When you walk up the short flight of stairs into Kate Barr’s campaign headquarters in Davidson, N.C., you immediately notice a neon sign on the wall. When lit up, the sign reads, “LOSER.”
It’s a nod to a past campaign — a race she knew she wouldn’t win but entered, anyway.
As we sat down for a lengthy interview to discuss her latest bid for U.S. office, she asked, “Should we turn it on?”
Barr, 43, is not afraid to lose, as long as she’s making a point. And that is the motivation behind her current campaign, considered — generously — a long shot.
Barr is attempting to become the Republican candidate for Congress in North Carolina’s 14th district, a conservative stronghold. Barr is challenging the popular incumbent, Tim Moore, whom U.S. President Donald Trump has endorsed.
“I need to be fighting as hard as I possibly can to get to a place where I can be proud of this country, and this democracy — and feel good about where my kids are growing up.”
What makes Barr’s challenge unusual is that she is openly campaigning as a self-described “fake Republican.” She identifies as a progressive, has voted Democrat all her life and has even run for the party in the past.
But from her perspective, a Democrat could never win here in the general election. She blames gerrymandering, accusing Republican politicians of mapping out the district’s boundaries to include enough conservative communities to ensure a Republican win.
Barr thinks that is unfair and undemocratic. To make a point, she switched parties and is now attempting to become the Republican candidate. She calls it an “experiment.”
“We have talked a lot about needing to do things differently, and this is one way we can try something new,” she said.
“I think people like a fight.”
An uphill battle ahead
Barr is hoping to connect with Republicans and Independents frustrated with Trump — specifically voters who want their Congress member to act as a check on his power. (In North Carolina, partisan primaries are open to registered voters of the party, as well as unaffiliated voters.) She’s also promising to work to reduce income taxes, hoping that may resonate with some traditional conservative voters.
But the odds are not in her favour. History has shown that it is incredibly difficult to unseat an incumbent, let alone through a protest-style campaign.
“Her probability of winning is low,” said Eric Heberlig, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
“But it’s a way of increasing public attention to the politics behind the election.”
So far the campaign is drawing a mix of praise, backlash and even some threats. Local Republicans are furious, questioning whether Barr’s campaign amounts to election fraud. Some Democrats are upset, too, fearing she will take support away from their party’s other candidates.
And after her story was featured on the right-leaning Fox News, she says she was inundated with online harassment.
“For sure, the death threats came in,” she said. They prompted her to get a new home security system. As a precaution, she said her two preteen children are now sleeping with her and her husband on their bedroom floor until the campaign is over, after the vote is held on March 3.
At a polling station in the city of Gastonia, a community of about 80,000 people, some voters CBC News spoke with were aware of Barr’s unusual bid for office.
“She’s been all over my Instagram feed,” said Natalie Glaus, a 42-year-old pediatric occupational therapist.
She gave a fist-pump, and said “yes” as she described her interest in Barr’s message.
“I’m kind of excited about it,” said Stephanie Angle, a 39-year-old health-care worker.
While she would not say whether she voted for Barr, or planned to, she appeared quite supportive.
“I understand why she’s doing what she’s doing, and I think it’s an interesting way to play the system,” she told CBC News outside a polling station at a local library.
Gerrymandering 101 for Canadians
A motivating factor driving Barr’s campaign is her frustration with gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is when a “state legislature is drawing district lines to favour one of the political parties,” said Heberlig, the professor.
“So they’ll draw lines in crazy ways that have nothing to do with county boundaries or city boundaries,” he says, in order to give an advantage to the party drawing up the maps.
It’s not a new practice, nor is it unique to North Carolina. And in the past, both U.S. parties have engaged in it.
Every 10 years, the U.S. Constitution requires a national census. Once there is a better understanding of population shifts, it is supposed to help determine whether existing districts need to be adjusted, or whether new ones need to be created. The decisions are determined by state-level lawmakers.
It has long been a challenge for voters to navigate in North Carolina, he said.
Both parties have been “willing to play dirty essentially, to maximize the chance of staying in power,” he said.
“I hate all of it,” Barr said, making it clear she believes it’s an unacceptable practice for either party to engage in.
“Politicians draw voting districts to ensure that they will keep their power,” she said.
“That’s like politicians choosing their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians.”
Accusation of election fraud
Meanwhile, local Republican party organizers in North Carolina say they’re deeply frustrated by Barr’s campaign. They accused her of trying to “cause problems” as well as “gain intelligence.”
Those allegations are according to Kyle Kirby, chair of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party. (The map outlining the 14th congressional district includes part of the county.)
“I think that it could very well count as election fraud,” he said, speaking about Barr’s run, during an interview at his office in Charlotte.
He also rejects her allegation that Republicans have made voting districts in the state unfair.
While in no way is he worried about Congressman Moore losing this challenge, he said his concern is about “copycats that start to do the same thing.”
He said he wants state lawmakers to look at ways to prevent more so-called “fake Republicans.”
“I would hope that the General Assembly would work together with legislators in order to try to build up a firewall against something like this happening again.”
Barr denied accusations of election fraud.
“I’m being honest about who I am and what I stand for,” she said.
“I have followed every law and every rule about what it takes to be on the ballot and the bar that you have to meet to run as a Republican.”
Mixed thoughts among progressives
Meanwhile, among progressive voters, there appears to be split sentiment on Barr’s campaign.
“I’m an unaffiliated voter and for the very first time in my life I’m going to be voting in the Republican primary so I can try to help her get on the ticket,” said Rebecca Miyares, a 55-year-old activist and editor.
What she likes about Barr is her willingness to try something different.
“We gotta get smarter,” she said.
Shawn Copeland, a 57-year-old lawyer, had a slightly different opinion. He happens to be friends with Barr, and likes her, but is still worried her campaign will draw support away from other Democratic candidates.
“I know that her intentions are good. I’m not sure that it would be my roadmap, though,” said Copeland, who’s from Davidson, a small town outside of Charlotte.
“As a registered Democrat, I’m not sure I’m completely on board with it.”
Barr understands she is facing an uphill battle. Still, she sees plenty of value in her “experiment.”
“I don’t want to encourage anyone to do this until we know if it works or not.”
Once the votes are counted, she and her team will pull data, illustrating her campaign’s impact.
“We look at how much money my opponent had to spend to run against me, how much time he spent in the district answering to voters,” she said.
“We’ll look at voter turnout to see if more voters turned out in the primary — those are the kinds of things that will inform whether this is a strategy that makes sense going forward.”
While her strategy may not send her to Washington this time, it’s this kind of data that could help her break her losing streak in the future.
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