Incumbents and current Charlotte City Council members easily won reelection in Tuesday's municipal primaries. The election was a low-turnout affair, with only Democrats and unaffiliated voters able to cast a ballot and only a few competitive races.
Those included Charlotte City Council Districts 3 and 4. The general election, scheduled for Nov. 7, will also include school board seats, a contested Charlotte City Council District 6 race, and a $2.5 billion school bond package.
Overall, about 5% of registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters cast a ballot. If you include all registered voters, turnout was about 4%.
Here's who won Tuesday.
District 4
Charlotte District 4 City Council member Renee Johnson succeeded in her bid to win a third term. She survived an effort by Mayor Vi Lyles, a fellow Democrat, to defeat her.
Lyles endorsed Wil Russell, an affordable housing developer. The mayor also paid for a campaign mailer touting Russell and helped him raise money. She also worked the polls, encouraging people to vote for him.
Johnson and the mayor have often been on different sides of issues, including the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which seeks to make it easier to build more housing in the city. Johnson opposed part of the plan that would make it easier to build duplexes and triplexes in neighborhoods once reserved for single-family homes.
Johnson won with about 52% of the vote. Russell had 41% and Olivia Scott won 6.85%. District 4 is in the northeast part of the city.
Johnson said the mayor's support for Russell was difficult to overcome.
"She put the weight of her office (in the race)," Johnson said. "There were signs — Mayor Vi Lyles for Will. They shared tables. It was a lot. It was a lot to overcome. I trusted my voters. District 4 voters are smart, they are engaged, they watch the meetings, they know how hard I fought for them."
District 3
The other competitive race was for an open seat in District 3, in southwest Charlotte. Tiawana Brown, Warren Turner and Melinda Lilly are all competing.
Brown won with about 60% of the vote, while Turner had about 30% and Lilly collected about 10%.
Mayor
Lyles won the Democratic primary for mayor. She beat Lucille Puckett with 85% of the vote to 15%, and will be a heavy favorite to win the general election.
At-large seats
In the race for the four at-large seats, all four current council members won spots. Dimple Ajmera took first place, followed by LaWana Slack-Mayfield, James "Smuggie" Mitchell and Victoria Watlington.
"I'm just deeply grateful for overwhelming support throughout the city. And I can never take that for granted and I will continue to make them proud," Ajmera said.
Democrats Charlene Henderson El and Ben Copeland fell short, coming in fifth and sixth.
Hello everyone! I’m still tracking the results, but it’s clear I won’t make up enough ground with the outstanding vote to clinch a spot in the top 4. I want to say I’m extremely humbled that with 49% of the precincts tabulated, 4,861 people decided to put their trust in me
— Ben Copeland for Charlotte City Council (@BenForCharlotte) September 13, 2023
No Republicans are running at-large, virtually guaranteeing the four winners Tuesday will win all four seats in November. Only one other candidate, Libertarian Steven DiFiore II, will be on the general election ballot.
Other districts
- In District 1, incumbent Dante Anderson had no challengers. She won re-election.
- In District 2, incumbent Malcolm Graham is leading challenger Gary Young, 74%-26%. There is no one running in the general election.
- In District 5, incumbent Marjorie Molina is leading two challengers, Curtis Hayes and Vinroy Reid. She doesn’t have an opponent in the general election.
- There were no contested races in District 6. Republican incumbent Tariq Bokhari will face a rematch from Democratic challenger Stephanie Hand in the general election.
- In District 7, Republican Ed Driggs also won re-election without facing a challenger.
WFAE Senior Editor Ely Portillo contributed.
