Representative Kevin Crutchfield, a Republican from North Carolina’s 83rd District, strode to the back of the state legislature building, where four House pages — high school students who help out at the state legislature — were seated.
“What’s one thing you’ve learned in your first few days here?” he asked. A young lady immediately raised her hand: “Democrats and Republicans don’t hate each other as much as the media makes us believe,” she says.
Crutchfield agrees: “We’re respectful of each other here. Friendly.”
His Democratic colleague, Rep. Caleb Rudow (NC-116) explains: “Bipartisanship, unless it’s really big, doesn’t get covered by the media. It almost always happens behind doors, because it’s often about fragile relationships.”
Rudow and Crutchfield have been organizing bipartisan social events to create camaraderie: happy hours, a workshop by Braver Angels on Red-Blue cooperation, a sing-along on the steps of the legislature.
Rudow talks about these efforts on the campaign trail. “Even in rooms of Democrats, they want to hear about bipartisanship because we are all hungry for a way out of this mess,” he says.