Meet the youngest Democratic state party head in the country trying to turn battleground North Carolina blue and prove to Gen Z elderly Biden CAN win in 2024

There are questions over whether young people will show up for Democrats in November or whether they have turned on President Biden and the party that typically counts them as a key part of the base. 

Polling suggests it very well could happen amid frustration over the likelihood of a Biden-Trump rematch and the president's support for Israel as war rages in Gaza.

But one Democrat leading the Democratic Party in a key battleground state is determined in the fight ahead. 

Anderson Clayton is the 26-year-old chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Elected last year amid a wave of discontent over the party's performance, she is the youngest chair of a state political party in the country.

Clayton, who spoke exclusively with DailyMail.com ahead of Super Tuesday, passionately argued this year's election 'ain't' about an 81-year-old, but the issues: abortion rights, workers rights, climate rights, 'anything that you care about to have the right to is on your ballot.'

Anderson Clayton was elected as chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party last year at age 25, making her the youngest state party chair in the country

In an effort to get more young people to show up amid questions over whether they will vote in 2024, Clayton argues the election 'ain't' about 81-year-old President Biden but about issues and the future of the country

She said voter education is the party's biggest problem in the upcoming election cycle. 

Touting something like 'Bidenomics' is not working in a state like North Carolina she said fiercely because the state legislature says it is ok to keep the minimum wage where it is at.

'What do you want to see the future of your country, of your state, of your community look like and become?' Clayton said of 2024. 

'Because what the other party right now believes in is fundamentally something that I do not think we as people are ok with. I hope to hell we're not.'

Clayton, an organizer by trade originally from a rural North Carolina, has the task of getting people in the Tar Heel state to show up come November and every election.

She claims she has 'not coming to play' and is ready for the opportunity to 'blue map the b***ch.'

To date, North Carolina has been a deeply purple state. It elected Donald Trump in 2020 by less than 75,000 votes but reelected a Democratic Governor Roy Cooper by nearly 250,000 votes. 

The current congressional delegation is split seven Democrats, seven Republicans, though redistricting is expected to shift more seats to the GOP.

Just over a week ago, the state Democratic party executive committee voted to make state chair a full-time paid position.

But under Clayton, the party is starting at the ground level. They contested 1,100 out of 1,600 municipal races last year. In 2025, she says they're coming for ever single one.

'We're going to see what happens in the state this year, but we're not done fighting.'

Clayton has been working to energize Democrats not just in her state but everywhere. She previously worked as an organizer in Iowa, Tennessee and Kentucky before returning home to North Carolina

Clayton strategy to turn North Carolina blue involves Democrats showing up and engaging in communities not just right before elections but regularly and making sure to run candidates up and down the ballot. She also has her sights set on rural North Carolina. The state has the second largest rural population behind Texas

Part of her approach is tapping into rural North Carolina. 

'We have the second most rural voters in the country,' said Chris Cooper a professor at Western Carolina State. 'These light blue voters moving into the state, but there's still this countervailing force pulling from the rural parts of the state and reddening by the day.'

Clayton calls herself a 'hopeless romantic' when it comes to winning over rural areas, arguing everyone is 'worth talking to.' 

She has praised the governor's high approval even in rural parts of the state pointing out he has made a consistent effort to show up in those communities even if they're not what has gotten him elected. 

'It's about putting more emphasis on those communities,' she said and forcing Republicans to actually have to run there.

She has experience working in such places, first as a field organizer in rural Iowa for then-Senator Kamala Harris' 2020 presidential campaign and then in Kentucky. 

Clayton recalled feeling like she was the only rural organizer at times. She said campaigns have been leaving out a whole section of people that they don't want to engage with because they 'don't think they matter.'

'I actually don't believe in that,' she said. 

It's what ended up bringing her back to North Carolina where she found herself leading the Person County Democrats. While there, they flipped the Roxboro City Council and a seat in the state House in 2022.

But she is not delusional the party faces challenges up and down the ballot, admitting earnestly she fears having to eat her words at the end of the cycle, but she believes it's worth the shot.

The party left 44 seats uncontested in the state House and Senate races in 2022, the most in state history. Forty-five counties lost a Democratic representatives in them.

In 2020, a Republican won a state Supreme Court race by just over 400 votes. The court that year went from a 6-1 Democratic majority to a 4-3 majority before Republicans won the majority in 2022.

'This sh*t happened because we just did not get enough people out to vote,' Clayton said with frustration, noting it was being 'really, really, really, really mad' that got her to even run for state party chair in the first place. With the help of young friends she was able to oust the establishment-backed incumbent.

Now Democrats are canvassing early, and her goal is to get people out talking to folks ASAP. She also does not want Democrats to be known for just knocking on doors three months before an election. 

'We want to be in your communities all the time,' she insisted. 'Right now we're eight months before an election, and I'm saying we're already out in those communities. I think that's the change, and that's what I hope is going to make the difference this year.'

More than 70 younger North Carolina Democrats gathered with Vice President Harris during her visit to Durham on March 1. Clayton said the room was 'vibrating' with energy

North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton takes a selfie with Vice President Harris while riding with her in her motorcade on March 1. Clayton says she urged the Vice President to come back and meet with voters in the eastern part of the battleground state

For Clayton, her experience first as a field organizer for Harris then as the state party chair in one of the biggest battlegrounds came full circle last week when she found herself riding with vice president in her motorcade during Harris' visit to Durham. 

While there, Harris stopped to speak with young Democrats. And at least for that visit, a group of passionate young people who have been and will be out on college campuses working to register voters this election year did show up. 

'It was one of those moments where I got to see her interact with a lot of young folks, people that I think needed to see a very personal side of her,' Clayton said.

Clayton wants to see the Democratic party invest in the state. She also wants the vice president, who has been to the state 10 times since taking office, to keep coming back. 

'I said when we were in the motorcade together, "eastern North Carolina needs to see you. They would love you."'