How will Charlotte pick Tariq Bokhari’s replacement when he leaves for Trump admin?
The Charlotte City Council faces a key decision after one council member announced he is stepping down to join the Trump administration.
Council members will be tasked with replacing Tariq Bokhari once he departs to take a job as a deputy administrator at the Federal Transit Administration and leaves his seat open. The council is required to appoint a Republican who lives in District 6, Mecklenburg County Supervisor of Elections Michael Dickerson told The Charlotte Observer. But the city has considerable discretion in how the process is carried out.
The city will consider applications from Republicans in the district, council member Dimple Ajmera said in a statement to the Observer. Mayor Vi Lyles and council member Malcolm Graham also told the Observer’s news partner WSOC-TV Wednesday they would hold an application process.
It’s unclear who could replace Bokhari, but Graham told WSOC-TV he prefers not to appoint any family members to the vacant seat. Bokhari’s wife, Krista Bokhari, ran for state office last year.
“The replacement process for District 6 is open to all eligible Republicans within the district. The full City Council will be responsible for selecting the individual who will fill out Councilman Bokhari’s term,” Ajmera said. “We look forward to engaging with our community during this transition and ensuring that the needs of District 6 continue to be represented effectively.”
Previous vacancies on Charlotte City Council
Council member Ed Driggs, the only Republican on the council besides Bokhari, told the Observer the city will likely follow similar procedures to when the council filled former Mayor Patrick Cannon’s seat in 2014 and John Autry’s seat in 2017. The process included accepting applications from members of the same party and holding a council vote.
Driggs said political parties have not played significant roles in previous appointment processes.
“The party can promote somebody or encourage someone to apply, but we haven’t actively engaged with the party on those earlier occasions,” Driggs said. “And those were all Democrats.”
In 2021, the last time council members voted to fill a seat, more than 100 eligible people applied. Of those, former city council member Greg Phipps and community advocate Jessica Davis were nominated by council members to replace Democrat James “Smuggie” Mitchell’s vacant seat. Mitchell resigned after taking on a role at construction company R.J. Leeper. He was elected back to the council in 2022.
At the time, Mitchell urged council members in an email to appoint Davis and “continue the tradition of voting for the candidate that the former City Council member recommends.”
Ultimately, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles broke a 5-5 tie to help name Phipps to the seat.
Someone who won’t run in 2025?
Council member Malcolm Graham, who nominated Phipps, said during the 2021 meeting he trusted Phipps’ word not to run in the election to retain the seat. And that could be relevant this year, too, because the city will hold elections for all council seats in the fall.
The 2021 appointment process faced criticism because eligible candidates had only two minutes to present their case during a public hearing and could not answer follow-up questions from the council or the public. Community members expressed frustration, saying they wanted more opportunity to engage with the candidates and hear about their plans in greater detail.
The city also held an application process in 2017, when Ajmera was unanimously appointed to fill Autry’s District 5 seat. Only six people applied for the seat, and council members said at the time they preferred to appoint someone who would not seek reelection, though Ajmera ultimately ran for and won an at-large seat.
Dan McCorkle, a local Democratic strategist, said the council typically enforces a gentleman’s agreement asking whoever the appointee is not to run for the same seat in the next election. Since Bokhari’s replacement must be a Republican, appointing someone who will run could provide visibility and bolster support for the Republican ahead of the election. It could harm Democrats’ chances at filling the slot, McCorkle said.
Democrats have a slight advantage in terms of registration numbers in the district right now, he said.
“It’s hard to find any place in Charlotte, with the exception still of District 7, where a Republican is a shoe-in,” he said. “You would assume they would make a careful selection or do some chess here to make it so that they get the person they want, but also somehow set them up for victory in November.”
McCorkle said he thinks the process will be straightforward and include an application period followed by a City Council vote. The appointment process has historically taken between three to six weeks in Charlotte, he said.
Reporter Mary Ramsey contributed to this report.
