A Historic Democratic Primary in North Carolina?

The mainstream press is giving increasing coverage to the grassroots primary campaign of openly gay North Carolina Democratic Senate nominee Jim Neal. Special attention has been paid to the way Neal has used the Internet to raise funds and compete against Democratic rival, state Sen. Kay Hagan, who has the support of party leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer. Ever since Howard Dean utilized the netroots in his ‘04 presidential bid to raise money and galvanize voters the media have increasingly focused on how the Internet is changing the political process. It has been a consistent theme for Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign, especially in talking about how he has been able to engage young voters. Now we are starting to see more stories of openly gay candidates, like Neal, who are utilizing online technologies to challenge the party establishment.

A March 26 article in the Charlotte Observer states that Neal is aiming to become “only the second openly gay Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in American history.” The piece goes on to say that Neal is utilizing the “so-called netroots, writing blogs and raising money online.” On March 6 the News & Observer reported that, “It was during a live blog on BlueNC that U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal revealed that he is gay, making national news.” Neal has also received the endorsement of influential blogs, including Pam’s House Blend – which has been extensively covering his campaign – and AMERICAblog. A recent Survey USA poll has him in a statistical dead heat with Hagan.

A win by Neal in the primary would be huge for garnering more national coverage of openly gay candidates. It could also help create stories that are less about insurgent candidates using the netroots to challenge the establishment and more about the viability of LGBT people as mainstream candidates. 

Paul Karr is Directory of Media Field Strategy