Team Up NC

We Play to Win

Laura Baxley, Executive Director, Team Up NC

A movement is swelling in North Carolina! There is palpable energy and excitement from Democrats determined to win back our state, make North Carolina better for everyone, and provide resistance to extreme MAGA policies. (Check out the Grassroots Connector recent interview with Anderson Clayton, head of NC’s Democratic Party). To achieve this goal, NC Democrats are executing a winning, coordinated strategy, mobilizing invested groups from the coast to the mountains. Team Up NC is proud to be one critical part of this plan.

Established in 2016, Team Up NC is a powerful volunteer-fueled organization focused on electing Democrats in battleground districts in the NC House and Senate. Team Up targets volunteer power and financial resources on key swing seats, striving to protect our Democratic governor’s veto power and build toward Democratic majorities in the legislature.

Team Up NC is a project of the Orange County Democratic Party. Fueled by hundreds of volunteers and led by a paid Executive Director, we recruit volunteers from the reliably-blue, central “Triangle” area. These volunteers travel to neighboring counties to give additional support to candidates and county parties in tight legislative districts, where extra efforts can win an election.

As part of the Democratic Party, Team Up NC meets regularly with candidates, the NC House and Senate Caucuses, and the North Carolina Democratic Party. Team Up NC participates in strategy discussions, helping determine how and where our efforts are most effectively deployed. Equally important, data collected from voters can be shared legally between these party-affiliated entities, preventing duplicate efforts and ensuring that all NC Democrats are working from the same winning plan.

While Team Up NC’s innovative model is unique in the state, our tactics are proven and data-driven. The heart of our work relies on building genuine, trusting relationships with volunteers, with Democratic leaders at all levels, and with voters.

We do this in two ways.

First, we have real conversations with voters.

Real, individual conversations are the core of Team Up NC’s work and the “secret sauce” that wins elections. Researchers find that one-on-one conversations with voters are an effective way to increase turnout, so we recruit hundreds of volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls year-round in districts that can affect the balance of power in the NC legislature. In even years, Team Up NC adds a large-scale paid canvasser program, extending our reach by hiring local residents to talk with their neighbors about Democratic candidates.

In addition to providing extra volunteer power in swing districts, Team Up NC works alongside county parties to train local activists to canvass and phone bank with confidence. And even when our volunteers come from outside the county, they return year after year to the same areas, building bonds within the community and increasing their effectiveness.

Second, we partner with local county Democratic party leaders to help them cultivate deeply invested, skilled, permanent volunteer bases for long-term success.

North Carolina is fortunate to have a strong state Democratic party and 100 county parties, each with its own unique challenges and strengths. County parties are led by volunteer officer boards, elected every two years. Because they are year-round fixtures and not cyclical campaigns, county parties build the long-term networks and community trust that drive turnout and help build confidence in the Democratic brand.

Investing in local parties is how we win now and how we win later. To maximize our impact, Team Up NC partners with county parties in the same key swing districts where we support (or have previously supported) battleground candidates.

Team Up NC pairs each partner county with a dedicated County Liaison who builds deep relationships with local leadership through regular contact and – most importantly – active listening. County Liaisons connect parties to Team Up NC’s existing tools and help develop new resources based on local feedback. This system ensures that when we help solve a problem for one county, we strengthen the entire network.

Third: We offer assistance such as:

• Year-round voter contact. Our volunteers show up alongside local volunteers to talk with voters via canvassing and phone banking. Conversations occur year round, assuring voters that the Democratic party is present even when we’re not asking for votes.

• Training for leaders and for local volunteers. Team Up NC provides presentations and hands-on help with skills like precinct organizing, using VoteBuilder and Mobilize, canvassing and phone banking, volunteer recruitment, and more.

• Community-building events. Team Up NC hosts fun events in partnership with local county parties that encourage volunteerism and community.

• Latino Community Engagement. Team Up NC’s Latino Engagement Team is one of the few party-affiliated groups committed to building trust between the Latino electorate and the Democratic Party. In addition to facilitating connections between county party leadership, candidates, and voters, our team supports bilingual canvasses, phone banks, and postcards.

  

• Graphic design. Our team of experienced graphic designers provide pro-bono print pieces and graphics to help counties reach more volunteers and voters.

  

• Strategic Planning. Team Up NC helps county party leadership and their teams articulate their visions and document a concrete, actionable plan.

• Leadership Roundtables. We host regular meetings that provide county leadership teams space to brainstorm, share successes and failures, and learn from one another.

• Financial support. For several years, Team Up has offered small micro-grants to our county partners. This year, thanks to a targeted fundraiser by our partners at All in for NC, we had the opportunity to facilitate game-changing grants that helped five rural county partners fund critical needs.

Anyone Can Join

Team Up NC is 1,000 volunteers strong, combining the best of grassroots organizing with a powerful party structure, making us strategic and effective.

Anyone can join the movement! Sign up for emails here. If you live in NC, join us for social events and canvassing. You can phone bank from anywhere. And donations of any size help fuel our critical work. We’d love to have you on the Team!

Interested in Team Up resources like meeting agendas or a toolkit for engaging Latino voters? Contact info@teamupnc.org for more information, or apply to receive our Latino Engagement Team’s resource toolkit at teamupnc.org/resources

On that resources page you will also find a Canvassing 101 video Team Up created for volunteers.

Born in eastern North Carolina, Laura grew up in a very active Democratic family. She became Co-Director of Team Up NC in 2022, serving first as a volunteer and becoming its first paid staff member in 2025. A project manager by trade, one of the best days of her life was when she found out that “Organizer” was an actual job title! She lives in Chapel Hill, NC with her husband, Jim, and they have two adult children.