Three North Carolina counties conducted primary elections in their off-year municipal elections on Tuesday.
As expected, turnout was low across the board, but a few surprises emerged as well.
Mecklenburg County
Charlotte was the main stage for municipal partisan primary elections this year.
The results were mostly as expected, but a few upsets occurred.
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Democratic Mayor Vi Lyles won her party’s nomination easily, with 71% of the vote to second-place finished Brendan Maginnis’ 12%. Three other contenders — Jaruan “Gemini” Boyd, Tigress McDaniel and Delter Guin III — divided the rest of the votes.
Maginnis knew he faced an uphill battle against Lyles, but thought she might be beatable, especially in light of Charlotte making national headlines for a recent stabbing on its public transit system.
A week before the election, Maginnis earned the endorsement of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police — one of few endorsements in the primary election — for his detailed, $40 million public safety plan.
Lyles doesn’t always show up, and her statements after the high-profile murder have been delayed, “weak and insufficient,” Maginnis said. He’s concerned that with her at the helm, the Trump administration may look to bring the National Guard to Charlotte next.
“They’re going to look for weak spots,” he said. “They’re going to look for cities that have weak leaders.”
Maginnis said local media did not adequately cover the race and the alternative options to Lyles, which hurt his odds.
Maginnis sees Lyles as a passive leader who doesn’t always show up; before the primary he said Charlotte needed some new ideas.
Lyles will face a Republican and Libertarian general election opponent in November, but is not expected to face a significant hurdle to re-election.
Several Charlotte City Council seats were also up for grabs.
Incumbent council members easily earned their party’s nomination in District 1, where Democrat Dante Anderson defeated Charlene Henderson El; District 4, where Democrat Renee Johnson beat challenger Wil Russell; and in the at-large contest, where the four incumbent councilmembers — Dimple Ajmera, LaWana Slack-Mayfield, James Mitchell Jr. and Victoria Watlington — solidified their support heading into the general election.
Political newcomer Namrata Yadav placed a distant fifth in the at-large contest. She wasn’t surprised at the results, she told CPP on Wednesday.
New candidates like her had only about six weeks to get their name out there, which was a “Herculean uphill battle” to overcome.
While Yadav hasn’t decided whether she will run for office again, she plans to keep holding elected officials accountable by reporting who is and isn’t showing up to meetings, she said.
In District 6, Republican Krista Bohkari handily defeated Sary Chakra with 76% of the vote. While Bokhari is not an incumbent, her husband previously held the seat before leaving to serve in the Trump administration.
Bokhari will face Democrat Kimberly Owens in the general election. Political watchers consider it to be the only competitive council race in Charlotte this November.
Two incumbent City Council members fell short of winning in Tuesday night’s municipal primaries.
In District 3, Joi Mayo bested incumbent Democrat Tiawana Brown with 49% of the vote to Brown’s 25%. In May, Brown was indicted in federal district court for attempting to defraud the government of more than $124,000 in COVID relief money for personal use.
In response, the Black Political Caucus endorsed Mayo over Brown. Its endorsement holds weight in the low-turnout primary elections where local Democratic parties do not comment.
The BPC’s endorsed candidates all won, except in the District 5 race between incumbent Democrat Marjorie Molina and challenger Juan Diego Mazuera Arias.
Mazuera Arias earned 50.31% of the vote to Molina’s 49.69% in election night counts. However, provisional ballots and outstanding absentee ballots could change the outcome. If the 33-vote difference between the two candidates stands, Molina would have the right to call for a recount.
Mazuera Arias, at 27, is the youngest candidate in any of Charlotte’s primary contests. He sees the primary election as a decision between the status quo and bringing new faces into Charlotte politics.
He told Carolina Public Press before the election that the constituents he’s spoken to want something new.
“They just want somebody they can speak to that answers their emails, answers their phone calls, and is receptive to them,” he said.
Molina announced early Wednesday morning that he plans to seek a recount in the race.
Turnout was just under 8% for the Charlotte races. That’s slightly lower than primary turnout in 2022 and in line with 2017 primary turnout.
Forsyth County municipal primaries
Two partisan primaries took place in Forsyth County on Tuesday. They were a reminder that every vote matters, especially in low-turnout municipal elections.
Three Republicans ran for two general election spots in the Rural Hall Town Council and Tobaccoville Village Council contests.
In 2021, no primary took place for the Rural Hall Town Council. About 500 voters cast ballots in the general election, which now-Mayor Terry Bennett and Mayor Pro Tem Eddie Horn handily won. This year, Horn made it to the general election, alongside Susan Hawks Gordon.
Gordon and the third-place finisher and current councilwoman Anita Ring were separated by just one vote in the 225-vote election.
Under North Carolina election law, candidates in multi-seat races have a right to call for a recount if the difference between their vote count and the next highest vote getter is less than 1% of the total votes received by both. In this case, 1% of the 139 votes cast for either Gordon or Ring is 1.39 votes, so the one-vote separation would qualify.
However, election night results are unofficial. Voters cast seven provisional ballots cast in the contest, according to Forsyth County Board of Elections Executive Director Tim Tsuji. The Forsyth County Board of Elections will consider those on Friday.
Candidates must request a recount by 5 p.m. the day after the canvass. Thus far, Ring has not requested a recount. The official results will be finalized next Tuesday.
If current results stand, Horn and Gordon have a Democratic general election challenger: Amanda Johnson-Anthony, a Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools special education teacher. Two of the three general election candidates will get a seat.
In Tobaccoville, current councilmember Chris Starling and Christopher Copeland came out on top with 47% and 32% of the vote, respectively. Third-place candidate David Carr was not within recount range.
In 2021, about 250 villagers voted in the primary election for village council; this year, slightly fewer showed. There are no general election opponents in the race.
Lee County
In Lee County, two Democrats vied for a seat on the Sanford City Council.
Christopher Petty, North Carolina Young Democrats vice president, earned 60% of the 110 votes cast in the race. He defeated incumbent council member J.D. Williams, who has served in the position since 1995.
Turnout was just over 5% of the municipality’s registered voters, about half the participation as in 2022’s council election.
Petty will not face a general election opponent.
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