Apply for ENC PAC's Endorsement
Congratulations on your candidacy and thank you for your interest in Equality North Carolina Action Fund's endorsement in 2022! We look forward to learning more about you and your candidacy.
Equality North Carolina builds LGBTQ+ power through advocacy, education, and uplifting the stories of queer and trans North Carolinians in pursuit of racial and social justice. As oldest statewide organization in the country dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights we fight for lived equality so that LGBTQ+ people feel valued in all spaces within their day-to-day lives, including towns, jobs, places of worship, hospitals and schools. LGBTQ+ people are in every community, whether they are people of color, immigrants, undocumented folks, people experiencing incarceration or homelessness. All of these issues matter to ENC.
Currently, our federal, judicial, and NCGA questionnaires are closed.
STEPS TO THE ENDORSEMENT PROCESS:
- Complete this questionnaire. For more information on each section, please check here.
- Submit a headshot to PAC@equalitync.org. If you are endorsed, ENC will create appropriate graphics and social media posts.
- Our Regional Endorsement Committees will review questionnaires. The committees consist of local leaders across all demographics, who can share their special knowledge on candidates, as local residents.
- ENC will contact each candidate to schedule an interview via Zoom. Candidates who do not complete an interview will not be considered for endorsement.
If you have any questions during this process, please feel free to reach out to pac@equalitync.org for more information.
Thank you again for your interest in this endorsement and for your commitment to LGBTQ+ equality in North Carolina!
A Note On Our Endorsement Process
In an effort to be as transparent as possible about our endorsement process, we are detailing the process below.
Beginning in January 2022, the ENC Civic Engagement team will make a series of announcements (via our newsletter, social media and website) inviting prospective candidates to submit an endorsement questionnaire. The ENC Civic Engagement team will also reach out to candidates directly, community members, partner organizations, and others to ensure we are reaching as many candidates as possible.
This year, we have five different questionnaires, based on the office sought: Federal, NCGA, Municipal, School Board, and Judicial. Candidates will select the appropriate questionnaires on our website.
Once the Endorsement Process opens, ENC will alert our membership about the start of the endorsement process in our monthly newsletter. We will also message about the opening of our endorsement process heavily through social media.
The questionnaire contains questions on LGBTQ+ issues as well as healthcare, public education, economic justice, preemption, gun violence prevention, immigration, democratic ideals, and policing. We understand that some organizations make their questionnaire responses public. Ours will not be made public.
After the questionnaire is submitted, the answers are evaluated by the ENC PAC, currently made up of people from across North Carolina. The PAC members represent many diverse communities including people of color, folks from various economic backgrounds, folks spanning an age range of 17 to 71, cisgender, non-binary and transgender people, and individuals identifying across the spectrum of LGBTQ+ identities.
Beginning in Mid-February, candidates will be invited to a 30 minute interview with members of the PAC, in order to better understand their policies and values. Candidates who do not complete an interview will not be considered for endorsement.
The PAC will meet twice per month, on video calls, to discuss each candidate. The PAC will vote to endorse or not endorse a candidate. Support for the LGBTQ+ community alone is not enough to guarantee Equality NC’s endorsement. Each race is decided on a case by case basis and the final decision is made by a majority vote of the PAC.
Candidates will be notified via email of the PAC decision. The ENC Communications Team rolls out endorsement decisions over social media and through email messaging to both press and our membership.
ENC’s Civic Engagement Team strategically works to help all of our endorsed candidates get elected by recruiting ENC volunteers to phone bank, canvas, register voters, and more.
It is important to Equality North Carolina that all candidates and the public know that we intend to work with all pro-equality endorsement applicants, whether or not we chose to endorse them. Equality North Carolina will always be a resource and support to any candidate looking to learn, grow, and make a positive impact for marginalized North Carolinians.