Sophia Tascone  

To many high school and college students in North Carolina, the realm of politics seems like a whole different world. Involvement seems inaccessible, like it belongs to someone else: “real” adults—those who are older or richer or more privileged—not students.  

Beck Whitehead was one such student. “One of my bigger regrets is that I wasn’t more involved in high school,” he told me in a Feb. 2026 interview. “I’m trying to get involved and stay as involved as I can and get others involved.” Now, Whitehead has served as President of the NC State University chapter of the College Democrats of North Carolina (CDNC) for about a year and will take over as President of the entire state organization for the 2026–2027 term. His Vice President, Joey Melone, is a freshman at UNC-Greensboro (UNCG) and has worked closely with their chapter of the CDNC. 

The CDNC is self-described as “the official collegiate arm” of the North Carolina Democratic Party (NCDP). Along with the Teenage and Young Democrats of North Carolina, it is one of the branches of the NCDP that is aimed at students. The CDNC consists of 19 colleges and universities across the state, which make up its chapters. Two of these are NC State, where Whitehead is President, and UNCG, where Melone serves as the lead contact. The CDNC encourages college student involvement in the Democratic Party and supports the election of Democratic officials. 

Whitehead and Melone are more than qualified to hold higher leadership positions in the CDNC. Despite regretting his lack of earlier involvement, Beck Whitehead has worked within NC State’s chapter of the CDNC since starting college. He helped get many aspects of this chapter organized and has worked events through the 2024 election and the 2026 primaries. Joey Melone has been involved in politics since he was 14, when he started working with the High School Democrats of America. From there, he moved to work with the Teenage and Young Democrats. He lobbied for the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 and has worked on more than 30 campaigns. 

Their drive for leadership comes from their own experiences working within the CDNC. “We think college students on college campuses are the future of the Democratic Party,” Whitehead said. “We’ve seen what students can do when they’re organized and supported and taken seriously.” Despite these observations, they “believe the potential of CDNC has not been reached yet.” 

A key aspect of Whitehead and Melone’s goals is their desire to reach this potential that they believe the CDNC has. To do this, they have developed a three-pronged plan: 

1. Communication and transparency, both internally and externally: On the internal level, chapter-to-chapter communication has not always been the best, and they want to ensure more streamlined, straightforward communication. On the external front, they want to increase their social media presence to promote student engagement and involvement. 

2. Teamwork and growth: They want to create better collaboration between the chapters that will allow them to work together to forward the organization’s goals. They also want to expand the chapters and create new ones, with a specific goal of starting a chapter in each of the 16 UNC system schools. They plan to work with high schools and the Teenage Democrats, something they feel the CDNC has overlooked so far. 

3. Becoming the powerhouse through the combination of the first two prongs: With statewide funding efforts, increased collaboration, and expansion of the organization, Whitehead and Melone “want to make the College Democrats of North Carolina the best and strongest youth artillery in the North Carolina Democratic Party.” 

They want to enact this plan using a bottom-up approach, beginning with a chapter audit. They want to build relationships with each of the chapters in the CDNC, learn what each one needs, and decide how they can best achieve their leadership plan under the current conditions of the organization.  

Although their experience, qualifications, and plans all suggest Whitehead and Melone’s success in these positions, one of the most endearing things about them is how much they truly seem to love doing this. To them, this is not merely something to add to their résumé or graduate school application. “Since I connected with Joey and we started this campaign, I have been the happiest I’ve been all semester,” Whitehead said.  

Not only do they both have strong desires to be involved, they also clearly want to get others involved too. They are aware of the lack of involvement among young people and have been planning how to combat that. “I’ve been reminded of how disconnected the political world is from the average student and the average person in general,” Whitehead said. “We want politics to be as accessible to students as possible,” Melone added. The CDNC and its chapters have organized “Walk to the Polls” events, meetings with candidates, and many more programs to encourage student involvement in the realm of politics.  

Despite the common feeling among students that politics is something separate from them, the CDNC is working to close that gap among North Carolina students. Its incoming President and Vice President will be no exception. With 19 existing CDNC chapters, and more to come, student involvement in the North Carolina Democratic Party is increasingly accessible, including for students at UNCG.