Two years ago, Drew Kromer was elected chair of the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party. He pledged to increase voter turnout in the county with the most registered Democrats in the state.
And he got off to a strong start, helping the county party raise $2.8 million, nearly half of which came from out-of-state donors. That compares with roughly $120,000 before the 2020 election.
Kromer drew national attention with a feature in The New York Times three weeks before the election, headlined “Can Charlotte deliver for Kamala Harris?”
But not only did Kamala Harris lose North Carolina, but turnout in Mecklenburg County was once again below the state average.
Now, Kromer is being challenged for the party chair by former state rep. Wesley Harris. The party will select its leader at its convention next month.
Kromer said in November that things were better than they seemed. Other metro areas nationwide saw larger shifts toward the GOP.
“I know it’s not a fun way to talk about it, to say, ‘Well, we sucked less,’” Kromer said.
He said bucking the national headwinds that helped Trump was critical, pointing to Democrat Allison Riggs holding a 734-vote lead for the state Supreme Court in a contested race.
“That’s the difference between Allison Riggs being on the court or not,” he said. “Without our program, she wouldn’t have won. And that’s the difference in breaking the supermajority in the General Assembly.”
But Harris said Mecklenburg County should have done more. He ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer.
“I just ran statewide. I lost,” Harris said. “We had five Democrats win. For those five Democrats to win, they had to drastically outspend their opponents, and they had to run against, honestly terrible, terrible candidates. And that’s a sign that our base voters didn’t come enough.”
Mecklenburg’s turnout — 69.9 percent — was below the state average of 73.7 percent. Mirroring recent years.
Harris said the county party poured its resources into three competitive state legislative races. Democrats won two, in suburban areas. Democrats flipped a north Mecklenburg state House seat and held a south Charlotte state Senate seat. Republican Tricia Cotham held onto her seat in Mint Hill and Matthews.
He said Democrats should have paid more attention to Black voters in and around uptown.
“It’s also where turnout is the lowest,” he said. “Being able to take those resources and focus on those areas — that’s the difference.”
Kromer said Harris is wrong.
“I would say with all due respect he doesn’t know what the data says,” said Kromer, who is an employment lawyer. “He was running a statewide race for state treasurer, and I don’t fault him for this. But if he wasn’t here.”
He said the party’s efforts focused on low-income communities that curve from west to east Charlotte.
“We have a heat map that shows where we knocked on doors and it looks like the crescent,” he said.
Immediately after the election, the party's executive director, Monifa Drayton, resigned. Drayton, who is Black, wrote a scathing letter in which she complained about being demoted that fall and likening the work environment to Jim Crow.
Mecklenburg County Commissioner Arthur Griffin defended Drayton and said Kromer should resign.
Kromer has previously declined to comment on what happened.
But he said this week that “You don’t make changes to leadership five months before the election if things are working out.”
Kromer has also been criticized for spending more than $100,000 on an election night watch party at Camp North End.
Harris said he can heal the party.
“Drew’s run has been slightly polarizing to say it lightly,” he said. “And I have a lot of good relationships in the communities we need to build back the brand of our party.”
The fight over the party chair raises questions about whether Mecklenburg’s turnout challenges are bigger than one person can fix.
The county has a greater percentage of non-English speakers than Wake County. It also has more minority voters than most North Carolina counties. Historically, those groups have had lower turnout.
Jane Whitley was the Democratic Party chair for six years before Kromer. She remains active in the party.
“We are trying to reach out to non-English communities,” Kromer said. “That can be a challenge.”
And she said the top of the ticket matters far more than money when it comes to getting voters excited. Even the party’s record fundraising in 2024 is insignificant compared to how much money the national party spends, she said.
“In general we don’t have the financial resources, nor will we be the generators of national enthusiasm,” Kromer said.
In the 2020 election, that national excitement for Joe Biden — or perhaps anger over President Trump's COVID response — pushed Mecklenburg turnout to nearly 72%.
That was still below the state average but higher than it was last fall.
