I’ve been canvassing for North Carolina’s Wake County Democratic Party, which is headquartered in Raleigh, NC. I volunteered to knock on doors at the homes of the very conservative rural farmers in the nearby towns of Zebulon and Youngsville.

      It’s Trump country! In addition to Trump signs on their homes, some even had Confederate flags!

      My mission was to break the super majority that Republicans now hold in the North Carolina legislature by convincing them to vote for the Democratic candidate that represents them in the state House. I listened to their issues. …

      I’ve been a volunteer election official for the Wake County Board of Elections in North Carolina since 2016. Trump’s first run at the presidency prompted me to serve.

      After nine primaries and one run-off, eight early voting stints and eight November election days, I’m at it again. It’s exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. But I’ve never encountered what I experienced on Day #1 of this year’s early voting at my polling location.

      The lines never let up from the time the polls opened at 8 a.m. to closing at 7:30 p.m. My job was to greet all voters with a smile as they entered the polling place, answer any questions and direct them to a long table with five anxiously waiting volunteers who looked at their photo IDs, found their registrations in the voter database and gave them an ATV (authorization to vote). …

      I was thrilled when out of the blue I was offered a job to create an investigative unit at a local TV station.

      For more than 20 years I had been on the road producing true crime TV series. So, even though I was working as a freelance producer for major national cable and broadcast networks, at 57, I was looking forward to having some stability in my life. 

      The red carpet was rolled out when I started. The bosses sang my praises to the newsroom staff, which consisted of reporters and producers half my age. Whether it was jealousy, the fact I got my own office or I was old enough to be their mother, I was persona non grata from that day forward. It never changed in the seven years I worked there. ...

Dear Senator Vance,

I’m a childless cat lady and I’m actually happy! And, oh yes, I’m also a Democratic voter in the battleground state of North Carolina.

Nothing galls me more than Republican men judging my choices in life or worse, thinking that unmarried women do not have value and are miserable.

I’m an Emmy-winning television producer whose lifelong work has been to educate, inspire and advocate important issues. I’ve done that without a married partner. I had a lot of interesting and well-educated boyfriends along the way but none were marriage material for me or me for them. . . .