Raleigh’s Leading Mayoral Candidates Bring Two Differing Visions

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Early voting is underway, and you can find all of the INDY’s election coverage here. Our questionnaires for candidates running in local races in Wake, Orange, and Durham counties, and for state house and senate seats in Triangle districts, are live and will continue to be updated. We’ll be reporting up to Election Day on November 5 and after and plan to bring you coverage on state constitutional amendments, candidate visits, and more. Send us your election thoughts, questions, and concerns and we’ll try to get you answers promptly. 

Good morning, readers. 

This is the first year in Raleigh’s history that its municipal races are on the ballot alongside a presidential election, and as the country heads to the polls to select a new leader, Raleigh voters will also select a new mayor. 

While there are five candidates running for the top seat, two look to be the frontrunners: Janet Cowell, a former Raleigh city councilmember, state lawmaker, and state treasurer, and Terrance (Truth) Ruth, an NC State professor and self-described “community builder.”

As Jasmine Gallup writes in the final installment in her four-part series on the Raleigh City Council elections, Cowell and Ruth represent different visions for the City of Oaks. 

Cowell, while a vastly different personality than Raleigh’s current mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin, supports much of what the city is already doing, especially in terms of its housing policy. Cowell says she’ll bring a strong environmental focus to the council: protecting the city’s tree canopy, incentivizing green development, and enhancing Raleigh’s creeks and natural waterways. 

Ruth, on the other hand, promises change. He has an exhaustive blueprint for community engagement, with plans to hold weekly town meetings in each of the city’s five districts, and he wants to reform the city’s volunteer boards and commissions to make it easier for all residents to serve. 

Raleigh voters have a choice this election cycle, in the mayoral race and others. They can vote for change, as Ruth, and several challengers in the at-large and district races promise. Or they can vote to what will likely amount to staying the course—for Cowell and several council incumbents. 

Read Part One, Part Two, and Part Three in the Raleigh City Council election series. 

Have a good Monday. 

—Jane

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Durham

Vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz and former President Bill Clinton warmed up a small crowd in Durham’s Lyons Park community center on the first day of early voting last week. 

Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the iconic “Hope” image of former President Barack Obama, brought a mural of presidential hopeful Kamala Harris to downtown Durham. 

ICYMI: Two local exhibitions by artist Sherrill Roland, who was wrongfully incarcerated in 2013, contend with identity, portraiture, and the criminal justice system.

Wake

The Wake County Democratic Party is warning against unsanctioned slate cards being distributed at local polling stations “posing as official voting information.”

Orange

The Orange County Board of Commissioners and Carrboro Town Council voted unanimously to name the new library building at 203 S. Greensboro Street as the “Drakeford Library Complex” after Bob Drakeford, Carrboro’s first Black mayor.

North Carolina

More than a quarter of North Carolina parents of children under age 5 say they’ve left the workforce because they can’t find affordable childcare. 

More than 1 million people have voted in North Carolina already.

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