MECKLENBURG COUNTY
Democrats

Good morning CEC Members!

As we approach Labor Day, campaign season is officially upon us for our municipal elections. We have many competitive races in the county that we must win to maintain and grow our number of elected Democrats. In particular, the constant assault on our public education system means we must do whatever we can to prevent Republican infiltration of our School Board. We currently have all but one of the school board seats in Mecklenburg County. These are technically non-partisan races, but it is very clear who the Democrats and the Republicans are who are running.

In Districts One, Four, and Six we have two Democrats running and only one Republican running. This means that there is a high likelihood the two Democratic candidates could split the vote and allow the Republican to win. This is a risk we cannot take given the stakes of these school board elections. On Thursday, August 8th, the County Executive Leadership Council voted that the County Party will endorse only one candidate in each of these three races for the general election in November.

One important note: While a few incumbents are running in these races, our philosophy, in general, should not be one of incumbency but rather one of vision. Each CEC member should keep in mind that the endorsed candidates will need to be introduced and known to the community in their district and their background and vision for moving CMS forward.

We are committed to a transparent endorsement process. The decision will be made by the CEC members in the respective school board districts. Here is the timeline of how these endorsements will take place:

September 5: All Candidates in the 3 races we will endorse will receive a Questionnaire crafted by the Executive Leadership Council along with input from the CEC members from the districts in question.

Candidates will have a few days to fill out those questionnaires and the responses will be sent to the CEC members of the respective districts.

On either September 12th or 15th we will be having an in-person forum (but also shown virtually) for each of the districts that can be attended by any member of the Democratic Party where we will allow the CEC members to ask questions of the candidates.

Immediately following the Forum we will open voting and the CEC members of the districts will have 2 days to make their endorsement vote. 2 days after the voting opens we will close the voting, and share the results with the entire CEC. Once the endorsements are released, that Candidate will be the School Board Candidate that will appear on all Mecklenburg County Blue Ballots for the municipal election.

Sincerely,

Wesley Harris
Chair, Meck Dems