Garry McFadden’s key to 2026 primary victory? Voters in Charlotte’s ‘crescent’
Predominantly Black voting precincts in the city’s “crescent” delivered Sheriff Garry McFadden’s primary win, while mostly white precincts south of the city center chose his opponents.
McFadden defeated his opponents in the Democratic primary with 33.8% of the vote, leading Ricky Robbins by about 2.8 percentage points. Picking up support from the crescent was key to his success, according to an analysis by The Charlotte Observer.
Charlotte’s “crescent” and “wedge” are references to how the city developed over decades due to segregation and discrimination. The “crescent” includes much higher percentages of Black and Hispanic residents as it arcs around uptown covering parts of west, north and east Charlotte. The “wedge” largely covers south Charlotte, with its northern tip extending into Plaza Midwood and NoDa, and has higher percentages of white and higher income families.
McFadden overcomes controversy
McFadden’s win came after a long series of controversies, including a lawmaker filing a petition to remove McFadden from office, which a Mecklenburg County Superior Court judge dismissed, and the State Bureau of Investigation looking into claims that he broke the law. Though, that investigation started when District Attorney Spencer Merriweather asked the SBI to review claims in the petition to remove him. McFadden also gained national notoriety when he pushed back against the Trump Administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
If someone is jailed for any charges and doesn’t have legal immigration status, ICE asks jails to hold them longer than their otherwise release date so federal agents can pick them up.
Before a state law in October required sheriffs to comply, McFadden argued he was not legally able to do what ICE wanted because agents trying to arrest people from his jail didn’t have proper warrants. He told the Observer at the time that victims don’t get the justice they deserve when their perpetrators are swept out of the country on deportations before any trial, sometimes only to return.
During the campaign, McFadden pointed to his record leading the sheriff’s office through major moments like the COVID-19 pandemic. Early on, Robbins said he would not spend time in his own campaign criticizing McFadden. He mostly talked about reopening the county’s shuttered juvenile jail, hiring and keeping staff, and leadership generally.
Chris Cooper, director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University, said incumbent sheriffs generally tend to win reelection.
Cooper said sheriff elections are more about “friends and neighbors” than most other types of political choices, and it makes sense that Republican efforts to shame him backfired.
“It’s more about personal relationships and brand and less about naked partisanships,” Cooper said.
Endorsement for McFadden and loyal support
An Observer analysis found that the whiter the precinct’s eligible voter pool, the more votes went against McFadden.
The Observer’s analysis combined primary election results at the precinct level with voter registration data, which includes key demographic information.
“I think that white voters tend to have a distaste, and not a palate for controversy, and so they were probably seeking less of a controversial sheriff to represent them,” said Colette Forrest, community activist and former chair of the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
McFadden did best in the areas north of uptown where up to 82% of voters eligible to vote in Democratic primaries are Black. Democrats and unaffiliated voters can choose Democratic ballots.
The Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, an influential group among Democrats, endorsed McFadden. And the group has a high success rate of candidates it endorses winning elections. Forrest said she’s not surprised to see such a strong correlation between majority-Black precincts and support for the incumbent.
“We as Black Americans are very loyal. We like Garry McFadden as an individual ... and if you were to talk to many Black voters we would probably say that we feel that he’s been treated unfairly and almost ridiculed,” Forrest said.
Forrest cited a recent Raleigh hearing on crime in Charlotte in which Republican lawmakers asked McFadden if he knew what branch of government he works in, and what the three branches of government are.
McFadden didn’t give the right answer and the clip of the grilling went viral. The Mecklenburg County Republican Party called for him to resign.
“Many of us feel like he was put in a position to look bad and to look ignorant and we don’t like our people being portrayed as such,” Forrest said. “And I think we became protective and you saw that reflected in our votes.”
Observer reporter Ryan Oehrli contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 6, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
