“Tis the season,” and politics are exploding all over.
Of course, in this overheated and viciously partisan atmosphere, we no longer seem to have an “off” political season. Fifteen months out, we are already well underway to an election that is 15 months away for most state and federal candidates.
Municipal elections are a bit different. In North Carolina, most of them, including Fayetteville’s, are held in odd-numbered years every 4 years with staggered terms for council members. In 2025, Fayetteville is staring down a humdinger of a municipal election.
Incumbent Mayor Mitch Colvin kept residents on pins and needles for months as they wondered, will he or won’t he seek re-election? In June, he finally said “no,” leaving a crowded field of 3 sitting council members who aspire to the top job, including Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen, Mario Benavente, and Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, along with 6 other mayoral aspirants.
Then, out of the blue on the last morning of filing, incumbent Mayor Colvin surprised many by filing for re-election, citing concern for continuity on the city board. That is always a legitimate concern when an elected body is looking at a leadership change, but it certainly reshapes Fayetteville’s race for the top municipal post. It may also leave the sitting council members who joined the mayoral race thinking Colvin was out with considerable buyer’s remorse.
Throw in the 27 candidates, including 6 other incumbents, seeking 1 of 9 council seats, and it is going to be a wild ride.
Fayetteville voters need to buckle up between now and November 4th.
Politics at the state level may be even more tumultuous with more than a year to go.
All eyes will be on North Carolina’s US Senate race, which is shaping up to be one of the most riveting and expensive in US history. Immediate past governor, Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has joined the fray amid much Democratic delight. A popular governor with a long track record of service from the NC General Assembly to the Attorney General’s office to the Governor’s Mansion, Cooper is well known and well liked enough to have never lost an election. He may or may not draw a primary challenger.
On the Republican side, longtime Republican political operative Michael Whatley has announced his candidacy, and he, too, could draw primary opposition. He has apparently been spared a formidable challenger in Lara Trump, daughter-in-law to President Trump and a Wilmington native who passed on the Senate race to continue her career in pop music with a religious tinge. Whatley has never held elective office.
Blessedly, 2026 will not bring a Presidential race. Those happen every 4 years, and Americans are still in recovery from 2024. That does not mean, however, that national politics will not be ever-present and consuming. As best I can tell, Americans will plod toward the 2026 elections as divided as we have ever been, at least since the Civil War some 160 years ago.
Republicans remain trapped in lockstep with MAGA cultists, whether they share those views or not. Democrats are wandering in the political wilderness and warring among themselves about the road ahead, whether to emphasize progressive issues or to choose a middle of the road path more akin to traditional Republican values.
History teaches us that the pendulum always swings in the opposite direction. The question now is how long that will take and how much damage is done to our nation in the meantime.