Email
Print
Stumping for Obama
Jim McNally
U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (standing) and Kay Holshouser share some laughs Wednesday night at the Iredell County Democratic Party Headquarters. Cooper was in town to help rally the faithful for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: October 9, 2008
A U.S. representative from Tennessee was in Statesville Wednesday night to bolster Barack Obama's candidacy for the White House and Democrat Roy Carter's bid to upset Rep. Virginia Foxx in North Carolina's 5th Congressional District race.
Rep. Jim Cooper, who represents Nashville, may have given in a bit to hyperbole when he told a group gathered at the Iredell County Democratic Party headquarters that the work they were doing to support Obama was "saving America."
The Democrats were working the phones, reminding Iredell County residents that their votes were vital if Obama was going to take the state, which political experts are now calling a key battleground.
No Democratic presidential candidate has won North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
But Cooper said it could happen this year and that the state could well decide the race.
"Your state could change the whole election," Cooper said. "And there has never been a more pressing need for change."
Cooper is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, where he was as a Morehead Scholar, Oxford University in England, where was a Rhodes Scholar, and Harvard Law School.
"I'm a pretty smart guy, but Barack Obama is a lot smarter," Cooper said. "If there has ever been a living embodiment of the American Dream, it is Barack Obama."
Cooper said the current times bring to mind the election of 1960.
"I was only 6 years old when John Kennedy was elected, but my parents and grandparents told me it was an inspirational time," he said. "And now we have that same kind of opportunity. Barack Obama offers that same kind of inspiration. Let's celebrate that."
Cooper said the time was right for voters to put the state in the Obama electoral college column. He said the work being done by Obama supporters is reminiscent of what happened in his own state eight years ago.
"Tennessee gave the election to George W. Bush," Cooper said. "Sure, Florida was involved but Tennessee is Al Gore's home state and we Democrats took for granted that he would take it and we lost and Bush won."
Vanessa Davidson said she had gotten so discouraged by what happened during the 2000 election that she had sworn off politics and politicians.
"I said I would never vote again or care again," said Davidson, who was working the phones for the Democrats on Wednesday. "Barack Obama is the only reason I am back in this."
Kay Holshouser was another phone worker. As a nurse, Holshouser takes care of a 97-year old woman.
"And she told me she is voting for Barack Obama because she remembers the Hoover days," Holshouser said. "And she believes these times are worse than back then."
After leaving the Democratic headquarters, Cooper pinch hit for Rep. Mel Watt who was slated to appear at a function for Carter at the home of David and Sally Parker.
Watt was unable to attend because he went to a funeral in Charlotte.
Email
Print
