Live updates on Raleigh City Council races: Who will lead city for next 2 years?
Raleigh voted six incumbents and one new member onto the Raleigh City Council, according to unofficial election results.
With seven council seats up for consideration, the winners of Tuesday’s election will help navigate the City of Oaks though affordable housing and other growth challenges during the next two years.
In the race for mayor, former State Treasurer Janet Cowell declared victory after taking a big lead fueled by early voting results. Read that story here.
The 2024 election marks the last for two-year terms, as the council moves to four-year terms in 2026. Below are the election results for each council seat.
7 candidates for 2 at-large seats
Incumbents Stormie Forte and Jonathan Melton held onto their seats in the crowded at-large races. With 93 out of the 111 precincts reporting, Forte and Melton had 29% and 25% of the vote, respectively.
Trailing the incumbents were James Bledsoe (14%), Reeves Peeler (10%), Kate Pate (9%), Joshua Bradley (8%) and Robert Steel Jr. (5%)
Forte, a licensed attorney and real estate agent, is a Raleigh native who has been on the City Council since 2020, when she was appointed to represent District D. Two years ago, she emerged from the seven-person field to win one of two at-large seats with 23% of the vote and 10,000 more votes than Melton, a lawyer and mediator who took the second seat in that race.
Melton, who serves as mayor pro tem, is seeking his third at-large term.
District A, North Raleigh
With all 30 precincts reporting, urban planner Mitchell Silver won the three-person race with 40% of the vote in the district that covers most of central and North Raleigh.
Challenger Whitney Hill finished with 33% of the vote, followed by first-term incumbent Mary Black, with 26%
District B, Northeast Raleigh
With all 18 precincts reporting, first-term incumbent Megan Patton defeated. corporate account manager Jennifer McCollum, 54% to 45%.
District C, Southeast Raleigh
Incumbent Corey Branch, seeking his fifth term, led the pack of seven candidates with 40% of the vote.. Branch initially filed to run for mayor, but later withdrew from that race.
With all 20 precincts reporting, Branch was followed by Tolulope Omokaiye (20%) DaQuanta Copeland (10%), Portia Rochelle (9%), Tomara DeCosta (8%), Jared Ollison (7%) and Daniel Grant-King (5%).
District D, Southwest Raleigh
Incumbent Jane Harrison, a coastal economics specialist for N.C. Sea Grant, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program based at N.C. State University, was unopposed in her bid for a second term.
District E, Northwest Raleigh
With all 24 precincts reporting, first-term incumbent Christina Jones defeated challenger John Cerqueira, an organizational change consultant, 51.5% to 48%.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 7:51 PM.
