A 25-year-old from a small town leads North Carolina's Democratic Party toward 2024

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/06/ [login to see] /democratic-party-north-carolina-anderson-clayton-gen-z-voters-rural-politics
Anderson Clayton understands why young people have problems with the Democratic party. She does too.

"I used to joke with people that if I didn't run for something else, I was going to be leaving the Democratic Party," she told the audience at a recent event in Washington, D.C.

So she ran for something. Now, it's been more than six months since Clayton was elected chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, a promotion after leading her county's party. And at 25 years old, she's the youngest state party leader in the country.

It's a title she wears proudly, right alongside another: being from a small town. Both identities make many of her political battles personal, as she wrestles with the past faults of her party and what she wants the future to look like.