Storm-Ravaged North Carolina Rallies Voters
With just days left before the presidential election on Nov. 5, all eyes are on a handful of so-called swing states—a direct outcome of the United States’ electoral college system. Party nominees are holding endless rallies and campaign events in states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina, and grassroots activists are engaged in a frenzy of get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts.
In storm-ravaged North Carolina, there is an added complication of climate disaster in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, with thousands left homeless, grieving lost loved ones, and dealing with devastated infrastructure, a ruined economy, and shuttered businesses.
Erica England, strategic partnerships coordinator at Organized Power in Numbers, is leading GOTV efforts in North Carolina and spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about the top concerns for voters in this swing state.
Sonali Kolhatkar
joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is called Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women’s Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name.
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