On Tuesday evening, the Wake County Democratic Party (WCDP) announced its endorsements for most of the 34 municipal elections coming up this November. County party chair Wesley Knott tells INDY that he and his team intend to canvas 50,000 homes, win every race, and flip the Holly Springs town council and Fuquay-Varina town commission from Republican to Democratic majorities this year.
“We are investing in these races more than we’ve ever invested in any municipal races in the organization’s history,” Knott says. “We will knock more doors this year than we’ve knocked in any municipal election, we will make more phone calls to voters than we’ve made in any municipal election, and we will have 100 percent poll greeting coverage. … We’re going to show this year that a Wake Dems endorsement is the determining factor in helping elect Democrats who share our values.”
Although Wake’s municipal elections are nonpartisan, both major parties regularly endorse to avoid confusing their voters or diluting votes across multiple candidates. You can see which candidates the Wake County Republican Party endorsed here.
The WCDP got involved in local nonpartisan elections in 2011 after Republicans swept the Wake County school board elections in 2009. To gain the WCDP’s endorsement, candidates have to complete a questionnaire and interview with the county party’s 13 top officers, who then vote on whether to endorse them or not. Approved candidates must sign the WCDP’s candidate expectation agreement in order to be endorsed.
“We are looking for folks with leadership potential, who are engaged in their community, who share our values and who are electable and running good campaigns,” Knott says. “We want to coalesce behind those Democratic candidates to ensure that we’re electing as many of those folks to office as possible.”
In Apex, Morrisville, and Zebulon, more Democrats are running for office than there are seats up for election. Knott says in those instances, the party chose to back the strongest, most electable people. He declined to explain specific endorsement decisions.
The WCDP didn’t endorse in the Morrisville Town Council District 4 race or in Rolesville, where three town council seats are on the ballot this fall. (Three total candidates are running in that race, so they will all win regardless.) The party only endorsed one candidate in Knightdale although there are three Democrats running for three town council seats. Knott says that when the party does not endorse a Democrat running for office, it could be because they didn’t seek the party’s endorsement, the party did not extend an endorsement offer, or the candidate didn’t sign the candidate expectation agreement.
Knott says the WCDP is growing its presence in southern Wake County in hopes of flipping the Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina town governments. Holly Springs’ town council is majority-Republican, while in Fuquay-Varina, the town commission has two Democrats, two Republicans, and one unaffiliated commissioner. Both towns have Republican mayors.
“I feel like that’s an area where we’ve lagged behind in our organizing capacity in the past,” he says. “But we turned a sharp corner in 2024, and our volunteers are excited to get out there and help make some progress in some municipalities that, from our view, have not been representing our values [or] serving their communities well.”
The WCDP knocked on 45,000 doors in the run-up to the 2024 election, Knott told INDY earlier this year. That was a big jump from 2022, when the party canvassed fewer than 2,000 households. In 2025, Knott wants to do even more door-knocking, which he says is achievable since the county party has “grown a ton.” Turnout for Wake’s odd-year municipal elections is usually very low, creating an opportunity for this kind of organizing to make a real difference.
“We’ve raised more money so far in 2025 than we did in 2024, a presidential election year, and it’s not from large dollar donors or special interest groups,” he says. “It’s from grassroots, everyday folks.”
Here’s who the Wake County Democratic Party endorsed:
Apex Town Council: Ed Gray, Sue Mue, Shane Reese
Cary Town Council At-Large: Carissa Johnson
Cary Town Council District A: Brittany Richards
Cary Town Council District C: Bella Huang
Fuquay-Varina Mayor: Bill Harris
Fuquay-Varina Town Board of Commissioners: Bryan Haynes, Kristopher Vorren
Garner Town Council: Gra Singleton, Kelvin Stallings
Holly Springs Mayor: Mike Kondratick
Holly Springs Town Council: Annie Drees, Kara Foster, Sarah Larson
Knightdale Town Council: Grady Bussey
Morrisville Mayor: TJ Cawley
Morrisville Town Council At-Large: Harrison Kesling
Morrisville Town Council District 2: Jashi Abhirajan
Morrisville Town Council District 4: No endorsement
Rolesville Town Board of Commissioners: No endorsements
Wake Forest Mayor: Ben Clapsaddle
Wake Forest Town Board of Commissioners: Haseeb Fatmi, Keith Shackleford
Wendell Town Board of Commissioners: BJ Barham, Deans Eatman, Dustin Ingalls
Zebulon Mayor: Jessica Daniels Harrison
Zebulon Town Board of Commissioners: Davarus Gardner, Quentin Miles
You can find a complete list of the candidates running for local office in Wake County here.
Chloe Courtney Bohl is a Report for America corps member. Follow her on Bluesky or reach her at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].