Rob Yates, Charlotte mayor candidate, answers our questions
To help inform voters in the Nov. 4, 2025, election, this candidate questionnaire is available to be republished by local publications in North Carolina without any cost. Please consider subscribing to The Charlotte Observer to help make this coverage possible.
Name: Rob Yates
Email: ryates@lpnc.org
Political party: Libertarian
Age: 45
Campaign website or social media page: prospercharlotte.com
Occupation: Writer
Education: MBA
Have you run for and/or held elected office before? (Please list previous offices sought and/or held)
Ran for Mayor of Charlotte in 2023, and NC House 99 last year
Please list your highlights of civic involvement
I have a long list of successful and ongoing activist campaigns, as well as experience working with policy makers to shape certain legislative priorities.
What are the most important issues facing Charlotte, and how would you address them as mayor?
The overall health of our city is declining, driven by reduced public safety, increasing costs of living, and worsening transportation options. Combined with an abysmal lack of accountability and transparency from our city government, they are likely to continue to get worse under the status quo. I would start addressing them with ruthless transparency. I would work to significantly reduce centralized, draconian, and anti-prosperity zoning restrictions, and implement real community policing.
What strengths do you bring to the position that set you apart from your opponents?
I have no allegiance to any special interests. I don’t care about the money developers from other states are willing to spend to profit off the city’s losses, I am not beholden to any billionaires, and I will never violate my principles for my party or a donor.
The city of Charlotte provided CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings with more than $305,000 in a deal reached during a private meeting – details of which were not available until news outlets started reporting on the issue. Did the city handle this correctly based on what the public knows about the situation? Why or why not?
In a year of atrocious missteps by our city government, this might be the most egregious. The people of Charlotte are owed real transparency from our city government, and people running the city consistently fail to deliver.
How will you work to improve transparency within city government?
I will not accept anything being done behind closed doors, even if I have to be the one to go public with things personally.
The General Assembly has given Mecklenburg County permission to put a referendum on the ballot to raise the county’s sales tax to fund road, rail and bus projects. Will you vote in favor of the referendum? Why or why not?
No, we don’t need to take more money from our already struggling residents to throw away at a broken system.
