This week, Left of Old North teams up with The Foxfire Dispatch for a special crossover episode! We’re joined by Liz Purvis, organizer, activist, and host of The Foxfire Dispatch, for a deep dive into the epic wins from this year’s elections — in North Carolina and across the country.

From local races that flipped seats in tough districts to national victories for progressives, we break down what went right, what it says about the momentum building, and how grassroots organizing turned frustration into power. If you needed proof that people power still works — this is it.

In this episode, we sit down with Texas State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, one of the Democrats who fled the Lone Star State to break quorum and stop an outrageous GOP gerrymander that would have handed Republicans five extra congressional seats.

Rep. Martinez Fischer takes us inside the fight: from Governor Greg Abbott’s threats of fines and arrests, to a bomb threat in Illinois that forced Democrats to evacuate, to California’s bold counter-move to redraw its own maps in response. We talk about what it’s like to literally leave home for democracy, the national stakes of redistricting, and why he believes Democrats must be willing to fight fire with fire.

In this episode, CJ sits down with State Representative Rodney Pierce (HD-27) for a wide-ranging conversation about what it means to represent eastern North Carolina, from the fight for rural investment to defending democracy in the face of right-wing overreach.

Rep. Pierce shares his journey into politics, the issues that matter most to his district, and how Democrats can reconnect with working-class voters across the 252. We talk education, healthcare, housing, and the urgency of standing strong in a statehouse that too often ignores rural voices.

This one’s for anyone who believes North Carolina’s future includes all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected in Raleigh.