In Charlotte’s competitive 2025 primary, Lyles will face most challengers in years
Voters are in for a competitive primary election in two months with 27 Democrats running for just 12 Charlotte government positions.
Every current City Council member and the mayor are seeking election this cycle. Most face multiple challengers, including Mayor Vi Lyles, who is up against six candidates from three political parties.
Ed Driggs, who represents south Charlotte’s District 7, and Malcolm Graham, who represents District 2 in the north, are the only two council members without an opponent standing in their path to re-election.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, a dozen candidates are campaigning for just four at-large seats.
Charlotte’s primary election is Sept. 9 for City Council. Voters won’t have their say in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education or other municipal elections until November, when there will be 70 other candidates competing for seats.
Here are some races to watch.
Candidates line up to take down Mayor Lyles
Mayor Vi Lyles is no stranger to opposition. She dethroned former Mayor Jennifer Roberts in 2017 in an uphill climb to the city’s top elected position.
But she’s faced little signs of resistance since. She won her last general election with 73.6% of the vote after receiving 85.4% of the vote in the primary. And she hasn’t faced as many primary election challengers as she does this year since 2019 — when there also were four other candidates.
If elected to a fifth term this year, Lyles would be tied for serving the second-longest tenure as Charlotte mayor. Then, she’d fall behind only former Gov. Pat McCrory, who is the city’s longest-serving mayor.
The crowded pool of challengers includes four Democrats, one Republican and one Libertarian.
None have held elected office before.
The fledgling Democratic candidates include Jaraun “Gemini” Boyd, a former prisoner-turned-activist and nonprofit leader; Delter Kenny Guin III, who does not have a campaign website or a clear online campaign presence; Brendan Maginnis, a former Marine and small business owner who ran for Congress in 2024; and Tigress Sydney Acute McDaniel, who has run unsuccessfully for a number of offices across Mecklenburg County.
Republican real estate agent Terrie Donovan and Libertarian Rob Yates face perhaps the toughest battle ahead. The last Republican mayor was McCrory, who left office in 2009 to run for governor. There has never been a Libertarian mayor.
Absent from the lineup of hopefuls is Roberts, who flirted with the idea of a rematch eight years after leaving office. She would have presented a strong opposition campaign due to her name recognition and a base of supporters that newcomers might lack.
But Roberts announced she would not run for mayor about 24 hours before the filing deadline, saying in a mass email that she has “too many existing commitments that cannot take second place.”
District 6 is the only open seat
There will be at least one new face on City Council this year.
Former Councilman Tariq Bokhari resigned in April after the Trump administration tapped him to become deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. His seat representing District 6 is wide open for the first time since 2017 — and it’s the only district without an incumbent in the mix.
Three candidates are vying to be Bokhari’s successor, including his wife.
This would be Krista Bokhari’s first time holding public office but not her first time running. She campaigned last year for a seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives, and earlier this spring she unsuccessfully applied to finish the remaining six months of her husband’s council term.
Sary Chakra, another political newcomer who applied to finish Bokhari’s term, is also running for the Republican nomination. Chakra works in stormwater and infrastructure construction.
Kimberly Owens, an attorney, is running for the Democrats and will not face a primary challenger.
Bokhari and Driggs were the only two Republicans elected to council last cycle. The two south Charlotte districts are the only races where Republican candidates outnumber Democrats and are widely seen as the GOP’s best shots at securing representation on the council. Still, party politics traditionally hold little weight in most council decisions, and votes rarely fall down partisan lines.
District 3 councilwoman faces a federal indictment and three challengers
Tiawana Brown is seeking reelection amid a federal indictment on charges of wire fraud. Brown and her two adult daughters are accused of filing false applications for federal pandemic relief loans and spending loan money on personal expenses.
Brown, who is in her first term serving west Charlotte’s District 3, faces one of the more challenging incumbent paths to victory against three Democrats who all have political experience.
Joi Mayo and Montravias King say they don’t want to stake their campaigns on Brown’s indictment, though, and want to focus instead on their own records.
Mayo is a nonprofit leader and community activist whose work focuses on preservation and responsible growth, among other issues. King is a former Elizabeth City councilman who has worked as a legislative assistant for Democrats in the North Carolina legislature.
Democratic candidate Warren Turner represented the district from 2003 to 2011 and is seeking to reclaim his former office, but he brings his own baggage to the election. Turner was voted out of office after a sexual harassment scandal in which an outside law firm found evidence to support some allegations from a city employee.
James Bowers also filed as a longshot Republican candidate in the deep blue District 3 for the third consecutive election. Brown pummeled him in 2023, when he received less than a quarter of the votes.
Other Charlotte City Council races
The at-large race is the most crowded this election season, with five current council members and seven newcomers seeking four seats.
Dimple Ajmera, James “Smuggie” Mitchell Jr., LaWana Slack-Mayfield and Victoria Watlington are the incumbent at-large representatives — all Democrat. Edwin Peacock, a Republican, was appointed to serve out the remainder of Bokhari’s term this spring and is running for an at-large position that, if successful, would unseat one of his current colleagues. Peacock also was the last Republican to win an at-large seat in 2009.
Democratic candidates Matt Britt, Roderick Davis, Will Holley, J.G. Lockhart, Emerson Stoldt and Namrata Yadav, and Republican candidate Misun Kim, also filed.
Several districts will have less complex candidate fields, with voters deciding between two Democrats in head-to-head contests.
In District 1 Mayor Pro Tem Dante Anderson will face Charlene Henderson El, a community activist and friend of District 3’s Brown.
Councilwoman Renee Perkins Johnson in District 4 faces Wil Russell, a construction manager for affordable housing projects. This is a rematch of 2023, when Russell secured just 40.9% of the vote despite an endorsement from Lyles. Perkins Johnson had 52.3%.
And Councilwoman Marjorie Molina in District 5 faces J.D. Mazuera Arias, the chair of the Hispanic Democratic Caucus of Mecklenburg County.
Municipal elections in November
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will have at least two new leaders this year after two incumbents, Thelma Byers-Bailey and Summer Nunn, did not seek reelection.
Every school board race will be competitive besides District 3, where incumbent Gregory “Dee” Rankin was the only candidate to file.
Outside of Charlotte, Mint Hill and Pineville could see some of the biggest leadership shakeups.
Mint Hill Mayor Brad Simmons did not seek reelection. Town Commissioner Dale Dalton is one of two candidates seeking to replace him.
Pineville will see an overhaul of its town council, with no incumbent seeking reelection. Councilwoman Amelia Stinson-Wesley is risking her seat to take on incumbent Mayor David Phillips for his position.
