VIDEO: Rep. Don Davis Reflects on 109-Year-Old NC Voter Cassie Smith

By Billy Ball

March 15, 2024

With the State of the Union address tonight, Rep. Don Davis (D-NC) took a moment to talk about his special guest for the event — 109-year-old Cassie Smith of Battleboro, who Davis describes as a “living and walking symbol of our democracy.”

Smith was one of the first residents in the state to cast a vote during the early voting period of NC’s primary election.

In addition to Smith, other North Carolinians who will be attending the SOTU are:

📌 Durham gun violence prevention activist Lavern Lucier, whose son Syncere Burrell was murdered in 2020

📌 Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden

📌 Steven Hadfield, a Matthews man who has a rare blood cancer as well as Type 2 diabetes, and an advocate for capping Medicare out-of-pocket costs

📌 Kris Blackley, a nurse at Atrium Health Levine Cancer Center in Charlotte, invited by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden to highlight the president’s push to end cancer, the “Biden Cancer Moonshot

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Author

Billy Ball

Billy Ball is Cardinal & Pine's senior newsletter editor. He’s covered local, state, and national politics, government, education, criminal justice, the environment, and immigration in North Carolina for almost two decades. His reporting and commentary have earned state, regional, and national awards. He's also the founder of The Living South, a journalism project about the most interesting people in the American South.

Have a story tip? Reach Billy at [email protected]. For local reporting that connects the dots, from policy to people, sign up for Billy’s newsletter.

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CATEGORIES: VOTING

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