Past Mecklenburg commissioner running for Congress in new district
Former Mecklenburg County commissioner Karen Bentley will run for Congress in North Carolina’s new 13th district, the home turf of NC House Speaker Tim Moore, just west of Charlotte.
The district includes north and west Mecklenburg County, as well as Gaston, Cleveland, Rutherford, Polk, McDowell and Burke Counties. Bentley filed candidate paperwork this week.
Moore has not said whether he’ll run for the 13th district as well, but in October he joked with reporters that the placement of the new district was telling.
“I guess it tells me there’s a lot of people here that want to get rid of me for some reason, right?” the Raleigh News & Observer reported at the time. “That want to send me somewhere else. I don’t know.”
He added that he would rather focus on passing the state budget.
Also running for the 13th is Republican Tyler Lee, a Charlotte real estate investor who had initially filed to run in the old 12th district currently held by Rep. Alma Adams.
Bentley as County Commissioner
Bentley, who is also a Republican, is expected to publicly announce her candidacy this week but declined to be interviewed for this story. She first won a spot on the Board of County Commissioners in 2006. At the time, three of the six district commissioners in Mecklenburg County were Republicans, including now-U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop.
Bentley served through 2014 as a commissioner. She has over 25 years of experience in the health care industry, including serving as vice president of outreach and engagement for Cardinal Innovations Healthcare, according to the company’s website.
She filed her candidacy with the U.S. Federal Election Commission on Friday. She did not appear to have a website launched by Tuesday evening.
The new 13th district is currently split up among several others: Adams’ in Mecklenburg County; Republican Virginia Foxx’s 5th, which includes Burke, Cleveland and Gaston counties; and Republican Madison Cawthorn’s 11th, which includes Polk and McDowell counties, as well as about half of Rutherford.
Based on recent election results, the new district heavily leans Republican.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 10:09 AM.
.jpg)