Nathan Click remembers the moment he realized the game was rigged.
On the campaign trail in 2022, running for a seat in the U.S. House, Click walked into meeting after meeting with groups that claimed to stand for women’s rights, social justice, or the environment.
Yet the first question was always the same: How much money have you raised and how fast?
Nathan Click on the campaign trail when he was running for Congress in 2022.
Click didn’t have the kind of family or Rolodex that could produce a quarter million dollars overnight.
“I don’t know what kind of family you think I got,” he joked. But the laughter only sharpens his point: when access to capital becomes the deciding factor of a candidate’s viability, politics stops being about merit, intellect, or competence.
For communities of color, who statistically carry only a fraction of the wealth of their white counterparts, the barrier is systemic. “Our entire political construct is based on white supremacy,” Click says plainly.
That realization became the seed of the People’s Empowerment PAC, a political action committee designed not around billionaire donors or elite gatekeepers, but around everyday people. “We got tired of waiting to be invited to the table,” Click says. “So, we built our own.”
Building the Plane While Flying It
Click’s background, holding both an MBA and a doctorate in business, combined with business savvy and a taste for community organizing, shaped the PAC’s unconventional structure. Instead of asking for big checks, the organization created a membership model, more like a fraternity, sorority, or social club.
Members pay dues (cheaper than a Netflix subscription) and, in return, receive perks: discounts on hotels, access to a political education platform, and the knowledge that their small-dollar contributions are fueling something bigger.
“Whoever’s cutting the checks is in charge,” Click explains.
“We want the people cutting the checks to be regular people.”
It’s a strategy designed to flip the traditional script. Instead of chasing the money, which is a ruthless fundraising race that often defines who looks like a winner, Click wants to empower Black and Brown voters to set the terms of political power.
“There’s more money at the bottom than at the top,” he insists. “And there’s more power there, too.”
From Defense to Offense
Click isn’t shy about naming the forces he sees arrayed against marginalized communities. In the book he’s writing, he calls it the “two-headed monster”: white supremacy and capitalist corruption. But his focus is on solutions.
“We’ve been playing defense as long as I can remember,” he says. “The best defense is a solid offense. It’s time we stand up together and do that.”
That offense is rooted in clarity.
Click wants to strip politics of its jargon and elitism, writing in plain talk the way Thomas Paine once did in Common Sense. “Vocabulary shouldn’t be a barrier to education,” he argues.
“We’re just gonna use regular words. Lots of ain’ts and y’alls.”
The People’s Face
Though Click resists the idea of becoming a personality-driven leader, he’s pragmatic about human psychology.
“People call it Nate’s PAC,” he laughs. “But it’s the people’s group. Nathan is just one of the people.”
Still, charisma has a way of finding a spotlight. Click has been the public face of the PAC since its launch, even as he recruits influencers, activists, and business leaders to join advisory boards and bring their followings into the fold.
His vision isn’t about one man. For him, it’s about building a collective. He’s talking about churches, clubs, crews, nonprofit leaders, and elected officials moving together, with one voice.
A Table of Their Own
At a Juneteenth event in Rocky Mount, the PAC formally introduced itself.
The room was filled with a list of well-known politicians: North Carolina Senate Minority Leader Sidney Batch, former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Mike Morgan, Second Vice Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party Dr. Kimberly Hardy, and North Carolina House Democratic Leader Robert Reives.
The message was simple: this is who we are, and this is what we’re about.
Click told the crowd what he’s been repeating ever since: Black and Brown communities don’t need to beg for a seat at anyone else’s table. “It’s our table,” he says.
“They can have a seat at it. But it’s ours.”
Nathan Click’s campaign materials from 2022.
In that statement lies the DNA of the People’s Empowerment PAC. It’s radical and urgent at the same time.
Empowerment means shifting from asking what politics will do for us to claiming the power to do it for ourselves.