Bokhari edges Hand in close District 6 race. Democrats dominate elsewhere.
Tuesday’s Charlotte mayor and City Council general elections shaped up to be a banner night for Democrats, with the exception of one silver lining for Republicans.
Tuesday’s slate of races included a hotly contested battle in south Charlotte’s District 6 between Republican incumbent Tariq Bokhari and Democratic challenger Stephanie Hand as well as competition for at-large council seats and Mayor Vi Lyles’ attempt to secure another term in office.
Only voters who live in the Charlotte city limits were able to vote in the election. Candidates for districts 1, 4, 5 and 7 did not face competition.
Tuesday’s winners will be sworn in Sept. 6 and will serve terms that end in December 2023. All results are unofficial.
Bokhari wins close District 6 race
In Tuesday’s most-watched race, Bokhari took a slight lead as Election Day results came in and held it after Hand earned an advantage from early votes.
Bokhari, who was first elected in 2017, led Hand by a margin of 50.94% to 48.99% with all 38 precincts in. The slim margin is large enough to avoid a recount under state law.
Bokhari held a fundraising advantage of more than $20,000 over Hand, the Observer previously reported. But the district, which had the highest early voting turnout in town, had a near-even number of Republicans and Democrats cast early ballots, according to an analysis by Catawba College political science professor Michael Bitzer.
In 2020, Democratic President Joe Biden won District 6 with 61% of the vote, Bitzer said.
“I was expecting it to be tight,” Bokhari said. “I was facing probably the most legitimate candidate that the Democrats could have possibly thrown at me.”
Hand told The Charlotte Observer’s news partner WSOC-TV she thinks the close finish Tuesday is “a sign that District 6 is changing.”
“They’re looking for something different and new,” she said of the district’s residents.
Along with Hand as a strong opponent, Bokhari said his role as an opposition leader on City Council likely also brought the race down to the wire. That helps with some voters and it hurts with others, he said.
“I became a public enemy number one,” he said. “That weighed on me in a way that you see a difference between my 2019 results and right now. But that’s only a part of it — the other part is, indeed, the incredible opponent I had.”
Democrats win at-large council seats
Republicans were shut out after hoping to see their party pick up an at-large council seat for the first time in more than a decade.
Eight candidates ran for at-large seats, which represent and are elected by the whole city, rather than a single district. Voters could choose four candidates on their ballot.
With 100% of precincts in, incumbent Democrats Dimple Ajmera and Braxton Winston were in first and second place, with 16.55% and 16.3% of the vote, respectively. Fellow Democrats James (Smuggie) Mitchell and LaWana Slack-Mayfield, both former council members, jockeyed for third place thoughout the night, with 15.06% and 15.08% of the vote, respectively.
“It’s not what we say, but it’s what we do that matters,” Ajmera told the Observer Tuesday night. “I commit to delivering on the promises I made to address displacement, congestion and crime in our city.”
Republican candidates Kyle J. Luebke, David Merrill, Charlie Mulligan and Carrie Olinski were in the last four places, with about 8.5% to 10% of the vote each as of 10 p.m.
In a trend that continued Tuesday, a Republican hasn’t been elected citywide since 2009, when Edwin Peacock was elected to City Council at-large. Since then, Republicans have come close to victory only once, when Mitchell defeated Republican John Powell Jr. in 2015 by just 248 votes.
Lyles wins reelection
Lyles, a Democrat who was first elected mayor in 2017, came out to an early lead in her quest to secure another term in office and never relinquished it.
She led by a margin of 68.42% to 31.32% with 100% of precincts reporting as of 10 p.m. against Republican Stephanie de Sarachaga-Bilbao.
More council incumbents hold steady
Democratic council incumbents Malcolm Graham and Victoria Watlington easily fended off their opponents.
Graham, who represents District 2, was leading his challenger, Republican Mary Lineberger Barnett, by a margin of 81.98% to 17.87% with 100% of precincts reporting as of 10 p.m.
Watlington, who represents District 3, was also leading her challenger, Republican James H. Bowers, by a margin of 77.16% to 22.69% as of 10 p.m.
Observer reporters Genna Contino and Will Wright contributed to this story.
This story was originally published July 26, 2022 at 7:45 PM.
