In Democrat-run Charlotte, do these long shot candidates have any chance of winning?
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- Democrats control nine of 11 Charlotte City Council seats.
- Underdog candidates include four Republicans, a Libertarian and an unaffiliated candidate.
- Unaffiliated and third-party hopefuls face ballot hurdles, low recognition.
Democrats have dominated city races for more than a decade as Charlotte pushed further to the left.
They occupy nine of 11 seats on the Charlotte City Council. Voters haven’t elected a Republican mayor since 2007, and the last time a council seat flipped against Democrats was 10 years before that. Across Mecklenburg, Democrats also routinely sweep countywide elections.
It’s not for lack of trying by others.
A group of long shots enters the political fray each election season in hopes of securing an unlikely upset that eluded many before them. This year’s underdog crop includes four Republicans, a Libertarian and an unaffiliated candidate with varying degrees of name recognition and experience.
They’re hoping to capitalize on a growing list of controversies surrounding transparency and public safety that have plagued incumbents — two of whom were already ousted during the primary.
“There’s real dissent, there’s real dissatisfaction that is starting to show up,” said Libertarian mayoral candidate Rob Yates. “Cracks that were just forming before are turning into fissures, and the question is, when does that break?”
Long shot with the best chance?
The 2011 election was a “gut punch” for Edwin Peacock III.
He thought he was a shoo-in for a third term serving council at large. Peacock enjoyed bipartisan respect from his colleagues and neighbors and had out-fundraised all the newcomer candidates, he said.
“And then, boom, I was out of the ballgame, and all of the sudden you’re on the sidelines,” he said. “It wasn’t close. I got crushed.”
More than 5,000 votes separated him from Beth Pickering, who snagged the fourth and final at-large seat for the Democratic Party. His loss marked the final time a council seat flipped parties.
Fourteen years later, Peacock is back to reclaim the seat he and Republicans lost. His three priorities are merging the Charlotte Fire Department and Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services; loosening the procedure to add items to council meeting agendas for discussion; and creating a comprehensive and communitywide public safety plan that connects the dots between homelessness, mental health and addiction.
But the game has changed since 2011.
Peacock hasn’t received invitations for debates or candidate forums as in prior campaigns, which he suspects is because there’s little interest in his race. The Republican Party is partially to blame for failing to provide a robust group of candidates, he said.
“A lot of people think the race is wrapped up … It’s very different than it was a decade ago,” said Peacock, who returned to council earlier this year in an appointed position representing south Charlotte’s District 6. “If you got four (Republicans) and four (Democrats), it’s a real race. In my case, I’m pretty much the only serious opponent.”
The party hasn’t presented a full slate of citywide candidates since 2022, when the strongest performing Republican still fell about 14,000 votes short.
Misun Kim is the other Republican running at-large this year. She had an unsuccessful mayoral run last cycle but is otherwise a political unknown.
She’s staked her platform on a couple proposals she said would address transparency and public safety: annual audits for council members and a curfew for minors between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Notably, Kim said she isn’t accepting contributions because she doesn’t want to be “controlled” by outside interests.
“I just want to show everybody what honest politicians who have a passion can do for this city,” Kim said.
Kim considers running as one of two Republicans an advantage, but Peacock disagrees. He has worked harder and is more worried about winning than in any previous race, he said.
His existing support base has allowed him to score weighty endorsements and raise the most money he’s ever raised in the shortest amount of time. Name recognition has offered a lifeline.
Other candidates are not so fortunate.
Running from behind
Robin Emmons had a lot of ground to make up when she officially entered the District 3 race last month.
She is the only unaffiliated candidate appearing on ballots. While partisan candidates could launch their campaigns when they filed in July, she had to first collect signatures from 1.5% of registered voters in her district since she wasn’t registered with a party. That process can take months.
Emmons wasn’t invited to candidate forums or allowed to raise money for her campaign until after she completed this procedural hurdle.
“It’s been a lot of door knocking,” Emmons said. “That’s been beneficial, but certainly it’s not been enough to get me the broad name recognition that I would need to really have a running start in the way that the partisan candidates have.”
Voting trends suggest Emmons and her Republican opponent, James Bowers, are long shots in the west Charlotte district where Democrat Joi Mayo is the favorite to win. Bowers was contacted for this story but did not schedule an interview despite multiple requests.
Emmons was encouraged to run as a Democrat to improve her odds. That didn’t sit well with her.
“Politics is dirty,” Emmons said. “I would prefer not to start off being disingenuous or straight dishonest. I’m not a Democrat. I am unaffiliated, and so I chose to just take the harder path.”
The only other city candidate running outside the two-party system is Yates, the Libertarian who is staging his second consecutive campaign for mayor. He captured just 5% of the vote against incumbent Vi Lyles in 2023.
Yates doesn’t count himself out even though a Libertarian has never been elected to citywide office in Charlotte. In fact, he thinks his chances are better than Republican candidate Terrie Donovan, whose win he called “impossible.”
Donovan agreed to a phone interview with the Observer but could not be reached at the scheduled time. She later said she was “extremely booked” with her campaign.
She’s cultivated an active presence on X in the wake of Iryna Zarutska’s fatal stabbing on a Charlotte light rail on Aug. 22. Donovan has used her platform to support calls for National Guard deployment in Charlotte and pitch herself as the solution to a crime crisis caused in part by “DEI and WOKE policies.”
“The city is almost two-to-one Democrat. Most of them would never vote for a Republican. They would vote for a third party,” Yates said. “A healthy percentage of voters are more voting against the ‘other party’ than they are so much voting for their person.”
About half the people he encounters on the campaign trail don’t know what a Libertarian is, he said. He’ll gladly explain.
Yates supports small government that incentivizes people to do things because they want to — not because they have to. Taxes are theft in his eyes, which is why he’s actively campaigning against Mecklenburg County’s 1% tax referendum that would overhaul the region’s transportation system. And he believes his party offers an alternative to a system that forces voters to choose which side of the aisle violates the fewest of their rights.
His basic philosophy: “Don’t hurt people, and don’t take their stuff.” That philosophy has swayed dozens of voters he met on the campaign trail, he said, but those interactions alone aren’t enough to swing the election in his favor.
Busting Democrat rule on Charlotte City Council
City Council appointed Peacock in May to serve the remaining term of outgoing District 6 Republican Tariq Bokhari, who worked for a short stint in the Trump administration.
Peacock expected to be a bridge builder between council members. Instead, he found himself caught in the middle of “the most dysfunctional board (he’s) ever served on.” Dissenting voices — especially from an interim council member — are looked at skeptically, he said.
He has “not been very successful” at building bridges.
“This group is so paranoid. They are so anxious. They are so reluctant. They are so reticent. They are on such an edge,” Peacock said. “I don’t really understand why, but they are. And all I can point to is, it points back to management and leadership.”
Charlotte is at a “wake-up call moment” as it stands on the precipice of becoming a 10-1 Democratic body, Peacock said. He says one-party rule is prone to groupthink that hinders good governance.
That talking point has surfaced in various campaigns this season, including the competitive District 6 race where Democrats have steadily closed in on Republicans in recent elections. Bokhari’s wife, Krista Bokhari, is running for his former position against Democrat Kimberly Owens and has used similar existential language to describe the moment.
But for Yates and Emmons, the problem lies with the system itself.
“There’s no difference between Republican and Democrat except the color shirt that they’re wearing,” Yates said. “They’re dominated by the interests of the people who pay for their campaigns, and the people always come second.”
Emmons grew up in a Democratic household and shed her party affiliation when she determined neither party aligned with her values.
“One side now doesn’t have any empathy, and maybe the other side has too much empathy,” said Emmons, who considers herself a fiscal conservative.
Above all, she wants to give voters a real choice, she said, even if the odds are stacked against her.
“Representation shouldn’t be monopolized by party lines, and so I’m trying to make a point here,” Emmons said. “I am staying the course because I want to prove that people, and not parties, can have the final say.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
