Road Trip Chronicles: MDC at EARNCon 2025

In mid-November, three members of MDC’s Economic Security and Mobility team headed to New Orleans for the Economic Policy Institute’s annual gathering of the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN). For three days, fellow policy advocates, researchers, and organizers from across the country came together to wrestle with a shared challenge: how do we build an economy where people, especially those who are most separated from opportunity, can lead meaningful, self-determined lives with dignity, have the power, resilience, and desire to shape their communities’ future political and economic direction?  

If that sounds familiar, it’s because that question sits at the heart of MDC’s work in the South and runs through our 2025 State of the South report.   

The overarching theme of the conference was the critical need to reframe dominant economic narratives and build power in a challenging political landscape. Our team found the conference highly valuable for strengthening our relationships and partnerships to help shape our messaging, research, and policy campaigns  in the months ahead.  Perhaps most affirming was the shared value of the attendees in a commitment to racial equity and inclusive economic policy as the only path to broad, sustainable prosperity.   

The Big Takeaway: Reframing the Economic Conversation  

One of the strongest through-lines at EARNCon reinforced something that is foundational to MDC’s work: Narrative change is economic work!   

The stories in our collective heads shape the policies that keep too many people in economic precarity. Nowhere is this clearer than in the prevailing “pro-business” narrative. For decades, well-funded interests have told us that what’s good for corporations will eventually be good for everyone else. In the South, we see the real-world consequences of this type of messaging: workers juggling multiple jobs with no stability, families one unexpected bill away from eviction, communities treated as expendable and interchangeable.  

During the conference, Topos Partnership shared a framework that mirrors and strengthens how MDC talk about economic security and mobility. It calls us to move from a reactive stance (“unrigging the economy”) to a proactive, values-based narrative built on three core elements:  

• People Drive the Economy: Prosperity doesn’t start in corporate boardrooms; it starts with people – their work, spending, caregiving, and creativity. At MDC, our programs have shown that when Southern families thrive, the South’s economy thrives.   
• Inclusive Economies are Smart Economies:  Equity isn’t a “nice to have”; it’s a competitive advantage. When we sideline Black, Brown, rural, immigrant, and low-wealth communities, we’re playing with only part of the team. The South’s future depends on fully drawing on the talents of all Southerners, and not just the lucky few.  
• We Need Government Guardrails: Most businesses try to do right by their workers and communities. But the dominant story in our heads says a “good” business is one that cuts costs, maximizes profit, and treats workers as budget line items to be minimized. Without strong rules, that story can pull even well-intentioned employers toward practices that hurt people. Guardrails like wage laws, safety standards, fair scheduling, and strong enforcement reset the script so doing right by workers is the norm, not the exception. That is why MDC advocates for policies that emphasize tax credits, worker protections, and public investments that stabilize families and communities and why we facilitate and support coalitions that defend and expand these guardrails.   

This narrative work is about strategic communication. It shapes how we design and advance our work on tax credits, student debt, workforce policy, and disaster recovery and the broader systems that determine whether Southern families can thrive.  

What other states are showing us—and what it means for the South 

EARNCon also lifted up concrete examples of how this narrative framework can win real campaigns—examples that sparked ideas for how MDC and our partners can adapt similar strategies in Southern contexts. 

• In Washington State, advocates split the “business community” by drawing a clear line between massive corporations and small, local employers. That opened the door to progressive revenue policies that fund community needs—similar to how we’re thinking about framing state and local revenue in our tax justice work in North Carolina. 

• In Colorado, a campaign to repeal a “right-to-work” law avoided getting lost in technical debates about union dues. Instead, it centered:  

• • Worker freedom: the freedom to negotiate for better pay and safer conditions.  

• • Safety: unions giving nurses and construction workers the power to speak up about dangerous situations.  

• • Local economic benefits: higher union wages cycling back into local businesses and neighborhoods.  

• In Pennsylvania, labor and environmental groups are organizing for a “New Deal” that ties climate investments to strong labor standards and community benefits—echoing conversations we’re having with Southern partners about how to connect job quality, climate resilience, and place-based investments. 

• In New Jersey, organizations are using energy affordability as a unifying issue, linking high utility costs and the need for more affordable renewable energy to corporate accountability—offering useful lessons for Southern communities navigating energy burden, rising costs, and aging infrastructure. 

Many of these examples come from states with more progressive political climates, but they still have lessons for us. The South’s challenge, as we name in State of the South, is operating in a context where: 

• Federal protections are weakening or under threat. 

• Preemption is used to block local innovation. 

• Residents are made more economically vulnerable, and public dollars are drained away from services and supports families need. 

For MDC, the takeaway is clear: we need to keep designing and championing state and local revenue strategies, including fair taxation of wealth and high incomes, to refill and stabilize public coffers. That’s how Southern states can sustain income supports, public services, and community investments—even as federal social programs face cuts or political attack. This aligns directly with our work alongside our North Carolina Tax Coalition partners, as we continue to think about the design and advocate for strategies and community investments families need to thrive.  

MDC’s travel is never just about being “on the road.” EARNCon was another opportunity to carry the experiences of Southern workers, families, and communities into national strategy spaces—and to bring back tools, allies, and ideas that make our work in the South stronger. This is why we are so glad that funders provide the resources and space to advance our thinking, expand our partnerships, and apply a Southern lens to the dynamic work happening across the country.  

Every conversation in New Orleans connected back to what we are already doing at MDC: shifting narratives, building coalitions, advancing policy, and insisting that the South’s future is not predetermined. It is being written, right now, by people who believe that meaning, dignity, and community should be non-negotiable for every Southerner.