“If you don’t come out and vote … you’re going to have more of the same.”
That’s the message from Sen. Kandie Smith, a Democrat running for re-election to represent North Carolina’s 5th district in the State Senate. Presently, though Democrats control the governor’s office, both the state House and Senate are controlled by Republicans. And with this power, they have created congressional gridlock and repeatedly blocked Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes on most everything – from measures ensuring tenants’ rights, to ones staving off governmental cryptocurrency use.
In November, Smith will face Republican contender Alexander Paschall, an assistant public defender, in the general election. District 5 has largely elected Democrats to the post in the past, and she’s snagged endorsements from pro-choice organizations Planned Parenthood and Emily’s list, as well as rural organizing group Down Home NC, to strengthen her claim.
But her concerns about turnout are understandable all the same. Though voters have shown up in increasing numbers in the U.S. the past few election cycles, barely half of voting-age citizens ultimately make their way to the polls. Internationally, we rank 31st in voter engagement.
Some of this is a product of voter disenfranchisement efforts – which is why she, during her first term as state senator, sponsored legislation for automatic voter registration for anyone receiving a driver’s license (with an option to opt out built in). But some of it is admittedly born of fatigue, or apathy. And that, says Smith, cannot stand. “This is a critical election. We always say it’s the most important election of your life,” but this one really is, she emphasizes.
Smith, 54, has seen firsthand how elections can change lives – starting with her own. In 2017, while serving on the Greenville city council, she was appointed mayor pro tem, making her the first African-American woman mayor of Greenville. It was an especially proud moment for her – and once in that office, “I realized the amount of influence I had within the city to be able to assist people on a broader scale.”
And her first-ever campaign – the one that got her onto the city council in the first place – taught her the importance of each individual vote. In that 2009 bid for office, she was going up against a 22-year incumbent. “I’m very competitive. I work hard. On Election Day, I took 12 people to the polls” herself, she recalls. When that election was over – “I’d won. By 12 votes.”
Fifteen years later, she continues to hold an office given to her by North Carolinians. “Once I started fighting for the people, they wanted me to stay in the fray,” she says.
Learning to Lead
Smith grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the oldest of four children. “I’ve always been a leader, always been a go-getter.” Her mother, also a hard worker and a career caregiver, is Smith’s inspiration. “I got a lot of that [drive] from her,” she says.
Her involvement in her church while growing up, as both a speaker and volunteer, was also pivotal, she says. She attended college at Charleston Southern University on a track scholarship, and was treasurer of the student body her senior year before earning her bachelor’s in science in 1991. After graduation, Smith worked in mental health, moving around South and North Carolina before ultimately settling in Greenville in 2004.
All of these experiences, combined, taught her “how to advocate for people,” she says. “Being in those roles helped me to not be afraid to stand up, to speak my mind, to hear the concerns of others – and to share in what those things may be.”
That has been the driving ethos behind her career, she says. In her first term as senator, for example, she has sponsored legislation to codify both Roe and Casey, to ensure the reproductive freedoms of North Carolinians; joined the fight for a Medicaid expansion to help over 600,000 low-income state residents; secured $175 million in state funding for Edgecombe and Pitt Counties, both within her district; and backed bills to raise the state minimum wage.
While on the re-election campaign trail this summer, constituents have expressed ongoing concerns to her about housing costs and rent increases. “People who would not have normally been in a situation to be homeless” are now at risk of becoming as such, Smith says. “The face of homelessness looks different.” Criminal justice reform is also at the center of voter’s minds – and Smith’s as well, since she knows policy makers like her must ensure that “criminal justice laws are fair, and not based on systemic approaches that trap some people and not others.”
Making progress within a Republican-held congress remains difficult, Smith says, but she won’t be deterred. “I’m a strong-willed, determined individual,” she asserts. “I do what I can. I fight” – for every bill, and for every vote.
