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Democrats cautiously optimistic about 'blue wave'

Scott Donaldson, a urologist running for Congress, speaks with supporters at his campaign kickoff on Sunday, Jan. 21.

By Bill Moss, Published: January 30, 2018

Although Democrats sense momentum this election year, they’re not so far removed from 2016 that they dismiss the unexpected.

“You can feel it for one thing,” state Rep. John Ager, a Democrat from Fairview who was elected in 2014, said of the party’s energy. “I was at the ladies’ march yesterday — 70,000 people. It was unbelievable. The poll numbers are looking good. … We think it’s going to be a blue wave but I don’t want to be overconfident. We’ve got to work hard.”

Supporters gathered on Jan. 21 for the kickoff of Scott Donaldson’s campaign for the 11^th Congressional District, a seat held by three-term incumbent Mark Meadows, who as chair of the conservative Freedom Caucus is a regular guest on cable TV and in negotiating huddles at the White House.

That just fires up the Democrats even more.

As a physician and supporter of a single-payer system, Donaldson challenges critics in the Republican Party who say single-payer won’t work.

“Medicare is a single-payer system,” he said.

He rattled off statistics about European countries doing better than the U.S. in life expectancy and other measures.

“They live longer than we do,” he said. “The fetal demise rate is half of what ours is.”

He mocks the idea of putting Medicaid recipients to work.

“The majority of Medicaid recipients are in nursing homes,” he says.

He criticized the past several presidents for prolonging wars, then boasting that they’re taking care of veterans.

“I will tell you that the best way to take care of veterans is to stop making new veterans,” he said. “Because if you break a man’s brain, you won’t fix a brain after you break that brain.”

Donaldson said he’s been gathering support from Republicans who are unhappy with Washington.

“They’re not going to put my bumper stickers on their car,” he says. “But they’re going to vote for me.”

“We still think it’s a Don Quixote idea,” he said of his longshot candidacy. “We’ve done some videos and got 3,000 views. A number have hit a thousand. I had a doctor from Waynesville knock on my door one day” and offer to help, because of his interest in opioid abuse. 

Nancy Waldrop, a Democrat from Candler and member of Donaldson’s campaign committee, said the physician can go toe-to-toe with Meadows on the issues and top him in campaign style.

“Scott can do everything Mark Meadows is known for doing in terms of talking to people, attracting people, understanding the subject,” she said. “Scott can do that equally as well. Scott has a sense of humor and that I think that is a very good part of it. I think he can relate to people.”

Michael Careccia, a 25-year-old apprentice electrician, is a Democrat running for a seat on on the all-Republican Caldwell County Board of Commissioners. He attended an anti-Trump march Saturday in Lenoir.

“The first big march we’ve had in quite a while,” he said. “We had well over a hundred people.”

Redistricting of congressional and legislative maps is also a big topic. Ager lamented that the U.S. Supreme Court had blocked a lower court’s order that would have forced North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature to redraw congressional maps. The son-in-law of Democrat Jamie Clarke, Ager recalls the days when the N.C. 11^th was known as one of the most competitive seats in the nation. Clarke defeated Republican Rep. Bill Hendon in 1982, lost to Hendon in 1984 and unseated him again in 1986. He narrowly won re-election over Charles Taylor in 1988, then lost to Taylor two years later.

“I’ve been gerrymandered out of District 11,” Ager said. “My community, Fairview, is linked (in the 10^th District) to Gastonia. I was really hoping that we could be put back into No. 11 because that area carries a lot of Democratic registration.”

“And independents,” someone in the crowd shouted.

Another 2018 candidate, Norm Bossert, a retired principal who is running for the state Senate seat held by Chuck Edwards, praised Donaldson’s health care platform.

“Scott’s message about health care is just what has got people thinking,” Bossert said. “It’s a perfect message.”

In order to take on Meadows, Donaldson would have to defeat Democrat Phillip Price of Marion.