3 Ways to Make a Powerful Impact

February 10, 2026

What if the power you’re looking for isn’t hidden in Washington—but already in your hands?

In this episode of We The People Rise, Kristin Hiemstra sits down with North Carolina State Senator Graig Meyer for an unfiltered conversation about what real power looks like in a democracy—and how everyday citizens can actually use it.

From elections to advocacy, from community care to system change, Graig breaks down where power really lives, why so many people feel powerless right now, and the concrete ways you can plug in—even when it’s not election season. This isn’t theory. It’s a practical roadmap for becoming an informed, engaged, and effective citizen at the local, state, and national level.

Together, they explore:

How citizens influence government between elections
Why service and care are political acts
How accountability actually works in a democracy
When to work inside systems—and when to push from the outside
What it takes to turn concern into meaningful action

This episode is for anyone who feels frustrated, disconnected, or overwhelmed by the political landscape—but still believes in the promise of civic power.

Because democracy doesn’t run on apathy.
It runs on people who choose to show up.

This is how We The People Rise.

Episode Transcript

welcome to we the people rise
today we are talking to state senator from north carolina
greg mayer now
greg has this incredible background
and he's gonna be talking to us about how to become empowered citizens
how to take the power that we have
as individuals who live in the united states
and have influence both at the local
the state and the national level
i met greg through the education
when i worked for the high school system in chapel hill
greg you were there as well
do you want to tell us a little bit about your background
yeah when you were working as a counselor
i was working in college access for the same school district
so we had a lot of students that overlapped
between your counseling and my mentoring
trying to help kids mostly kids who'd be first in their family
or first generation to go to college and uh
as much as i think the work that i do today is important
i miss working directly with those kids
there's nothing better than working with them every day
it's so fun and that's
in part of what we're talking about with helping people rise
helping ourselves rise helping other people rise
it's giving them access it's giving them opportunity
doesn't mean you're gonna do the work for them
but giving them the opportunity to go forward and to create
you know the american dream
if you will that's right
i mean i think that's the through line in my life
is that my life has always been about
using whatever access that i have to power
to give people access to the opportunities that they want
and so
part of that was about giving people the opportunity to go to college
and now it's about all kinds of other opportunities
that you depend on the government to be able to give you
you need a government that uses the power that the government has
to help you your family
your community have the opportunities that you want
don't guarantee anything to people
but you try and make sure they have the chance
right and
and give them access so i know
and this is a perfect segue into this
a lot of people right now are feeling incredibly powerless
with the political landscape the way that it is
where does the power actually live in a democracy
the government of course
always has power in a democracy
when the government is vested with the power by the people
and so people have the ability to change the power of the government
through the process of elections
but elections don't happen every day
government does happen every day
and so i think that's why people feel powerless
is you have a situation where at
at the federal and state level in north carolina
you have a government that is very aggressive um
in certain ways that many of us
me included
feel like is taking away opportunities and freedoms from people
and for many of us in our lifetime is
is the most restrictive you know
aggressive authoritarian government that we've experienced
and when we don't have an immediate election
our ability to exercise our power to change that government
we have to wait until the next election
i understand why people feel powerless
but it's also a little bit faulty to think about elections
there's only one point in time
because everything that's happening right now
from the public discourse to the organizing um
all of those things are related to preparing for the
twenty twenty six midterm elections
and there's ways for people to be involved if
you know if you feel like i want to do something great
we need you to do something now
alright so that's perfect
what can people do like
what would be something if you were a person that you're watching this
you're very frustrated maybe with your own state
maybe you're in the state of north carolina uh
or maybe it's just a a national issue for you
how do you plug in when it's a non election time
and start to feel like you have some power in this
or exercise your power as a citizen
i i would say there's three ways
like i would say number one
like i think you there's power in being an informed citizen
and if someone is watching or listening to this podcast
then they are an informed citizen
but you have to abuse yourself
your sense of being informed
what is it that you know to engage in the public discourse
and public discourse is not just agreeing with people
who already believe the same things that you believe
and we're in big silos these days
especially online
where we're only talking to people that agree with us
public discourse is engaging on the broader discourse of
what are we thinking collectively right now
and so whether that is through social media
personal media family connections
like using your sense of being informed
to engage and influence that discourse
is an inherently political act
in a democracy if you're not in a democracy
you don't have that power
but here you do
second thing i would say is
i think
for people who feel like the government is threatening right now
like it's authoritarian like it's cruel
i think it's important to remember that
when you feel like your government
is harming people that you care about
that's showing those people acts of care is an act of resistance
and so
if you're concerned right now about how the government is treating
say transgender people
then figuring out ways to be active and caring for
and advocating for those people
if you're worried about the way the government
is making life harder on poor people
then volunteering through a local community program like porch
that feeds uh
hungry families here in in our community
actually the porches in fourteen states now
so all over wherever you are
like you've been working with them to try and take care of people
that act of direct care is a political act
when it is an act that is countering harm done by the government
and then third you can be engaged in the political process
and i think you can do that by participating with the political party
if that's what you choose
and so for instance
the democratic party is organizing for the twenty
twenty six midterm elections already
you can be engaged in that organizing
or you can engage in the political process
through any number of advocacy organizations that work on issues
so maybe you say i'm not a party person
but i really care about an issue
so for instance
maybe i care about teachers
maybe i care about veterans
maybe i care about women's reproductive health
there are advocacy organizations that organize politically
around every issue you can imagine
and they depend on volunteers and donors that are people like you
in order to do anything so they would be glad to have you
i love those ways and it gets you engaged
it's something that you value right
so you're gonna be the most effective citizen
when you plug into what's important to you
and like you said it might be women's reproductive rights
it might be transgender rights
it might be education whatever it is
you're gonna be most powerful
and have the most energy sustained energy
when you resonate with whatever it is
doesn't matter what it is
to keep going to keep showing up
to get past any fears you have to reach out
to do those things that are necessary for you to be bringing
you know a difference into that environment
i mean we know that people with a purpose driven life
usually find that purpose
in some way that's related to service to others
or service to the larger environment around them
and that's what this is this is deciding
what is the purpose that i wanna play at this point in time
with my life my skills etcetera
and plugging in rather than withdrawing
withdrawing because it's a very difficult time in the world
and it's scary to you
is not a way that you're actually gonna change anything
plugging in is
so one of the things that has become clear as uh
we've seen our understanding of government shifting
is that the systems that were in place to hold people accountable
and to uphold some of the tenants
we always assumed would be untouchable
we've seen some of those systems eroding on a national level
and to your point on a state level as well
the systems are responsible for a lot of the way that things are
right now just the systems as they're constructed
so in your opinion
if somebody wants to start shifting the entire system
how would they go about that
well i think that there's two pieces that you hit on there
kristen like
there is a piece about accountability
and accountability cascades right
so like
if the public is holding me accountable as a state senator
then i am more likely to use my power
to hold the other pieces of the government accountable
for the things that people are holding me accountable for
and so that cascading effect of building momentum
and channeling it into the people that have the actual power
for accountability
is one important way that we change the system in the united states
it's that sense of power never seeds without a demand
right so what is the demand of the people
how are they organizing to make that demand on people like me
who have power
but the second way that you can build a different system
is to engage with organizations and opportunities
that are system building i think that it is i
i am an institutionalist like
i believe that the best way to do that
is to engage with the systems that exist
like our political system
our two party system and to try and make the democratic party
the one that i serve in better at changing the system
and to try and serve in the general assembly
in a way that will work to improve the system
there are other people who i completely understand and love
take more of an outsider approach
that they want to
work with organizations that are trying to build new systems
new cultures i think that
that those are important and often what happens is
those people that are building on the outside
when they gain enough power attraction
popularity whatever it is
they impact those of us who are on the inside
and we're able to do our jobs better
and we need to have a good relationship between both strategies
i love that you said that
and this is a aside but my father was a minister in durham
at a church called westminster presbyterian church
and there was a guy there named haywood holderness
and haywood was a very powerful member in the community of durham
and people often asked him hey
why don't you run for office
because he was very tied in
and he said
cause i have more power as a citizen than i would as a representative
and i always felt that that was such an interesting answer
cause it always seemed to me like
you know you being the state senator would have way more power than
you know somebody like me who's not in the system
but i like how you said like
those people coming in and they're impacting what you do
yeah i mean
i think that depends on who you are right
so yeah fair
i know i know
i knew haywood i think like
he was a good example because he had a huge number of relationships
and understood the complexity of many issues
that impact people in the community
his power was the ability to communicate to multiple elected officials
at the federal state and local level
if he was entering into only one of those levels
he would be narrowing himself
to a way of only impacting what that one specific elected body does
whereas he could impact a broad array of things that you
you're like you're right
you
you can't replace that power when you choose to narrow in on one thing
on the other hand he doesn't have a vote in the state senate
and i do and there's only fifty of us
and so even though i lose a lot of votes
cause i'm in the minority party
i would never say i don't have access to power
because i have a vote
that represents two hundred and twenty thousand people
that none of those other people have
absolutely well
i'm gonna get back to him
because i feel like a lot of people aren't gonna be running for office
but they are gonna want to have impact
and so using him or whoever else this is
not just him but who are the people that you've witnessed
who have made a difference
who are on the outside and how did they do it
i can give you lots of examples of that
but i don't want to skip over running for office
yeah fair because
well we can talk about that
cause that's a whole conversation
so let's just jump into that
well i mean
i just want to say it briefly
like one of the things that i've learned
and i think you know this because you knew me personally
you knew me as a young social worker in the school system
way before i was in the general assembly
like our elected bodies are just made up of regular people
who get elevated to a new position
right and one of my favorite comments
that one of my colleagues said in the nc house one time is
he said i used to think there were a lot of smart people
who came down here and made these big decisions
and it turns out it's just us right
he was right and so
oh yeah
like we need good people to step up and run for office
we can't have good government without it
and the number of people who say oh
i could never do that or i'm not the right person
or it's not the right time
and take themselves out of consideration
when we need them in political service
like this is a time where people should consider
you know what can they do and what should they do
so i don't wanna discount that
that said i think even if you think
maybe i wanna do that or i don't wanna do that
you still have to think about
what difference do you make in your community
because if you're gonna run for office or you're not
like your
your ability to make an impact
whether to demonstrate that you're qualified for office
or just to make an impact
depends on how you engage in your community
and i think it's a my
probably my favorite part of my job in the legislature
is the community work that i get to do
it feels like an extension of my social work service
of like
who are all these organizations people individuals
communities
sub communities within my district where people make a difference
and i love to ask people a question
when i'm meeting them for the first time of like
what do you do for your community
what do you do to make your community better
almost everyone has an answer to that
it can be coaching little league baseball
it can be the leadership work they do in their church
that's what it takes to build a social fabric
but where i think people don't have an answer
is when they're disconnected from other organizations or other people
if you're not plugged into some type of organization
where you're connecting with other people
collaborating to make a difference
whether it's as a volunteer or as a member or whatever it is
then
you're just much less likely to have the ability to make a difference
now
once you're in that position and you wanna be somebody like haywood
i think then there's an important set of steps
of how do you learn to take this issue that you care about
where you may be providing direct support to people
and advocate for those people and other people like them
by connecting to elected officials like me
and that takes some learning
like how do you have impact
and on people who are in elected office
and who can do something for you and your community
absolutely and i would say to those who want to either run for office
or have impact to have a lot of grace for yourself because
and you know this from your personal life
as well as from working with young people
you're gonna make a lot of mistakes
you're gonna screw up a lot
you're gonna feel deflated at times but
and you're gonna be embarrassed
and you're gonna have all these like
little tiny fears that get in the way
but you have to kind of keep going and keep moving
hey would
the reason i bring him up is his nickname was hey
would you give me some money
that's what they nicknamed him as
because he was this incredible fundraiser
and he really felt that if you had resources
it was your responsibility to give them to some part of the community
and this particular church
it was a very mission driven church westminster
but he was on the phone all the time he
and it's interesting you know him
cause i didn't know you knew him
how did you know him i mean
i think when i first got in the legislature
and i was representing durham
he was still a very active community volunteer
so just the type of person everybody knows right
so he was out of his comfort zone all the time
or in his comfort zone he was a social guy
but if you're looking to recreate or to have this kind of power
getting involved going and meeting people
having lunch with people having conversations with people
that's gonna help build your social cache
so that you can then be empowered to call greg and be like
hey greg
i have this thing i wanna talk to you about
and he might actually take your call
whereas before if he didn't know you
i would imagine
you get a lot of people who want your time and your input
like me you know
yeah i mean i
i think that's right like
i think he's the type of person who's a super connector
right and there are lots of people who are great connectors
and you can use that skill
to be able to build political power and opportunity
if you're not a connector
maybe you hear that story and you're like
that's not me i'm an introvert
and i'm not that type of person
there's still ways that you can speak up for and advocate for people
i mean there are all the traditional ways of call your representative
write your representative
but one of the things that i tell advocates as a rule of thumb is
think about the level of impact that you have on me
is directly related to the amount of my time that you get
so if your name shows up on a petition
you are getting a minuscule amount of my time
i may not even notice that your name is on my petition
i may not even see the petition
it might my staff might see it
right etcetera right
if you come to my office at
at the general assembly
the most you're gonna get is a fifteen minute meeting
that's my day is in fifteen minute increments
if you get more than that
it is a slow day or you are incredibly lucky
or you're a really good friend or something
but usually you're gonna get a fifteen minute meeting
and sometimes when you arrive
my assistant might tell you he's only gonna have five minutes
but if you are in a let's say you're with a community organization
that you want something from the state of north carolina
you're advocating for something
and you schedule a meeting for me to come and visit your organization
and meet the people that you work with
and see your facility and talk with you in depth
and you get an hour on my schedule
well then
obviously
you have a much bigger impact on what i'm doing as a legislator
than that fifteen minute meeting
or that a one minute email that i read
right because you get an hour of my time
you get my thinking you get an emotional connection
and all of those things are going to have a bigger impact
on what i go back and do as long as you do one thing
which sometimes people fail to do
which haywood was good at
which you have to ask me for something
ah yes right
cause sometimes people come to my office and they're like hey
we're here for the society for cute puppy dogs
and we just want to know do you support cute puppy dogs
and i'm like yeah sure
i love cute puppy dogs that's great
and then they walk out of the office
and they haven't gotten anything from me
besides making them feel good
because
they didn't actually ask me to do something for cute puppy dogs
what is it that you want what's the legislation that you want
what's the appropriation that you want
what is it that you need access to in state government
that will help cute puppy dogs
you have to give me something concrete to act on
otherwise
all you got was a nice pat on the back and a smile and a photo
that is such great advice
and i wanna take this in two directions
one i wanna talk about money
but before i talk about money
i wanna talk about what people can do
like how do they find out what appropriations they
what legislation they need and all of that
and i want to tell a quick story
so when i was a counselor
i had a student
she was sixteen or seventeen years old when she did this
but she managed to get some small piece of legislation
through the state legislature
for something that she wanted
and obviously she worked through the state representative
but that to me i knew this
cause that was part of her narrative right
but that to me it never even dawned on me
and i'm like you know twice
three times her age going wow
that's a little empowering
so how would this person
if they have an idea that they think would be good
or would like to discuss how do they make that happen
so i mean
you can always just reach out to your representatives
at whatever level they are
and try and have a persuasive conversation with them
those stories of an individual person with an individual cause
that turns into a law or an appropriation or something
are amazing but they're also pretty rare
like that's not the way most business gets done
the way most business gets done in a state legislature
in the congress etcetera
is through associations
okay and so if
if you have an issue that you care about
you want a change related to that
who are the association of people that work on that issue
mm hmm so if it's
let's say it's hunger yep
and then you wanna know
what are the advocacy organizations that do work at the legislature
where they advocate around hunger homelessness
you know uh
food insecurity etcetera
and you may find that there are some
some organizations that are really easy to plug into
like you may find that you're able to see oh
here's this community organization
and i can just connect with them
and then they're part of a larger organization
of other groups that are like them
or you may find that you have unlikely allies
um so
for instance on food insecurity
an unlikely ally at the north carolina general assembly
has been the association of gas stations
because some of the legislation that we've done
to try and make sure that there's more healthy access to food
in more places has gone through gas stations
because they all sell food
and there's so many of them
and so if you don't have a supermarket with healthy food
can you get more healthy food into the gas stations
so you know
you have to figure out like who
who is it that i can connect with that i can work with
now you're not gonna walk into your local gas station
but if you're working with a hunger organization
and they may be working with allies
and then
you may be able to build these bigger and bigger relationships
all of which then impact what people like me work on
so if somebody has an idea
they would send it to your office and it would go to your staff
right yeah
let's be clear my office is me and one staff person
so yeah
like i'm
i'm gonna read your email
we we will both read your email
yeah okay
so then you can follow up with the phone call
or you can follow up with whatever
and depending on where you are
and that's a lot of emails you have to respond to
that's all i'm gonna say that's the job
yes it is
i know that
a lot of people feel like politicians only respond to money
and we've seen evidence of that
of if you're not giving to the campaign
if you're not creating an opportunity for the politician
if they're not going to be able to get some type of fiscal gain
then your position on their totem pole of importance is very low
can you speak to that i mean
that's true for some crappy politicians sure
like i've
i've heard politicians say that to me
like if that's the way you're motivated
you're a really bad public servant
but i think the part of your question is
what do you
how can you make a difference if you're not a political donor
you just care about an issue really deeply
and again i mean
i would say like
this is where it benefits you to plug into
organizations that
maybe do have the ability to exercise political power
whether it's through donations or otherwise
right because
there are lots of organizations
that do advocacy at the general assembly
that maybe also have a political action committee
a pac that makes donations
if to the extent that that's important
and we'll acknowledge that sometimes it is
yeah or there's other ways to support people politically
if you have something that you really care about
and you have a champion a legislator
a city council member whoever it is
who's gonna help you with moving that issue
then it really it probably will make a difference
if you also organized a volunteer for their campaign
or you get other people to support their campaign
or you host a meet and greet for them
like
those are ways that you can really make people feel indebted to you
because you did something to help them where they needed help
and they'll help you with what you need
like i
i think that money definitely corrupts the process
but it's also important to recognize that reciprocity is real
in human relationships and so if i feel like
oh my gosh
that person went out of their way to help me
then i'm more likely to do the same for you
yeah and it's a catch twenty two
because you need money to continue to campaign and to do what you do
and there is a reciprocity
so it's like we've seen kind of
on a national level if
you know elon musk is giving
you know lots of money
he's getting lots of contracts for it
there's a reciprocity attached to it
which feels very corrupt and it feels very icky
but yet it also is part of the system that we
you know haven't fully figured out
and then the whole dark money thing
like you know
who's now owed favors that nobody knows about
right
well somebody knows about but the public
that's the issue with dark money is the people who need to know
know and the public doesn't
right no
that that's very well said
alright are there any last suggestions you would have
for people who are really trying to make a difference
in their local in their state
in their national level
i would say the one suggestion that may feel kind of basic
but i end up giving people a lot
is make sure in your advocacy
that you know what each body and level of government does
and which group you need to go to
right so like
there are people who approach me
that they want help with something that is a judicial matter
and i'm in the legislative branch
not the judicial i can't help them with that
or they have something that they want that really
the county commissioners control
not the state legislature
and so it's easy for me
i can very politely redirect them where they need to go
but for you to be an effective advocate
you need to know the way the system works
who has power over the thing you want
and what are the mechanisms that they have
for you to directly engage them
cause engaging the county commissioners
is very different than engaging state legislature
so how do you do that
what are the opportunities that they present to you
and how do you make your voice heard in that setting
i love that piece of advice
i'm also trying to figure out if there is like a place people can go
like is there one place people can go
like i'm having an issue with x
y and z
who should i go to in my community to deal with this
i don't know that there's a one stop shop for that kristen
that's a good question yeah
i mean again like if you're connected on an issue you care about
and you're with an organization that works on that issue
the organization will likely know
they will yeah
totally know because they're already in it
but yeah if you're like
you know just walking down the street and you're like oh
here's the thing who do i talk to
i guess you'll have to kind of dig around and find out
cause it could be the town manager like you said
or the county commissioner
or ask your super connector friends
like hey would like
this is what i'm thinking about
who do you know who
who would be interested in this
and they'll tell you who to go to
oh he would have
alright well
thank you so much greg
and if people want to donate to you or they want to find you
how do they reach out to you
yeah well
thank you for that opportunity
um i'm on all social media
and it's pretty easy to find my official and my campaign stuff
just by looking for my name
you just have to spell it the way my mother did
g r a i g m e y e r
so it's like craig with a g in the front
m e y e r for meyer
the way that most people engage with me these days is that uh
every sunday i publish um
a pretty lengthy take on what's happening in the world on substack
uh my
my campaign email and facebook
and so you can find me on any of those
and find what i'm thinking each week there
uh
and if you're interested in talking to me about legislative business
just reach out through my legislative office
and we'd be happy to talk to you
about whatever issue it is that you care about
all right thank you
thanks kristen
i appreciate the chance to talk with folks
thanks for having me on yeah
thank you for being on
all right people
there you go
there is your information on how to be a more empowered citizen
both at the state and local and national level

3 Ways to Make a Powerful Impact

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