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Braxton Winston to run for NC labor commissioner in 2024; won't seek another City Council term

Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston is running for statewide office in 2024. He said he will not seek another term on City Council this year.
Braxton Winston
Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston is running for statewide office in 2024. He said he will not seek another term on City Council this year.

Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston announced Saturday that he plans to run for labor commissioner of North Carolina in 2024 and that he won’t seek another term on City Council in this year’s municipal election.

Winston was first elected to council in 2017 after he played a prominent role in the protests over the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott a year earlier.

A photo of him during the protests in uptown went viral and helped propel his candidacy. In the photo, he was facing a line of police officers, shirtless, with his left arm raised in defiance.

He was reelected in 2019 and 2022 and has been one of the most progressive members of the council.

He opposed hosting the Republican National Convention in 2020. He pushed for the city to eliminate zoning that only allowed for single-family homes.

And he has often questioned the direction of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. During the protests over the police killing of George Floyd, Winston led a successful push on council to prohibit CMPD from buying tear gas and other chemical agents.

Winston could run for reelection to his at-large City Council seat this fall and still run for the statewide office in 2024. Fellow council member Dimple Ajmera kept her council seat when she ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2020, and Ajmera remains on City Council.

But Winston said he’s not going to do that.

“I’m interested in mentoring the next generation of City Council leaders and sharing my knowledge,” Winston said in an interview. “We are going to concentrate on traveling this very large state and learning more about different communities and what makes them special, and the workforces in the state, so we can be successful in the primary and the general election in 2024.”

The current commissioner of labor, Republican Josh Dobson, announced in December that he would not run for reelection.

Republican State House member Jon Hardister of Guilford County announced earlier this year that he’s running for the job.

The primary is in March.

Winston said he wants to make North Carolina “the number one state for business and for workers.”

“In my six years on council, it’s become clear that when workers thrive, communities thrive,” he said.

Winston joins a growing list of Mecklenburg politicians seeking statewide office.

Democratic State Sen. Rachel Hunt is running for lieutenant governor and Democratic House member Wesley Harris is running for treasurer.

Republican House member John Bradford is also running for treasurer.

Winston has consistently garnered a big share of City Council at-large votes and finished second, and his name has been bandied about as a possible future mayoral candidate. In last year’s council election, Winston finished 706 votes behind Ajmera, who had the most votes in the race for the four at-large seats.

While the candidate who receives the most votes is usually named mayor pro tem, Winston was given that mostly ceremonial title after Ajmera withdrew from consideration.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Wesley Harris' name.

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Steve Harrison is WFAE's politics and government reporter. Prior to joining WFAE, Steve worked at the Charlotte Observer, where he started on the business desk, then covered politics extensively as the Observer’s lead city government reporter. Steve also spent 10 years with the Miami Herald. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Sporting News and Sports Illustrated.