Spirits are high at the Wake GOP watch party in a Cary Marriott.

We’re watching Fox News on a large screen, and the crowd is intermittently clapping when positive results for Trump flash across the screen. Then they abruptly stop when a positive Harris result shows up. I’m waiting to see what happens if someone accidentally claps for the wrong result.

Another reporter just told me that people have been coming to the press section to ask us when we’re going to call it so they can go home.

“Shocker,” yelled an audience member when Fox announced that Harris won California.

With absentee ballots and early votes tallied and 11 percent of precincts reporting, the four incumbent Democrats on the Wake County School Board have solid leads over their Republican incumbents. Toshiba Rice, Lynn Edmonds, Sam Hershey, and Lindsay Mahaffey all appear to be on glide paths to re-election.

The only tight school board race is in District 3, where incumbent Republican Wing Ng and his Democratic challenger Jordyne Blaise are practically tied. Only a few hundred votes separate the candidates.

Janet Cowell will be the next mayor of Raleigh.

Cowell, 56, won a five-way contest to succeed two-term Raleigh mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin, who did not seek re-election, receiving a preliminary 60.9 percent of the vote.

A former Raleigh city councilor, state senator, and state treasurer, Cowell most recently served as the president and CEO of the Dix Park Conservancy. She stepped down from her position at the Dix Park Conservancy on October 4 to focus full-time on her campaign.

With the early vote plus a few precincts reporting, Cowell defeated four other candidates in the race.

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Janet Cowell Wins Five-Way Race for Raleigh Mayor

A former Raleigh city councilor, state senator, and state treasurer, Cowell most recently served as the president and CEO of the Dix Park Conservancy.

I arrived at Birdie’s Barroom & Kitchen on Fayetteville Street just in time to hear Janet Cowell declare victory in the Raleigh mayor’s race. Based on early voting totals alone, Cowell commands a definitive lead against her opponents: she’s amassed more than 100,000 votes to her closest competitor’s 31,000. Cowell gave a short speech to the crowd of around 75 supporters gathered here.

“I just want you to know that whatever happens up-ballot, that I’m certainly going to be working to ensure that Raleigh is a city that works for everyone, a place of opportunity and empowerment, or safety and belonging, of collaboration and innovation,” Cowell says.

Cowell tells me that she plans to call City Manager Marchell Adams-David first thing tomorrow to work out the details of her swearing-in. Next on her call list are the Raleigh Housing Authority (to discuss affordable housing), the chief of police (to talk public safety and check on the progress of Raleigh’s alternative response unit), and the rest of the new city council (to come up with a “collaborative transition plan.”)

Cowell will succeed two-term mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin, who decided not to seek a third term. She will be the 63rd mayor of Raleigh.

Mark Robinson just delivered a concession speech in Raleigh.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s going our way tonight,” he said. Members of the crowd cried out in disbelief and anger. “But it’s always going our way,” he added.

“It’s going the right way, whether people want it to or not. People of faith know it’s going the right way because we read the back of the book. We know how this all comes to an end.”

He hinted at a possible future run for office.

“It’s about the state that you love, the state that I fully intend to continue to serve for the next few months, and who knows, maybe the in future once again,”

“Amen!” shouted an audience member.

Afterwards, Robinson and his wife made a round of the room to embrace supporters. In the corner, five supporters clasped hands to pray for the lieutenant governor.

“This isn’t the end, it truly is a beginning,” intoned one.

Joetta MacMiller, who worked with the Robinson campaign in Durham, said that she has supported him since 2018 and would happily continue to in any future races.

“With Mark, what you see is what you get. He’s, he’s a great man,” MacMiller said. “Smear campaigns really suck.”

A campaign spokesperson said that he wasn’t sure if Robinson would call Stein to concede tonight.

North Carolina Democratic Party chair Anderson Clayton and outgoing governor Roy Cooper just took the stage, with Cooper—freed from the constraints of his current office—delivering a speech that felt like a sermon on the gubernatorial choice North Carolina just made.

“There has never been a wider gulf in the choices in this race,” Cooper told the crowd, before leading them in a call-and-response. “Did we choose progress? Did we choose experience? Did we choose reproductive freedom for women? Did we choose support for public schools?”

Each question was met with cheers.

“We needed a person with integrity and grit,” Cooper continued. “We needed a person who would work with anyone to get the job done. We needed a person who would blaze his own trails. And we got that tonight.”

When Stein took the mic, he struck a notably bipartisan tone.

“We have big challenges ahead, but we have even bigger dreams to realize,” he said, before pivoting to a story about Western North Carolina that aimed to preview his governing philosophy: people helping people, regardless of party affiliation. His promise to rebuild the state, he emphasized, would follow that same human-centered approach.

A majority of the Durham races have been locked up for months. But that hasn’t diffused the energy in the Bull City. Instead, folks are turning their attention to the multitude of consequential races throughout North Carolina.

Here at Bull McCabe’s, the People’s Alliance has gathered together Durham’s political power players to watch as results stream in. The overwhelming vibe is “nauseously optimistic.”

Council member Nate Baker is hopeful that Mark Robinson’s whirlwind campaign will drag down the other Republican candidates.

The NC Board of Elections has posted early voting results for Wake County and the Raleigh municipal elections. These stats don’t include votes cast today—those haven’t been counted yet. Some takeaways:

Incumbent Christina Jones is edging out John Cerqueira in the District E contest: Jones got 53 percent of the early vote to Cerqueira’s 46 percent.

So far, Janet Cowell is leading in the race for Raleigh mayor with 61 percent of the vote. Paul Fitts and Terrance Ruth are trailing her with 18 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

Incumbents Jonathan Melton and Stormie Forte are leading the at-large race. James Bledsoe is trailing a distant third.

In the three-way race for District A, Mitchell Silver is leading with 40 percent of the early vote. Whitney Hill has 32 percent and incumbent council member Mary Black has 26 percent.

Incumbent Megan Patton has an 11-point lead over Jennifer McCollum in District B.

Incumbent council member Corey Branch earned about 40 percent of the early vote in District C, far outpacing his six challengers. The next highest vote-getter, Tolulope Omokaiye, got 20 percent.

Jane Harrison is running unopposed in District D.

Down the street from Slim’s, Raleigh city council member Corey Branch is hosting a low-key watch party at Flavor Hills restaurant. Branch is surrounded by family members and a handful of supporters, who’ve helped themselves from the ample buffet of southern food: collards, roasted potatoes, cornbread, grits, and wings.

Branch tells me he feels good after a full day at the polls.

“I want to thank everyone who has voted,” he says. “What we have to do now is come together to deal with the issues that we face within our district and across the city around housing, public safety, and economic development.”

Branch is in competitive race to defend his District C seat, which he’s occupied since 2015, against six challengers. The crowded field could work to his advantage, diluting the opposition. I’ll be watching this race closely as the night goes on.

I’m in Downtown Raleigh, where the polls are closed and the Election Night watch parties are getting underway.

At Slim’s, a dive bar on South Wilmington Street, supporters of at-large candidate Reeves Peeler and District A city council member Mary Black are gathering to debrief the day over a beer and/or a cigarette.

Gabriela Magallanes is a Peeler volunteer who worked the closing shift at the Barnwell Road Elementary polling site. Before that, Magallanes, who’s a therapist, spent the day counseling her clients on how to manage election stress.

“Everyone is feeling very anxious, and that messaging is being amplified through social media,” Magallanes tells me. “So a lot of what we talked about was disconnecting from technology and engaging in things that feel good. In the coming days, if the results are not what you want, how can you take care of yourself? We talked about good movies we can watch, people that we could spend time with, how can we get outside.”

I’m at the Mark Robinson watch party at the Raleigh City Club where, despite the Fox News call, nothing much has changed in the room of about 50 people.

Spectrum news is on the TV. Wine is being sipped. Appetizers are being picked at.

“I haven’t seen Mark yet,” said one elegantly dressed woman who declined to be interviewed. Indeed, Robinson has not yet been seen tonight.

I’m at the North Carolina Democratic Party’s election night watchathon at the Marriott City Center in Raleigh, where little trays of spanakopita and chicken cordon bleu are making the rounds and Ciara’s “1, 2 Step” is playing overhead. The mood is fairly subdued, though that might change when more results start to come in.

Todd Stiefel, the Raleigh millionaire behind those AI-generated Mark Robinson ads, just breezed through in a glittery blue blazer to share some news: Fox News has already called the governor’s race for Josh Stein, despite only 1 percent of precincts reporting.

“If Fox News is reporting it, it must be true!” Stiefel says.

Poll volunteers at the downtown Durham library watched with anticipation as the clock ticked away; 7:30 p.m. arrived. The polls were officially closed. Folks across the courtyard cheered with excitement and relief. Some of them had put in a 12-hour shift. They relished in the beautiful weather and a job well done.

As you wait for results to roll in, take a moment to breathe (and support our work!) and become a member. We aren’t a breaking news outlet, but it’s our hope to add some context to these results, drawn from our own prior coverage.

We want you to be part of our community of members who care deeply about their community — and who support our work to inform the Triangle about the issues impacting their lives. Join the club?

The polls are closed. Now the waiting begins.

Hundreds of thousands of voters in the Triangle area cast their ballots on Election Day, joining many thousands of others who voted early. We will begin to see the unofficial results tonight.

The INDY team is monitoring several key races, including:

• Raleigh’s mayoral contest and city council races;
• Wake County school board races;
• County board of commissioners races in Wake and Orange County;
• Bonds on voters’ ballots in Durham, Wake, and Orange Counties;
• A special election for a seat on the Carrboro Town Council; and
• Key state legislative battles, including in NC Senate Districts 13 and 18 and NC House District 37.

We’re also monitoring how turnout across the Triangle may have affected this year’s statewide contests and, of course, the presidential election.

Stay tuned here for updates throughout the evening.

Worth a look: The state Board of Elections has some helpful guidelines on when we can expect to start seeing unofficial results tonight.

In 2020, Orange County gave about 75 percent of its votes to Joe Biden, making it one of the bluest areas in the state. I visited several polling sites today in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that didn’t have any Republican tables outside.

In terms of land area, though, the county is mostly rural. Take a drive outside of the college town of Chapel Hill and the progressive intellectual-artist community of Hillsborough, and you’ll find vast and beautiful stretches of cow-filled fields. And while no community is a monolith, it’s true that urban people trend Democratic and rural people trend Republican.

In 2023, INDY alum Barry Yeoman described Hillsborough as “a blue hole at the center of an expansive red donut, including rural precincts that voted for President Trump by margins of three- and four-to-one…What appears, on the surface, like a liberal dominion is actually a place of stark contrasts.”

I asked John Gaither, Orange County GOP Chair, about that contrast when I ran into him at the Carrboro Elementary polling site today.

“We always hang our hat on that we help the statewide vote,” Gaither said. “And as rare as a dinosaur as my fellow Republicans here are, we still do have Republicans and statewide we do good.”

And, for national elections, it doesn’t matter who “wins” Orange County, because votes are counted by state, not county.

Gaither also knows that some Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents quietly support Republicans without necessarily putting up a Trump sign on the lawn.

“They might not take our sample ballot [because] they want to get invited to the good cocktail parties around town, and that’s OK,” said Gaither. He said that sometimes, people will walk past and just give a quiet thumbs up to the Republican table without stopping.

Mayor Leonardo Williams has been waiting for this moment.

“I know we are in a little bubble here, but the energy is so amped up, it is so exhilarating.”

Williams has built a strong connection to the Biden-Harris administration, and he’s not bashful about telling you. During a roundtable at NCCU’s School of Business last week, Williams made the case for why he’s been one of their most outspoken champions.

“When people see me out on the tarmac meeting and greeting the vice president and the president, and they see me in the motorcade, and they see me up and down all over the country, I’m doing that because I’m doing my part to keep an administration that I can actually work with and bring opportunities here. So I’m not getting partisan. I’m just telling you who’s delivering for Durham and who’s not.”

I spoke to Williams over the phone after he spent the day back at NC Central University, his alma mater, activating the student body and getting as many students to the polls as he could. He says students are energized by the prospect of “making history” by electing the first Black female president.

“What really stood out was all of those first time voters at NC Central and their no-nonsense approach,” Williams says.

“‘I’m not gonna miss my opportunity to have my voice heard,’” the students told him. “So they understood the assignment. They understood their their civic duty. I haven’t seen that in so long.”

While I eventually earned my bachelor’s degree from NCCU in 2017, I spent one semester at a neighboring historically Black college, Winston-Salem State University, in the fall of 2008.

That was the year I became an eligible voter, and the year the U.S. elected its first Black president. Being on an HBCU campus as the news broke was surreal beyond words. The campus exploded into one giant block party. Should Kamala Harris become the first Black woman to be elected U.S. president, NCCU students will likely share a similarly unforgettable experience.

Last week, I received a flyer in the mail from an organization called “DJs at the Polls” telling me that “THERE WILL BE A DJ” at my polling place on Election Day. But when I showed up to vote today? No DJ.

Still reeling from that betrayal, I was thrilled when I showed up at the Carrboro Elementary polling place this afternoon and heard a beat floating across the parking lot.

In the back corner, far from the tables of partisan election workers, I found James “DJ JMAC” McDonald hard at work. He said that DJs at the Polls has thousands of music makers up and down the east coast today.

The music vibe for democracy?

“I’m trying to catch a little bit of everything, you know what I’m saying?” said DJ JMAC. “Little bit of soft rock, R&B, pop, hip hop.”

There’s nary a voter in sight at the Millbrook Magnet Elementary polling site in Raleigh, but plenty of volunteers. The Democrats and Republicans have each set up a table on the curb outside the school. A Triangle DSA member is here in support of Mary Black and Reeves Peeler’s city council campaigns. Sisters Zyon and Zoey are passing out flyers for Wake County Commissioner Shinica Thomas.

This is the first time Zoey, 20, has been eligible to vote in a presidential election. She voted for Harris.

“It feels good, especially because it’s a woman that looks like me,” she says.

Zyon, 25, recently had a baby boy. She tells me she took him to Harris rallies in Raleigh, Greensboro, and Greenville, and cast her ballot with his future in mind: “This [election] season is really important to me because of him.”

At East Regional Library in Durham, the promised “Joy to the Polls” performer is MIA—though given the slow trickle of voters, there might not be much of an audience anyway.

Not ideal for a peak lunchtime voting period on Election Day. Poll greeters tell me it’s been this dead all morning.

The handful of greeters are split between two camps: On one side, Democratic sample ballot distributors include Narges Farahi, who’s volunteering with Moms for Mo, an organization backing Mo Green’s bid for state superintendent of schools against Republican Michelle Morrow.

“It’s the kind of race that just doesn’t get much attention,” Farahi says, adjusting her stack of papers in the midday sun. “Investing in a public education that allows teachers to teach an unbiased curriculum is really, really important to me.”

Across the sidewalk, Joetta MacMiller stands solo with Republican ballots in hand. She’s enthusiastic about Morrow—“She is for public schools, but she feels that if you’ve got a school that’s not performing well, you should have the ability to move your child to another school”—but saves her strongest support for gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson.

Her pink “Women for Mark Robinson” T-shirt prompts an obvious question: Why might a woman want to vote for Robinson?

“I don’t know why a woman wouldn’t want to vote for him,” MacMiller says. “And that’s all I’m going to say, because I know my words will probably be twisted around.”

When asked about the challenges of distributing Republican literature in deep-blue Durham, MacMiller responds matter-of-factly. “In our precinct, there are more Democrats than Republicans. So it’s to be expected that you’re gonna have more people take the Democrat ballots. But I’m not discouraged by it at all.”

As if on cue, a young woman approaches, accepting a Democratic sample ballot before turning to MacMiller.

“I need the Republican one, too,” the woman says. “I don’t know what I want.”

Barry, a Harris-Walz campaign volunteer, has been in Durham since 1984. He says he feels “pretty positive” that Harris will pull out the victory. Today, he’s helping other campaign volunteers get supplies out into the field as they ramp up for Election Day.

My first stop of the day is the John Chavis Memorial Park Community Center polling site in Raleigh, which is already buzzing with activity. Mayoral hopeful Eugene Myrick is here greeting voters personally. He’s handing out purple plastic wristbands and custom “I Want To Be Mayor!” coloring books with an AI-generated image of himself as a child on the front cover.

Also here is city council candidate Jared Ollison, who’s in a crowded race for the District C seat currently occupied by Corey Branch. Ollison tells me he’s feeling optimistic: “The community sport has been great. I feel like I’m well positioned to have a great showing, and hopefully it’s a win.”

This is my second time at Chavis Park in two weeks. Last time I was here I met Ren Pridgeon, a Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association volunteer who’s been poll-greeting in Raleigh for 48 years. (He started when he was 22 and just turned 70.) This morning, Pridgeon is back at Chavis handing out RWCA slate cards. He tells me he’s a preacher and mortician by trade, a former 911 operator, and a former special education teacher. He’s here to educate people about the importance of local elections.

“Everybody knows about the presidential race, everybody knows about the gubernatorial race, but many of them don’t know anything about the local races: city council, school board, the judges,” Pridgeon says. “Those type things that are very important.”

Pridgeon tells me he was most excited to vote for Kamala Harris, Josh Stein, and Janet Cowell.

An Election Day surprise: I woke up to an email from the NC DOJ stating that a complaint I filed against my former property management company over a bogus $750 charge has been resolved in my favor. The property management company apparently discovered their “error” in levying the charge after receiving a note from the AG’s office. Looks like Josh Stein is determined to squeeze every last drop of consumer protection juice out of his attorney general’s role.

It’s Election Day. Finally.

After months of anticipation, hundreds of thousands of Triangle residents are expected to cast their votes today, joining many thousands of others who participated in this year’s record-breaking early voting period.

The INDY team will be in the field all day, talking with voters and officials across the region. We’re monitoring several key races, including:

• Raleigh’s mayoral contest and city council races;
• Wake County school board races;
• County board of commissioners races in Wake and Orange County;
• Bonds on voters’ ballots in Durham, Wake, and Orange Counties;
• A special election for a seat on the Carrboro Town Council; and
• Key state legislative battles, including in NC Senate Districts 13 and 18 and NC House District 37.

On the morning before Election Day, Donald Trump stopped in Raleigh to tell thousands of his supporters to go vote, and other than that, I’m really not sure what to report.

Did he say bizarre things for 90 minutes? Sure. Did the crowd love it when he shouted out the “beautifully coiffed” women of North Carolina? Certainly. Was the event entertaining? Honestly, compared to most political events, yeah.

Did he lie? Surely yes. Am I going to fact-check it? No. What’s the point? Who’s keeping track? How do you write a normal story about a not-normal event? Is it my job to call him a fascist? Should I be enabling INDY reader doom-scrolling? This is the third Trump campaign—who the hell is going to read this story and reevaluate their opinion of the man who has dominated the American psyche for nearly a decade?

Nearly any line from the rally could stand on its own as a headline. But in many ways, the guy sounded a lot like the rest of us: ready for the election to be over.

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On the Eve of the Election, Donald Trump Holds a Final Rally in Raleigh That Feels Like a Swan Song

The former president told an animated if not full-capacity crowd that the election is “ours to lose.”

The volunteers at Bull City Votes, a longstanding grassroots effort in Durham, are more than just drivers and canvassers—they’re democracy’s ground crew, ready to help voters navigate an increasingly complex process. Their mission has taken on new urgency this year as North Carolina’s voter ID requirements have led to longer wait times at polling places.

“The new voting restrictions are making voting take a really long time for folks,” says Hope Tyson, a volunteer with Bull City Votes. “A good rate for us is one volunteer driving one voter per hour.” 

With Election Day approaching, Tyson spoke with the INDY about the group’s mission and the challenges facing transit-dependent voters.

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An Interview With Hope Tyson, Bull City Votes Volunteer Who’s Helping Voters Get to the Polls and Navigate New Voting Laws

“We’re working with people who are facing a lot of barriers to vote, and we’re working with those folks on purpose.”

In recent weeks, the Wake County Board of Education’s bimonthly public comment sessions have increasingly become a forum for conservative political vitriol and viral social media moments.

Moms for Liberty and Michele Morrow, the far-right candidate for state superintendent of public instruction, have been rallying their supporters to disrupt school board meetings over issues like graphic content in books. Recently, a teacher was singled out for wearing a tutu during school spirit week.

But now, parents like Schroeder and the Wake County PTA are fighting back, bringing their supporters out in numbers to speak against book banning and to support school staff.

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As Far Right Groups Attack Public Education, the Wake PTA Council Pushes Back

Moms for Liberty and the Michele Morrow campaign have been dominating Wake school board meetings leading up to the election. The Wake PTA Council and dozens of concerned parents are speaking out and fighting back.