It feels like Raleigh just had an election, and yet the 2026 campaign season is already underway—with some changes from previous years.
For the first time, qualifying city council offices will have a primary election in March. In practice, only District C and the at-large race have enough candidates running to trigger a primary this cycle. The mayoral and District A, B, D, and E races won’t show up on voters’ ballots until November. (Check which city council district you live in here.)
Raleigh is also beginning a staggered transition to four-year council terms this cycle. The mayor, the top vote-getter in the at-large race, and the District A and B councilmembers will be elected to four-year terms in 2026, and the remaining council seats will follow suit in 2028. The races are still nonpartisan.
It’s been a relatively calm year for city politics, but Raleigh wasn’t immune to nationwide economic headwinds and immigration crackdowns. Costs rose for government and builders alike this year, slowing down city projects, and federal immigration enforcement agents detained Raleigh residents in November.
Here’s who’s running and what to know about the candidates as the March 3 primary approaches.
Mayor (No primary)
Incumbent Mayor Janet Cowell has had a successful first year in office. In the 2024 election, her focus on safety and affordability and her résumé as a former city councilor, state senator, and state treasurer buoyed her to an easy win in a five-way race. Since then she’s delivered on many of her campaign promises: In a recent email to supporters, she wrote that the city has issued certificates of occupancy for 1,600 affordable units and 5,600 market-rate units since she was sworn in. Her city council raised salaries for city staff this year, and according to her email, law enforcement vacancies are down. Cowell also touted a flat violent crime rate, bus rapid transit (BRT) construction underway, and the opening of Gipson Play Plaza in Dix Park. Cowell has ruffled feathers in the neighborhood preservation crowd, some of whom are planning to sue the city over its approval of a 27-story residential tower on Peace Street, but others in Raleigh are celebrating the project as an example of the kind of dense urban development they say the city needs more of. As has been the case with most big development votes this year, a strong majority of Cowell’s council voted with her to approve the Peace Street rezoning.
Ashleigh Heath Armstrong, Cowell’s sole challenger, does not appear to have a campaign website or public social media presence. She is unaffiliated and a Wake County resident since at least 2004, according to state voting records.
At-Large (2 seats, all residents may vote for two candidates)
This is the city race to watch in 2026. Incumbent Jonathan Lambert-Melton’s decision not to seek reelection (he’s running for Wake County commissioner instead) opens up at least one of Raleigh’s two at-large seats for a newcomer. Six people are running, and four will progress to the general election.
Stormie Forte has been on council since 2020 and an at-large representative since 2022. Her colleagues made her the mayor pro tem in 2024. Forte is an attorney and mediator who consults for companies and political candidates and hosts a local radio talk show. On her website, the Raleigh native says she’s interested in advancing the city’s affordable housing and public transit goals. Despite being one of the quieter voices on city council, she’s been the top vote-getter in the at-large race for the past two election cycles. Among this year’s crop of at-large candidates, she’s the only one with previous experience in elected office.
James Bledsoe is a perennial conservative candidate who wants to lower taxes and deregulate home-building in Raleigh. He is an IT manager and an Army veteran. This is his fifth run for city council since 2017; he’s performed a bit better each time but never earned more than 15% of the vote.
Joshua Bradley writes on his campaign website that he is running to be a voice for working-class Raleighites. His platform includes making the city government carbon neutral by 2030, passing a progressive property tax, and replacing the police force with a community-led public safety structure. This is Bradley’s fourth run for council; he received 8% of the vote in 2024.
Clark Rinehart is an entrepreneur and former pastor who’s lived in Raleigh since 2009. A member of the city’s working group for the former DMV site on New Bern Avenue, he’s interested in improving Raleigh’s affordability, public safety, and multimodal transportation.
Sana Siddiqui is a longtime Raleigh resident, North Carolina State University alum, and member of the city’s Environmental Advisory and Hispanic and Immigrant Affairs boards. She founded a meal kit company and created the Get 2 Know Raleigh site. Her campaign website highlights community engagement and support for small businesses among her priorities.
Cameron Zamot is the founder of the Bike Library bike and coffee shop near Boylan Heights and a former senior transit planner for the city who helped plan its forthcoming BRT system. According to his campaign website, he’s a mechanical engineer, has a Master of Business Administration, and did a stint in the U.S. Naval Academy before “breaking a few rules too many” and getting kicked out. He says he wants to use his business background and outsider’s perspective (he moved to Raleigh in 2022) to make the city more sustainable and bike friendly.
District A (No primary)
Mitchell Silver, the former Raleigh planning director and New York City parks commissioner, is running for a second term on council. In 2024 he won a three-way race with 40% of the vote, beating incumbent Mary Black. As planning director from 2005 to 2014, Silver was one of the architects of Raleigh’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan—the guiding document for the city’s growth and development, which the next council will have a hand in updating. On his campaign website, Silver writes that “smart growth” in Raleigh means adding density where it makes sense and preserving existing affordable neighborhoods.
Silver’s predecessor Black isn’t running this time, but another of his former competitors, Whitney Hill, is. This is the third time Hill, a Republican, has run in Raleigh’s most conservative district, and he’s done a bit better each time: he got 9,666 votes (29%) in 2022 and 14,746 (33%) in 2024. His campaign website appears to be unchanged from 2024, when he promised to prioritize enhancing public safety, curtailing taxes, and expanding housing availability.
District B (No primary)
Megan Patton was elected in 2022 as part of a cohort of four progressive millennial women. Three of them (Patton, Christina Jones, and Jane Harrison) are still on the council and seeking reelection in 2026. Patton works in customer service for an e-commerce company and is a former teacher. Since joining the council she’s focused on transit, affordable housing, and sustainability. Patton is the only candidate running unopposed this year.
District C (District C residents may vote for one candidate)
Four names will appear on District C voters’ ballot in March, and two will move on to the November general election.
Corey Branch has represented Southeast Raleigh on the city council since 2015 and is a former mayor pro tem. By day, he’s a manager for an IT infrastructure firm. On council, he’s helped get more affordable housing development approved in his district than any other and was instrumental in bringing Raleigh’s BRT corridor to New Bern Avenue. He’s popular in his district and won easily last year in a crowded field. Here’s his campaign website.
Jared Ollison is a North Carolina State Capitol police officer and previously ran the Wake County Detention Center. Like Branch and Diana Powell, he’s a Southeast Raleigh native. During his first run for this seat in 2024, he told the INDYhis experience in law enforcement had attuned him to Raleigh’s need for better mental health services and new tools to combat homelessness and displacement. Here’s his campaign website.
Tolulope Omokaiye is a Southeast Raleigh small business owner, current planning commissioner, and former Raleigh Transit Authority chair. When she first ran for this seat last year, she told the INDY she wanted to curb “predatory” luxury housing development in favor of affordable and mixed-income options. That cycle, she earned the Wake County Democratic Party’s endorsement and placed second behind Branch with 20% of the vote. Her campaign website appears to be under construction.
Diana Powell is a violence prevention specialist at Raleigh Boots on the Ground, a nonprofit that takes a public health approach to ending gun violence. She also founded Justice Served NC, a criminal justice reentry support nonprofit. She is from Southeast Raleigh and looks to be a first-time candidate. She doesn’t appear to have a campaign website.
District D (No primary)
Two-term incumbent Jane Harrison is a faculty member at N.C. State University, where she specializes in environmental economics and natural resource management—skills she’s applied as a city council member when advocating for parks, sound city infrastructure, and climate solutions. Harrison’s district covers southwest Raleigh.
Jevon Smith doesn’t seem to have a campaign website or public social media presence. According to state voter records, he’s a Democrat who began voting in Wake County in 2018.
District E (No primary)
In her first two terms in office, incumbent council member Christina Jones delivered on one of her marquee campaign promises: the restoration of Raleigh’s Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs). After the council scrapped them in 2020 and then restored them in 2022, the volunteer advisory bodies now have access to most of the same resources they used to—plus some new ones, including grant funding opportunities. Jones, a former CAC chair herself, is a big advocate of community engagement and tends to be skeptical of large-scale development projects. Here’s her campaign website.
Jones’ opponent Marc Scruggs previously served on the Raleigh City Council from 1995 to 1997 and 1999 to 2001, per Wikipedia. On his campaign website he says he wants to keep the tax rate flat, prevent crime, and balance growth with affordability. From the INDY’s archive: Scruggs seems to have flip-flopped from Republican to Democrat to Republican again over the years. His grandfather James Briggs was the mayor of Raleigh from 1951 to 1953. Scruggs is a former teacher, soccer coach, funeral director, and hardware store owner.
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