1 big thing: Where people are moving

💼 Fresh openings from the job board

🔥 Hot Job

2. Biz lightning round: Startup money goes north

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3. Peeps discourse

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Hello, Easter Sunday. It's Michael, a person who did not offer to buy Twitter this week.

🎂 Happy birthday to Axios Charlotte members Beth Fronzaglia, Art Gallagher (👋, Art!), Dennis J. Marsoun, Barbara Moore, Cynthia Nunn, Martha Whitfield and Taylor Young.

Today's newsletter is 604 words — a 3-minute read.

🐰 If you told me I could eat 100 pieces of Easter candy, I'd make 98 of them Reese's chocolate peanut butter eggs. 

The two others would be one of these and one of these, because as a dad now, it's my duty to bite off a chocolate bunny's ears and ask if it hears the peep.

Lucky you, I'm here for about 11 more Sundays until Katie's back.

Charlotte

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Axios Charlotte, anchored by Michael Graff and Emma Way, gets you smarter, faster on the most consequential news and developments unfolding in your backyard.

Axios Charlotte

1 big thing: Golf's booming

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💼 Fresh openings from our Job Board

2. Biz lightning round

3. 1 Mother's Day wish to go

Red wolf pups just days after being born in a den

4. OK, 1 more Mother's Day wish to go

Hello, Sunday. It's Michael, writing from the grand city of Winston-Salem, where my brother-in-law got married last night and made his mother very happy.

💐 Reminder: Make your moms happy today, too.

Weather: Partly sunny with a high around 67°.

🎂 Happy birthday to Axios Charlotte members Liza Branch, Kim Ehrhart, Jane Glenn, Rachel Mitchell, A.J. Spring and Kelly Voelker.

Today's newsletter is 634 words — a 3-minute read.

🕺 And I'm listening to this and reading this from our friend Jeremy Markovich on a happy, decent, buckdancin' fellow named Zeb.

1 big thing: Butcher shop business is sizzling

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💼 Fresh openings from our Job Board  

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3. Black-owned business gap

Concord’s new non-toxic nail bar

Weather: High of 86°, with a chance of showers and thunderstorms.

🥳 Happy birthday to Axios Charlotte members Bob Brown, Karin Davies and Christy Thomaskutty.

Today's word count: 636 words, a 3-minute read.

🥶 Editor's note: The weather in yesterday’s newsletter was corrected to show the forecast called for a high temperature of 80, not 8. Apologies to anyone who broke out their old Hornets Starter jacket.

🚨 I'm watching this video of a house in Rodanthe falling into the Atlantic Ocean, and I'm wishing much success to longtime friend Toussaint Romain, who moved back to Charlotte from Boone to serve as CEO of the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy. 

1 big thing: The business of CMS

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💼 Fresh openings from our Job Board 

3. Big Mac-o-meter

Hello, Sunday. It's Michael, or as my 2-year-old has started to tell me, "Go 'way." Fatherhood is humbling.

☀️ Weather: Nothing to wish away about today's forecast: Sunny and 82°. 

🎂 Happy birthday to Axios Charlotte members Christa Duncan, Susan Hader and Andrew McDermott.

Today's newsletter is 643 words — a 3-minute read.

🎓 I'm listening to this song about making money, and sending thanks to the teachers out there, including my mom, who taught first-graders for nearly 40 years. 

And sending warm thoughts to the family and many, many friends of Bill Hensley, a great PR pro and North Carolinian, who died in March. Miss his invitations to play golf already.

Read Ken Garfield's tribute to Bill in the Ledger (subscription required, but worth it). 

1 big thing: Mecklenburg's health scores

3. Big coworking news: Hygge acquires Advent

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Hello, May! It's Michael, here to remind you that you have one week until Mother's Day. Get on that.

⛈ Weather: Heading up to around 80°, with showers and thunderstorms possible.

🎂 Happy birthday to Axios Charlotte members Heyward Bouknight, Jon Davis, Jena Gallagher, Tammy Golder and good-ol' Adam Rhew.

Today's newsletter is 543 words, a 2-minute read.

📧 Axios Raleigh launches tomorrow! It's been a thrill to get to know and work with Lucille Sherman and Zachery Eanes as they've prepared for the big day. Can't wait for you to see it. Sign up here. 

Also, for any Detroit transplants or just general Detroit lovers, Axios Detroit will be born tomorrow, too.

Raleigh

McCrae Dowless, one of North Carolina's most curious political characters, was buried in Bladen County over the weekend. He succeeded at his top late-in-life goal: never going to jail for election fraud.

About 75 people attended his service at Center Road Baptist Church in Bladenboro. He was remembered as a friend, brother, father and, as his grandkids call him, "Papa Crae."

Driving the news: Dowless died from cancer on April 24. He was 66 years old.

He faced state charges on counts related to a fraud scheme in which prosecutors alleged he illegally harvested votes in Bladen County in the 2016 and 2018 Congressional elections. He maintained his innocence until his final breath.

The Wake County District Attorney will still pursue cases against about six of his associates.

Between the lines: For cutthroat political observers, Dowless' death brought an unsatisfying resolution in the story of the 2018 election fraud scandal that put his tiny eastern North Carolina county at the center of America’s debate over election security. 

 The Bladen County commissioner who bailed Dowless out of jail in 2019

 And Stony Rushing, the Union County politician and gun range owner who impersonates "The Dukes of Hazzard" character Boss Hogg.

Mark Harris — the Baptist preacher who had his 2018 election to Congress overturned amid the state’s investigation into the legality of the absentee ballot program Dowless ran for him — delivered a seven-minute video prayer.

What they’re saying: “He believed in you, he loved you,” Rushing said. “It’s hard to know somebody and spend the time that I got to spend with McCrae, and see the persecution that he went through.”

The big picture: Axios’ Michael Graff and WBTV’s Nick Ochsner had numerous exclusive interviews with Dowless as part of their reporting for their book “The Vote Collectors.”

They attended the service and wrote an essay on the scenes from that day and Dowless’s life, in partnership with the statewide digital magazine The Assembly.

Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye

About 75 people turned out for the funeral for the famous political operative

photo of a man named McCrae Dowless sitting at a kitchen table with wood paneling behind him and cigarettes in an ashtray

McCrae Dowless sits in his kitchen in Bladenboro, NC in 2018. Photo: Justin Kase Conder/The Washington Post via Getty Images

North Carolina

McCrae Dowless, one of North Carolina&#x27;s most curious political characters, was buried in Bladen County over the weekend. He succeeded at his top late-in-life goal: never going to jail for election fraud.<ul><li>About 75 people attended his service at Center Road Baptist Church in Bladenboro. He was remembered as a friend, brother, father and, as his grandkids call him, &quot;Papa Crae.&quot;</li></ul>Driving the news: Dowless died from cancer on April 24. He was 66 years old.<ul><li>He faced state charges on counts related to a fraud scheme in which prosecutors alleged he illegally harvested votes in Bladen County in the 2016 and 2018 Congressional elections. He maintained his innocence until his final breath.</li><li>The Wake County District Attorney will s<a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="till pursue cases against about six of his associates" data-vars-click-url="https://twitter.com/NickOchsnerWBTV/status/1518314495965384705?s=20&amp;t=gDcMTwe1fosj1PCbJ9Fa4g" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://twitter.com/NickOchsnerWBTV/status/1518314495965384705?s=20&amp;t=gDcMTwe1fosj1PCbJ9Fa4g" target="_blank">till pursue cases against about six of his associates</a>.</li></ul>Between the lines: For cutthroat political observers, Dowless&#x27; death brought an <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="unsatisfying resolution" data-vars-click-url="https://www.johnlocke.org/it-is-a-shame-that-mccrae-dowless-will-never-be-tried-for-ballot-trafficking/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.johnlocke.org/it-is-a-shame-that-mccrae-dowless-will-never-be-tried-for-ballot-trafficking/" target="_blank">unsatisfying resolution</a> in the story of the 2018 election fraud scandal that put his tiny eastern North Carolina county at the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="center of America’s debate" data-vars-click-url="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/09/voter-fraud-north-carolina-bladen-county-congress-222855/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/09/voter-fraud-north-carolina-bladen-county-congress-222855/" target="_blank">center of America’s debate</a> over election security. His pallbearers included:<ul><li> The Bladen County commissioner who bailed Dowless out of jail in 2019</li><li> And Stony Rushing, the Union County politician and gun range owner who impersonates <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="&quot;The Dukes of Hazzard&quot; character Boss Hogg" data-vars-click-url="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/27/gun-enthusiast-real-life-boss-hogg-takes-gop-mantle-congressional-race-tainted-by-fraud/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/27/gun-enthusiast-real-life-boss-hogg-takes-gop-mantle-congressional-race-tainted-by-fraud/" target="_blank">&quot;The Dukes of Hazzard&quot; character Boss Hogg</a>.</li></ul>Mark Harris — the Baptist preacher who had his 2018 election to Congress <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="overturned" data-vars-click-url="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/us/mark-harris-nc-voter-fraud.html" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/us/mark-harris-nc-voter-fraud.html" target="_blank">overturned</a> amid the state’s investigation into the legality of the absentee ballot program Dowless ran for him — delivered <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="a seven-minute video prayer" data-vars-click-url="https://www.facebook.com/centerroadbaptist/videos/5159375097500411" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.facebook.com/centerroadbaptist/videos/5159375097500411" target="_blank">a seven-minute video prayer</a>.What they’re saying: “He believed in you, he loved you,” Rushing said. “It’s hard to know somebody and spend the time that I got to spend with McCrae, and see the persecution that he went through.”The big picture: Axios’ Michael Graff and WBTV’s Nick Ochsner had numerous exclusive interviews with Dowless as part of their reporting for their book “<a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="The Vote Collectors" data-vars-click-url="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665566/the-vote-collectors/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665566/the-vote-collectors/" target="_blank">The Vote Collectors</a>.”<ul><li>They attended the service and wrote an essay on the scenes from that day and Dowless’s life, in partnership with the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="statewide digital magazine The Assembly" data-vars-click-url="https://www.theassemblync.com/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.theassemblync.com/" target="_blank">statewide digital magazine The Assembly</a>.</li><li><a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Read the full essay. " data-vars-click-url="https://www.theassemblync.com/short-form/mccrae-dowless-last-spin/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.theassemblync.com/short-form/mccrae-dowless-last-spin/" target="_blank">Read the full essay. </a></li></ul>

News

Politics

National

The father of Jacob Blake says he spent about an hour Friday "trying to find the ropes so I didn't fall down" in the wake of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.

Driving the news: A mostly-white jury found Rittenhouse, a white 18-year-old, not guilty in the fatal August 2020 shooting of two people who attended demonstrations in support of Jacob Blake, who was shot by a Kenosha police officer.

On Friday afternoon, Blake's father Jacob Blake, Jr. — "Big Jake," as he's commonly called — received a text that altered his perspective. 

The message came from Laurie Bey, whose son Cameron Lamb, a 26-year-old Black man, was killed in 2019 by police in his own backyard in Kansas City.

A Missouri judge found Eric DeValkenaere, a Kansas City police detective, guilty of involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action.

DeValkenaere claimed Lamb was pointing a gun at his partner. Prosecutors alleged the crime scene, which included a firearm outside the vehicle, was staged and evidence was planted.

"That is where the national eye should've been," Big Jake said of the Lamb verdict.

Between the lines: Big Jake says he struggles to see that justice was served in either his son's case or in the Rittenhouse verdict.

Over the days that followed the police shooting of Blake, details emerged that a warrant had been issued for his arrest earlier that summer on charges of third-degree sexual assault and abuse. 

Last November, those charges were dropped in a plea deal.

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley declined to charge Rusten Sheskey, the officer who shot Blake, saying evidence showed Blake was turning toward the officer with a knife.

Viral video of Blake's shooting showed he was not facing the officer when he was shot in the back.

The big picture: Blake, now 30, remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Two nights after Blake was shot, Rittenhouse, who was 17 years old at the time, brought an AR-15-style rifle to the Kenosha protests, saying he wanted to protect property and provide first aid. He killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and injured Gaige Grosskreutz. All three are white.

Jurors ruled Friday that Rittenhouse acted in self defense.

"It never stops," Big Jake told Axios early Saturday morning.

"We understand that this is a society built on systemic racism. There was no way they were going to convict that white individual with killing those other two white individuals that had the nerve to be out there supporting a Black individual."

The bottom line: Big Jake believes people with a vigilante streak were emboldened by Friday's decision and fallout. 

"Now it's OK to say they felt danger and they can kill people in a crowd," he says. "So all of those death threats I've received in the past year and a half, they could kill me if they want to, if they just say they feel threatened by me."

"That's not going to stop me," Big Jake said. "I'm not going to wrap up in my covers and go to sleep. We must continue to fight."

Go deeper: Axios Charlotte's interview with Big Jake back in September of 2020.

Jacob Blake's father speaks out after Rittenhouse verdict

"We understand that this is a society built on systemic racism," he told Axios.

Jacob Blake Sr, the father of Jacob Blake

Jacob Blake Sr., the father of Jacob Blake, at a press conference in  2020. Photo: Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images

Jacob Blake

Black Lives Matter movement

The father of Jacob Blake says he spent about an hour Friday &quot;trying to find the ropes so I didn&#x27;t fall down&quot; in the wake of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.Driving the news: A mostly-white jury found Rittenhouse, a white 18-year-old, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="not guilty" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/jury-kyle-rittenhouse-trial-verdict-0bbd3b7f-8a4e-4b0a-b168-c7323854f577.html" data-vars-content-id="3c1f4161-f174-4941-b273-e6bbeb0f3ce5" data-vars-headline="Jacob Blake&#x27;s father speaks out after Rittenhouse verdict" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/jury-kyle-rittenhouse-trial-verdict-0bbd3b7f-8a4e-4b0a-b168-c7323854f577.html" target="_self">not guilty</a> in the fatal August 2020 shooting of two people who attended demonstrations in support of Jacob Blake, who was shot by a Kenosha police officer.

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new congressional map imposed by the courts on Feb. 23 has reinvigorated liberals in this purple state, where GOP legislative dominance has reigned since former President Obama narrowly carried the state in 2008.

Why it matters: North Carolina has been the battleground for legal fights over disenfranchisement for the past decade, and its broader history in that area is among the most instructive stories of voting rights in the U.S.

The new maps show Republicans with seven mostly safe seats, Democrats with six, and one toss-up — a far cry from the 10-3-1 GOP edge after the Republican-led Legislature drew the initial maps in November.

Democratic Party leaders believe they need to seize this opportunity to add diversity to the 14-person congressional delegation.

Nida Allam’s political career was born out of grief. She was in her last semester of college on Feb. 10, 2015, when three of her closest friends — all Muslim, like her — were killed in what many believe was a hate crime in Chapel Hill.

Now Allam is 28 and a front-runner to become the Democratic nominee to replace longtime Rep. David Price — a white man retiring after more than 30 years — in the state's ultra-liberal congressional district around Durham. 

Across the state, at least 20 candidates of color filed to run as Democrats in congressional races in the nine days that followed the new maps. More than 75 filed to run for the Legislature.

“We're at the stage where for Democrats in North Carolina, at what level of urgency are we going to act with?” Allam, a progressive and daughter of Indian and Pakistani immigrants, tells Axios.

Brian Turner, the campaign co-chair for the Democratic state house caucus, agrees. “For far too long, our delegation hasn't looked like the rich diversity that is North Carolina,” says Turner, a white man who's an outspoken supporter of Allam. 

The big picture: A state that's 22% Black and 37% people of color overall has only two representatives of color in Washington out of 13 current House members and two senators.

One of those, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, is retiring, leaving Rep. Alma Adams as the only incumbent of color among the 14 congressional races this year. (The state added a seat after the 2020 Census.)

In the 12 years since Republicans gained control of North Carolina's Legislature, Democrats and voting rights groups have argued that gerrymandering not only hurts Democratic representation but Black representation.

Now, if the more equitable map doesn't produce a more diverse delegation after this primary season, Democrats likely have no one to blame but themselves.

"I'm concerned about African American representation, but I'm also concerned about Democratic representation," Butterfield told Axios in January. "And if we get fair Democratic representation, then African American representation will naturally follow. Right?"

Reality check: It's a safe bet that after the 2022 election, the state will have at least three elected officials of color in Washington, but a fourth will be a stretch. 

Adams' seat in Charlotte is safe — 64% of the district voted for President Biden in 2020.

In Butterfield's district, which now leans Democrat by about 7 percentage points, all four primary candidates are Black.

In the district Price is retiring from — the 4th — five of eight primary candidates are people of color.

The backstory: Few districts in the country are more symbolic of the racial representation in America than Butterfield's district. 

It's the 1st district now, but it essentially covers the same area as the "Black Second" district from Reconstruction.

George Henry White, the last Black congressman to serve during the end of the Reconstruction era, represented the Black Second.

White, a Republican, elected not to run in 1900 because North Carolina instituted a literacy test and grandfather clause that disenfranchised thousands of Black voters.

It would be 27 years before another Black person served in Congress in the U.S. It would be 92 years before another Black person from North Carolina did.

Before he left office, White gave an interview to the New York Times explaining his decision.

Much of his frustration wasn't directed at the overt white supremacists who passed discriminatory laws, but at his own party of supposed liberals.

"The white Republicans of North Carolina are Republicans in order to get the Negro vote to maintain them in office," he told the publication, "but they do not want the Negroes to hold office."

The bottom line: If all of that seems like distant history from 120 years ago, consider this: After White's departure, the next Black person elected to public office in that part of eastern North Carolina was a dentist in Wilson, who won a seat on the town board in 1953.

His name was G.K. Butterfield Sr., and his son, G.K. Jr., was 6 at the time.

Editor's note: This story was produced in partnership with The Assembly. A longer version will appear on The Assembly site next week.

North Carolina's lessons for U.S.

A new congressional map reinvigorates liberals in the battleground for legal fights.

Photo illustration collage of Alma Adams and the state shape of North Carolina

Photo illustration: Annelise Capossela. Photo: Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Deep Dive: Hard Truths - Voting

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new congressional map imposed by the courts on Feb. 23 has reinvigorated liberals in this purple state, where GOP legislative dominance has reigned since former President Obama narrowly carried the state in 2008.Why it matters: North Carolina has been the battleground for <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="legal fights" data-vars-click-url="https://apnews.com/article/759cff36bb3740708a706debf8d30773" data-vars-content-id="5aff1788-423d-4480-9f5a-87aefe76cddf" data-vars-headline="North Carolina&#x27;s lessons for U.S." data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://apnews.com/article/759cff36bb3740708a706debf8d30773" target="_blank">legal fights</a> over disenfranchisement for the past decade, and its broader history in that area is among the most instructive stories of voting rights in the U.S.

The North Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed all March 8, 2022 primaries to May 17 of next year to allow lower courts to review gerrymandering lawsuits that cloud the state's elections.

The big picture: The two-month shift affects everything from the U.S. Senate race to the already delayed Charlotte City Council election. The Republican-led legislature has faced claims of gerrymandering since early November, when it finalized the new maps for U.S. House, state Senate and state House. 

With more registered Democrats than Republicans in North Carolina, the maps showed 10 Republican-leaning districts, three Democratic leaning districts, and one neutral district, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis. 

Many voters in this purple state are already weary of constant changes to maps and shifts in election dates over the past decade. 

In a span of a three days starting Monday, a lower court halted candidate filing, then had that decision overruled, and now this from the state Supreme Court.

Between the lines: Charlotte's city council election was already delayed from this November to spring 2022, after the U.S. Census Bureau was late to deliver 2020 population figures that would allow council to redraw local districts.

The city council primary was scheduled for March 8. Now it will be May 17, 2022 — unless this ruling is overturned. In other words, this council will have been in place for more than half-a-year after a scheduled re-election.

What else is affected: The U.S. Senate primaries, the state Senate primaries and the state House primaries.

Also, the court's ruling halted candidate filing, which was supposed to be completed by Dec. 17.

What's next: The ruling directs the trial courts to provide their own written rulings by Jan. 11, 2022, to keep with that schedule.

N.C. court delays spring primaries due to gerrymandering lawsuits

Many voters in the purple state are already weary of changes to maps and shifts in election dates.

Caption: Precinct 30 in NoDa in 2019. Photo: Katie Peralta Soloff/Axios

Precinct 30 in NoDa in 2019. Photo: Katie Peralta Soloff/Axios

Primary elections

The<a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text=" North Carolina Supreme Court" data-vars-click-url="https://www.mecknc.gov/BOE/Documents/413P21.pdf" data-vars-content-id="75920652-266f-4207-9d45-8743456b3d4f" data-vars-headline="N.C. court delays spring primaries due to gerrymandering lawsuits" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.mecknc.gov/BOE/Documents/413P21.pdf" target="_blank"> North Carolina Supreme Court</a> on Wednesday postponed all March 8, 2022 primaries to May 17 of next year to allow lower courts to review gerrymandering lawsuits that cloud the state&#x27;s elections.The big picture: The two-month shift affects everything from the U.S. Senate race to the already delayed Charlotte City Council election. The Republican-led legislature has faced claims of gerrymandering since early November, when it finalized the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="new maps" data-vars-click-url="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/politics/2021/11/04/redistricting-in-n-c---new-maps-approved--favoring-gop" data-vars-content-id="75920652-266f-4207-9d45-8743456b3d4f" data-vars-headline="N.C. court delays spring primaries due to gerrymandering lawsuits" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/politics/2021/11/04/redistricting-in-n-c---new-maps-approved--favoring-gop" target="_blank">new maps</a> for U.S. House, state Senate and state House.

Charlotte’s most popular millennial politician dad, Democratic state senator Jeff Jackson, will announce a bid for U.S. Senate this morning, kicking off a 2022 race for Richard Burr’s seat that could include Lara Trump on the Republican side.

Why it matters: After a 2020 Senate race that was one of the most expensive on record, North Carolina again figures to be a pricey fight for the balance of power in the midterms.

A potential matchup between a member of the Trump family and Jackson — a media-savvy attorney and National Guardsman who in every campaign makes a point to say that his opponents are good people — certainly won’t diminish that intrigue. 

Jackson, a father of three, told his wife Marisa that if he were to win the primary, they could expect “$100 million in negative ads, just tearing me down” in the general.

As they watched the riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Marisa told him, “You have to run.”

Context: Many people remember the 2020 Senate race mainly for Democrat Cal Cunningham’s cringey texts and affair, which he was forced to apologize for. Cunningham was a veteran who also hinged his campaign on his character.

“There are going to be easy comparisons to make,” Jackson said. “But as the campaign goes on, within 60-90 days they’ll see that this is a completely different campaign and I’m a completely different person.”

State Sen. Erica Smith, who got 35% against Cunningham in the 2020 Democratic primary, is running again in 2022.

In a Jan. 21 interview with Real America’s Voice, Lara Trump said of a Senate run: “It’s possible. … We can’t stay away for long. We’re all again in this fight for the rest of our lives in some form.”

Former Gov. Pat McCrory is also considering a run in the Republican primary.

Fun fact: Jackson has about 200,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, not bad for a local politician whose district only sees about 110,000 votes cast. His following took off one icy day in February 2015, when he was alone in the state capitol tweeting about all the bills he was passing with unanimous support. Of course he was the only one voting.

“This is going to be like, ‘Night at the Museum’ except at the end we’ll have a stronger middle class,” he tweeted.

Find more stories like this one in the forthcoming Axios Charlotte newsletter, designed to help readers get smarter, faster on the most consequential news unfolding in their own backyard.

North Carolina state senator Jeff Jackson to announce run for U.S. Senate

The Democrat may end up taking on Lara Trump in the general election.

north carolina state senator jeff jackson running for u.s. senate

N.C. State Senator Jeff Jackson (D-Charlotte) in 2019. Photo: Michael Graff/Axios

Charlotte’s most popular millennial politician dad, Democratic state senator <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Jeff Jackson" data-vars-click-url="https://twitter.com/JeffJacksonNC" data-vars-content-id="7c7bcb8b-c3b9-464f-9344-13e7c63ccde9" data-vars-headline="North Carolina state senator Jeff Jackson to announce run for U.S. Senate" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://twitter.com/JeffJacksonNC" target="_blank">Jeff Jackson</a>, will announce a bid for U.S. Senate this morning, kicking off a 2022 race for Richard Burr’s seat that could include Lara Trump on the Republican side.Why it matters: After a 2020 Senate race that was <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="one of the most expensive" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/georgia-runoffs-senate-fundraising-0142c22e-5732-4a19-bee7-2906c2543ae4.html" data-vars-content-id="7c7bcb8b-c3b9-464f-9344-13e7c63ccde9" data-vars-headline="North Carolina state senator Jeff Jackson to announce run for U.S. Senate" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/georgia-runoffs-senate-fundraising-0142c22e-5732-4a19-bee7-2906c2543ae4.html" target="_self">one of the most expensive</a> on record, North Carolina again figures to be a pricey fight for the balance of power in the midterms.

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Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye

North Carolina's lessons for U.S.

N.C. court delays spring primaries due to gerrymandering lawsuits

Jacob Blake's father speaks out after Rittenhouse verdict

North Carolina state senator Jeff Jackson to announce run for U.S. Senate

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