Local Elections Chance for Tangible Republican Grassroots Influence

RALEIGH – A bevy of local elections will be held Tuesday across the Old North State as candidates vie for everything from metropolitan mayoral posts, to rural village councils. While these races do not usually garner the attention that statewide or federal elections do, for obvious reasons, they represent a unique opportunity for community voters to exercise perhaps their most potent influence on the direction of their town or city – and maybe even the state.

Local elected offices are usually the starting points for those looking to commence a career in politics and thereby offer local voters a chance to deepen their partisan political bench with players that could go on to start in the big leagues.

One of the more notable elections being held Tuesday is that for mayor of Charlotte. The Queen City has suffered at the hands of progressive leadership for years, albeit self-inflicted.

The current mayor, Jennifer Roberts, who is not running for re-election, presided over the city’s decision to stir the hornets’ nest of Leftist LGBT activism in the form of transgender ‘rights’ that resulted in House Bill 2 and ended up stinging the whole state with the Left’s defamatory narrative of a what was really a textbook execution of state supremacy laws.

Now Charlotte has the chance to return to common sense governance in the form of mayoral candidate Kenny Smith.

The opportunity for a return to levelheadedness in North Carolina’s largest city is not lost on the N.C. Republican Party. The state party apparatus has spent north of $100,000 supporting Smith, hoping he will become the first Republican to earn the post since former governor Pat McCrory.

Not surprisingly, issues like H.B. 2 and the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, which led to days of disruptive protests, loom large over the race. Interestingly, though, some strategists think that favors Smith as voters may be tired of the divisive social issues pushed by progressives in urban centers around the state and country.

And Charlotte is a great example of the kind of outsized influence motivated voters can have on the end result. Only one out of five registered voters eligible to cast ballots in the city election are expected to turn out, making grassroots organization and enthusiastic Republican voters that much more consequential, even though Democrats outnumber them 2 to 1.

The same is true in mayoral races in Fayetteville. Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane is in a tight runoff race that could shake up leadership in the City of Oaks. And on, and on, and on.

Local elections have a huge impact, not only in your backyard, but potentially for the whole region and state down the road. Lower turnout for these races means a louder say for each and every person that votes. So be sure to get to the polls tomorrow, wherever you are, and elect leaders to make your community proud and and the State’s future bright.