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Brad Hessel
Brad Hessel (Libertarian Party) ran for election to the North Carolina State Senate to represent District 18. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Hessel completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Brad Hessel was born in New York, New York. He attended Sleepy Hollow High School and Phillips Exeter Academy. He earned a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1975. His career experience includes working in management consulting, simulation design and development, game and magazine publishing, technical writing and training, software pricing schema design, corporate web architecture design. He has been affiliated with the Raleigh North Citizens Advisory Council, the Beth Meyer Social Action Committee, and the Wake County Libertarian Party.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: North Carolina State Senate elections, 2024
General election
General election for North Carolina State Senate District 18
Terence Everitt defeated Ashlee Bryan Adams and Brad Hessel in the general election for North Carolina State Senate District 18 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Terence Everitt (D) | 48.5 | 59,667 |
 | Ashlee Bryan Adams (R)  | 48.4 | 59,539 | |
 | Brad Hessel (L) | 3.2 | 3,906 | |
| Total votes: 123,112 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Terence Everitt advanced from the Democratic primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18.
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Ashlee Bryan Adams advanced from the Republican primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18.
Libertarian primary election
The Libertarian primary election was canceled. Brad Hessel advanced from the Libertarian primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18.
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Hessel in this election.
2018
General election
General election for North Carolina State Senate District 18
Incumbent John Alexander defeated Mack Paul and Brad Hessel in the general election for North Carolina State Senate District 18 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | John Alexander (R) | 49.9 | 51,794 |
 | Mack Paul (D) | 47.4 | 49,155 | |
| Brad Hessel (L) | 2.8 | 2,855 | |
| Total votes: 103,804 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18
Mack Paul advanced from the Democratic primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18 on May 8, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Mack Paul |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18
Incumbent John Alexander advanced from the Republican primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18 on May 8, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | John Alexander |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2016
Elections for the North Carolina State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election was held on March 15, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016.[2] The candidate filing deadline was December 21, 2015.[3]
Incumbent John Alexander defeated Laurel Deegan-Fricke and Brad Hessel in the North Carolina State Senate District 15 general election.[4][5]
| North Carolina State Senate, District 15 General Election, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  John Alexander Incumbent |
50.01% | 58,999 | |
| Democratic | Laurel Deegan-Fricke | 45.69% | 53,905 | |
| Libertarian | Brad Hessel | 4.31% | 5,081 | |
| Total Votes | 117,985 | |||
| Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections | ||||
Laurel Deegan-Fricke ran unopposed in the North Carolina State Senate District 15 Democratic primary.[6][7]
| North Carolina State Senate, District 15 Democratic Primary, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | |
| Democratic | Laurel Deegan-Fricke (unopposed) | |
Incumbent John Alexander ran unopposed in the North Carolina State Senate District 15 Republican primary.[8][9]
| North Carolina State Senate, District 15 Republican Primary, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | |
| Republican | John Alexander Incumbent (unopposed) | |
Brad Hessel ran unopposed in the North Carolina State Senate District 15 Libertarian primary.[10][11]
| North Carolina State Senate, District 15 Libertarian Primary, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | |
| Libertarian | Brad Hessel (unopposed) | |
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Brad Hessel completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hessel's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
- I have the best positions on the issues that matter most to voters in NC—the economy, healthcare, and education. They lean towards getting government out of the way…for example, eliminate the certificate-of-need law that enables existing favored healthcare providers to charge exorbitant prices by making it illegal for potential competitors to set up shop in the same area.
But my focus is on electoral reform. I am running is because I am unhappy with the toxic political climate. Many candidates spend more energy denigrating their opponents than addressing issues and policy. Some even insult their opponent’s supporters!
This is a national problem; we can’t entirely fix it at the state level. But 3 electoral reforms we can enact will help! - 1. Instant Runoff Voting (a/k/a Ranked-Choice Voting). Used in Alaska & Maine (statewide) and many municipalities (e.g., SF, Minneapolis, NYC). Provides incentive for candidates to reach out to voters beyond their base (as opposed to denigrating their opponents’ supporters which is common now), ensures every election winner gets a majority of the votes (under our current plurality voting system, we often get “winners” who most voters actually voted against), and saves money by eliminating the need to ever conduct a separate runoff election (which are not only expensive, but notoriously low-turnout affairs…not unheard of for the “winner” of a runoff to get fewer votes than the loser got in the original election due to turnout dropoff).
- 2. Fairness for Independent Voters. Independents now amount to 38% of the electorate in NC, but are banned by law from serving on the Board of Elections—and thus have no say on voting sites and dates, candidate and party eligibility, resolving any Election Day problems or certifying election results…and they are also effectively banned from running for partisan office in NC by discriminatory petition requirements that do not apply to Ds or Rs. 3. Non-Partisan Redistricting. There are too many “safe” election districts, and political gerrymandering is largely to blame. Our constitution calls for districts to be compact and cohere to existing boundaries and too many are not. 160 years of leaving this to the parties proves that doesn’t work.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2016
Hessel's campaign Facebook page highlighted the following issues:
| “ |
We believe in the people of North Carolina. We believe in their spirit, their ingenuity and their compassion. Our state is a place where individuals succeed through voluntary social cooperation solving humanity’s most critical challenges through free market innovation with dignity, respect, and understanding. Government far too often stifles innovation through regulation, subverts compassion through bureaucracy, and suppresses achievement through economic manipulation. This limits the potential to work together voluntarily, to achieve shared successes, and to live for our individual fulfillment. Libertarians believe that state, county, and local governments should never be allowed to stand as obstacles to the people of North Carolina…obstacles to who we are, who we can be, and what we can achieve, so long as each individual respects the rights of others.[12] |
” |
| —Brad Hessel[13] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate North Carolina State Senate District 18 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 8, 2024
- ↑ The primary for U.S. congressional elections was rescheduled to June 7, 2016, following legal challenges to North Carolina's district maps. State races were unaffected.
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "2016 Candidate Filing," archived January 19, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Candidate Listing," accessed August 23, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "2016 General Election results lookup," accessd December 21, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Candidate Listing," accessed January 4, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "03/15/2016 Official primary results - Statewide," March 15, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Candidate Listing," accessed January 4, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "03/15/2016 Official primary results - Statewide," March 15, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Candidate Listing," accessed January 4, 2016
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "03/15/2016 Official primary results - Statewide," March 15, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Facebook, "About Brad Hessel NC Senate 15," accessed September 23, 2016
