May Day mayday: Translating Democratic enthusiasm into election wins
Franklin’s May Day rally on May 1 was held near Big Bear Park and drew a large crowd of demonstrators. Bob Scott photo
Prior to its appropriation by communist regimes, International Workers Day — May Day — was first commemorated in honor of Chicago workers killed while striking for an eight-hour workday.
This past May Day, concerned citizens from across the United States and across Western North Carolina used the opportunity to spotlight issues important to working Americans, to continue the seemingly endless protests against the Trump Administration and to recruit candidates who can win.
“Everybody’s pretty annoyed about how expensive groceries are,” said Garrett Lagan, chair of the Swain County Democratic party.
Lagan and a few dozen others gathered May 1 at the courthouse in Bryson City, passing around a petition of support for the Economic Security Act, filed in the North Carolina General Assembly on March 6. Among other pro-worker measures, the bill would phase in a $22 hourly minimum wage, end the tipped minimum wage and legalize public employee unions.
Rising costs and sagging wages have left workers with the short end of the economic stick, so to speak, and with the instability caused by President Donald Trump’s on again/off again tariff scheme, Lagan and others on the left are anxious about what that means for rural Southern Appalachia.
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“We’re an economy run on tourism, and if people don’t have that disposable income, they aren’t going to show up on vacation,” he said.
But it wasn’t just workers’ issues that brought a few dozen people out to the Swain County rally; demonstrations that began the day Trump was sworn in have endured in cities large and small, across the nation — many on a regular basis.
“Nothing motivates people to get involved like seeing things that they love and care about attacked,” said Lagan, a therapist by trade. “They are seeing a lot of things that they love and care about, things that they believe already made Swain County great, get attacked. So they’re coming out to say ‘Hi’ and see what they can do to help.”
Lisa Walker, of Franklin, leads a May Day rally on May 1, near Big Bear Park. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Swain County isn’t exactly a liberal stronghold; voters there chose Trump in all three of his runs for president, the first two by more than 58% and the last by more than 61%. Public demonstrations in Swain County were rare or nonexistent during Trump’s first term, just as they were in Macon County, where voters chose Trump by just over 68% all three times.
“They’re saying that they need to cut $880 billion out of Medicaid and Social Security,” said Lisa Walker at a rally in Franklin earlier on May 1. “That impacts 14,000 Social Security recipients [in Macon County]. My husband and I are retired, and our 401ks have taken a hit. Prices have gone up, and they’re threatening to cut Social Security. Any one of those factors is a concern. When you put them all together, it’s incredibly disturbing.”
Franklin saw a large crowd of demonstrators across from Big Bear Park on May 1, not much smaller than during the national series of “hands off” rallies on April 5. At the same time, over in Jackson County, an even larger gathering on Sylva’s Mill Street drew honks and waves from what seemed to be thousands of cars, right around rush hour.
“We’re here answering a national call to go to the streets, to say what we believe, which is that the Trump administration is calling for things that are so radical that they are hurting people,” said Jackson County resident Betsy Swift. “A theory proposed by people who studied authoritarian regimes says that three-and-a-half percent of the population coming out consistently is what it takes to turn things around.”
With Swift was another Jackson County resident, Joan Parks, who said she’d been making calls to voters to try to get their attention.
While the rallies have certainly succeeded in generating awareness, real change doesn’t come from people standing on the side of the road, waving signs — it comes from legislators passing laws and making policy. With municipal elections looming in some towns and others looking forward to the 2026 midterm elections, all the awareness in the world won’t help Democrats if they can’t recruit candidates to run.
“I’m trying to recruit people right now, so if anyone reads this article and wants to talk with me further about running, that’s one reason I’m out in all these counties right now and addressing all of the conventions,” said Adam Tebrugge, a Jackson County resident who ran for state Senate in 2024. “I’m looking for folks that might want to step up.”
Tebrugge was at the Franklin rally with Walker and said he’d been to a similar event in Hayesville earlier that day, where more than 100 people — one-third the population of town — turned out in heavy rain. Located in Clay County, Hayesville isn’t exactly a liberal stronghold either. Like other WNC counties, Clay voted for Trump three times with support over 74% each time.
Although candidate registration isn’t until July for municipals and December for state and federal offices, no one has yet announced a run for the General Assembly.
Tebrugge, when asked if he’d consider another run against popular Republican incumbent Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon) quoted the titular character in Herman Melville’s 1853 short story “Bartleby, the scrivener” by saying simply, “I’d prefer not to.” Melville’s cautionary tale about an eternally obstinate clerk who gradually withdraws from society by refusing to do literally anything to keep himself employed or alive ends with Bartleby starving to death in prison.
However, there may be some hope for rural western Democrats.
A small but enthusiastic crowd gathered in Bryson City on May 1, pushing for more favorable conditions for America’s working class. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Tebrugge said that Graham County (79%/80%/81% for Trump, respectively) now has an organized Democratic Party for the first time in a long time.
Walker lauded North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton, one of the youngest major party leaders in recent history, for filling nearly all Dem ballot slots last cycle. Clayton has focused on the youth vote and on rural organizing that led to Dems breaking the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly last cycle while retaining the governor’s and attorney general’s office.
“I’m seeing younger people become more engaged than ever before,” Walker said. “I’m hoping that transfers into more and more people running for office. I think that’s what we need to do right now, is start recruiting people to run for office.”
In Jackson County, Swift and Parks agreed that they were seeing more young people taking an interest in politics.
“I think that’s exactly what we need, but I think it’s an all-hands-on-deck moment,” Swift said. “Everybody does what they can do. I’m 73 years old. I’m not going to run for office, but somebody, I guarantee, is being moved right now and saying, ‘I could do that.’”
Demonstrators lined Mill Street in front of the Jackson County Democratic Party’s headquarters on May 1. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Aside from Col. Moe Davis’ recent announcement that he’d run in the 11th Congressional District, things look perhaps brightest for Democrats in Swain County, where Lagan said his party now has a full slate of precinct and county officers and a steady stream of volunteers who want to help, and want to run.
“Last election cycle, I could not find somebody in Swain County to run for local election,” he said. “I have four or five people interested in running for county office at this point, and we are more than a year away.”
