our GOTV efforts will be a direct reflection of the number of volunteers we have and their energy and experience levels. Even the best GOTV plan will fail without any volunteers. To rapidly improve our turnout levels in Mecklenburg, we will need an army of volunteers that are fired up and ready to go (bonus points if we can train them on how to canvass, phonebank, etc. in the off season, instead of a few weeks before the election). Fundraising will be equally important to enable the hiring of an executive director who can professionalize our party and help create the strategy to increase turnout.

YW: Do you have any experience working on statewide or federal political campaigns? If not, what experience makes you qualified to run MCDP? 

DK: With a long history of party involvement, demonstrated leadership, and political fundraising experience, I have worked hard to elect Democrats. Over the years, I’ve been elected to national office as the Vice Chair of the College Democrats of America, been a national delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and served four terms on the State Executive Committee. In addition, I have served at the District level as Third Vice Chair of the 12th Congressional District, and as First Vice Chair of the Mecklenburg County Young Democrats. My experiences span the Democratic party at all levels including national, state, and local organizations. 

Perhaps my proudest political achievements come from the time I spent serving as the Chair of my local precinct when I was an undergrad at Davidson College. In Precinct 206, we re-organized a defunct town precinct and built it into a dynamic and effective local party, recruiting over 500 members and raising over $150,000 to win local and state races. Here’s a link to read about our work in POLITICO.

YW: Other than a minor traffic violation, have you ever been convicted of a crime in a court of law? Have you ever been formally reprimanded or suspended by an academic institution? 

DK: No.

YW: If you're successful as chair, where is MCDP in 2 years? 

DK: If we are successful in our efforts, MCDP would be punching at or above statewide turnout levels (realistically, I highly doubt we will match Wake County’s turnout levels within 2 years).