From Serial Productions in the New York Times, this is the Improvement Association.

Chapter 5. Democrat, Republican, White, Black Green. white black green. green. February 2020, Blading County, North Carolina.

There's a flurry of candidate signs stuck in the ground,

mostly Bloomberg and Buda Judge, which is odd.

They're not popular here. But no one cares about the presidential

primary much. The race that matters is the county commissioners race. The bleeding county board of Commissioners is the top governing body in Blayden.

Cogdill has been Commissioner for eight years, he's running for re-election,

and he's being challenged for his seat.

In fact, he's facing the exact scenario

that he and Horace are always warning about.

The main candidate challenging Cogdale is black

and there's another challenger in the primary who is white.

Having two black candidates run for the same seat here means they're in danger of

splitting the black vote between them and letting the white guy run up the middle. The black guy running

against Cogdale has been launched at him like a grenade by none other than

Minnie Price, former treasurer of the Pack, who recently quit in

frustration about how a Horace and Cogdale were behaving as leaders of the group.

It's Minnie's nephew running against Cogdale.

His name is Mark Gillespie.

I found out pretty quickly, this election is high drama and high stakes.

Because a win for Mark Gillespie and a loss for Cogdale would be a very public blow and a signal that the pack's power is in decline.

It's early, but the tents are up, the campaign workers are out.

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