Tomorrow you can be part of a select group of people and have your vote ‘count’ more than it ever has before. On Tuesday North Carolina will conduct a 2nd primary to determine runoff winners for various offices. When a similar election was held in 2008, turnout was an abysmal 1.8%

While Republicans have several contested runoffs, including a few for Council of State, Democrats have only one statewide runoff – Labor Commissioner. As one of the only two Republicans on the Council of State, Cherie Berry has consistently been an embarrassment to North Carolina and the workers who rely on her department. We need to send the “Elevator Queen” home for good this year and we have two compelling candidates.

John Brooks has an enormous amount of experience, having served as Commissioner of Labor for 16 years. The experience and knowledge he would bring to the office would be a vast improvement over Commissioner Berry.

First off, congratulations to all the candidates, staff and volunteers who poured their hearts into these primary elections. Democracy is about choice and we need more people to run for office and more folks engaged in the political process.

Seeing the constitutional amendment pass was disappointing for all of us in the progressive community, ultimately it was a bridge too far. That said, President Obama’s statement today is a step in the right direction and, in time, we will prove Thom Tillis right.

Also want to take a moment and talk about how young candidates running last night fared.

We are proud to say that all three Farm Team endorsed candidates won (or were unopposed) last night, so congratulations to D. Cole Phelps, Drew Reisinger and Bill Luton!

The Grassroots Farm Team is thrilled to announce our final endorsement before the May 8th primary, D. Cole Phelps for Washington County Commissioners. Many of you know Cole, who is a vice-chair in the 1st Congressional District Democratic Party and is finishing up law school at NC Central University. He's jumped into this campaign headfirst and his small army of volunteers have already knocked on every door in the district - and are going to do it again before the primary!

We're excited to see Cole bring his experiences and perspective back to Washington County to address some of the serious challenges the county faces.

The Grassroots Farm Team is trilled to announce our first endorsements of the 2012 election season. Drew Reisinger and Bill Luton are both impressive young leaders who have used their offices to better their community and foster a more open and transparent government. We strongly endorse both Luton and Reisinger and are confident they will be leaders in NC for years to come.