New North Carolina Project hopes to register minority voters and encourage them to be voters for life

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Work is underway across North Carolina to register minority voters in an effort that mirrors the work of Stacey Abrams in Georgia, who registered thousands of voters in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

Abrams narrowly lost to Brian Kemp in the 2018 governor’s race in Georgia. She went on to register 800,000 voters for the 2020 election through her organizations, Fair Fight and the New Georgia Project.

Now, the New North Carolina Project is targeting communities of color in North Carolina, hoping to get out the vote.

Dr. Aimy Steele, the executive director of the organization, said she hopes to engage as many voters of color as possible and make them voters for life.

“Our goal is to position people of color, particularly voters who have been may be disengaged in the electoral process, to position them to become a voter for life and realize that they just need to vote in every single election and they can’t sit one out,” she said.

The organization launched in March 2021, shortly after Steele lost an election for a seat in the NC House.

“We can’t really continue to engage with voters of color in a transactional way and expect to trust that we are going to show up every year and be there for them in a way that is authentic,” she said. “I’m so honored to be leading this work.”

Steele hopes to fight against gerrymandering and bills that disenfranchise voters.

“We’re also fighting policies and laws that are completely disenfranchising,” she said. “They are absolutely inappropriate for lawmakers to pass but they are being passed because we don’t have the right lawmakers in many cases running the states. And because we don’t have the right lawmakers running the states, we really have to encourage people to get out and vote and make the changes. It’s going to be tough but as Stacey Abrams says too big is not a reason to not try.”

More information about the group can be found here.

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