Raleigh's next city council will decide how the city manages its rapid growth
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The downtown Raleigh skyline. Photo: Courtesy of Visit Raleigh
For the first time since Raleigh moved its city council elections to even years, voters here will be tasked with not just picking a new president and governor — but also the shape of the city council.
Why it matters: This election will bring a record amount of votes for these nonpartisan local races — not only increasing the number of people weighing in on the council but also potentially leading to more of them voting on races they might not know much about.
- "We have a volunteer poll greeting team and we have been there all of early voting and anecdotally maybe a quarter of the voters know there is a city council race," Reeves Peeler, a candidate for the council's at-large seats, told Axios about the challenges of informing voters about his first run for council.
State of play: Along with the race for mayor, this year's election will determine the future of policy choices in the city, including how rezoning cases could be heard, funding for the police department, tweaks to the city's building ordinances, boosting affordable housing and overseeing the rollout of bus rapid transit.
Zoom in: Polling for local races is pretty scant, but a Public Policy Polling poll commissioned this summer by Livable Raleigh, a group that opposed many of Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin's choices, found that housing and growth are top of mind of voters.
- 43% of the poll's respondents said a lack of affordable housing is the city's biggest problem, followed by 14% saying high taxes and 13% saying traffic congestion.
[Go deeper: Raleigh will pick a new mayor for the first time since before the pandemic]
Of note: You have to flip your ballot over to get to these races.
Here's who is on the ballot for city council:
- You can find a map of Raleigh City Council districts here.
Raleigh City Council at-large (top two make council):
- James Bledsoe, an Army veteran and IT analyst
- Joshua Bradley, a former Occupy Raleigh activist and member of the N.C. Green Party.
- Stormie Denise Forte (incumbent), a lawyer, consultant and local radio host, Forte was appointed to the council in 2020 and won re-election in 2022.
- Jonathan Lambert-Melton (incumbent), a family law attorney and mediator who most recently served as Mayor Pro Tem. He was first elected in 2019.
- Katie Pate, a marketing consultant and chair of the Raleigh Historic Development Commission.
- Reeves Peeler, a community development finance associate at First Citizens Bank, community organizer and member of the Raleigh Planning Commission.
- Robert Steele Jr., a property manager. Steele's fiancée was one of those killed in Raleigh's Hedingham neighborhood mass shooting and the event motivated his run for council.
Raleigh City Council District A:
- Mary Black (incumbent), an environmental justice advocate who was elected in 2022
- Whitney Hill, the founder of Carolina Web Consultants. He previously ran in 2022.
- Mitchell Silver, a former Raleigh city planner who left the city in 2014 to New York City's parks departments. He returned to Raleigh in 2021 to be a consultant for the architecture firm McAdams.
Raleigh City Council District B:
- Jennifer McCollum, a former public relations executive
- Megan Patton (incumbent), first elected in 2022 as part of a wave of candidates promoting increased city council engagement and affordable housing
Raleigh City Council District C:
- Corey Branch (incumbent), was first elected in 2015 and the longest-serving member of the current city council. He initially decided to run for mayor but changed his mind over the summer and announced he was running again for District C.
- DaQuanta Copeland, a community organizer who finished third in the mayoral race in 2022.
- Tomara DeCosta, a clinical research worker who is the only self-described Republican in the race.
- Daniel Grant-King, a special education teacher in Wake County Public Schools.
- Jared Ollison, the former director of detention services at the Wake County Sheriff's Office
- Tolulope Omokaiye, a former member of the Raleigh Transit Authority
- Portia Rochelle, former president of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP
Raleigh City Council District D:
- Jane Harrison (incumbent), first elected in 2022 is running unopposed in District D.
Raleigh City Council District E:
- John Cerqueira, a consultant and co-founder of Skate Raleigh
- Christina Jones (incumbent), was elected in 2022 and helped spearhead the re-instatement of Community Advisory Councils.