Kara Foster (Holly Springs Town Council, North Carolina, candidate 2025)
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Kara Foster is running for election to the Holly Springs Town Council in North Carolina. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source]
Foster completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Kara Foster provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 3, 2025:
- Birth date: March 30, 1983
- Birth place: Sharon, Pennsylvania
- High school: Hickory High School - Hermitage PA
- Bachelor's: Mercyhurst University, 2005
- Graduate: New England College of Optometry, 2009
- Gender: Female
- Religion: Christian
- Profession: Optometrist
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: A Clear Vision for Holly Springs
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
- Campaign Facebook
Elections
General election
The general election will occur on November 4, 2025.
General election for Holly Springs Town Council (3 seats)
The following candidates are running in the general election for Holly Springs Town Council on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
| Joe Cuccurullo (Nonpartisan) | ||
Annie Drees (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Tim Forrest (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Kara Foster (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Sarah Larson (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Josh Prizer (Nonpartisan) | ||
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| = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Foster's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. To send us an endorsement, click here.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Kara Foster completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Foster's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My upbringing shaped that conviction. I was raised by a single mom in rural Pennsylvania, with the support of my grandmother. I know what it feels like to struggle, and I know the difference it makes when communities come together to help each other thrive.
I’m running for Holly Springs Town Council because I love this town and believe we’re at a turning point. I want to ensure Holly Springs grows responsibly, supports local businesses, invests in parks and greenways, and creates attainable housing so our teachers, first responders, and young families can afford to live here. Most of all, I want our community to feel connected, healthy, and safe.
I believe in transparency, fairness, and building solutions that put people over politics. My vision is simple: a town where families flourish, businesses succeed, and neighbors feel proud to call Holly Springs home.- Growth That Works for Us: Holly Springs is growing whether we like it or not, the question is how. I want growth that makes sense: housing our teachers and first responders, protecting our green spaces, and making sure development adds to our quality of life instead of taking it away. We only get one chance to shape this next chapter, let’s do it right.
- A Healthier, More Connected Town I’ve spent my career helping people see clearly, and here’s what I see: a community where families walk to school, neighbors gather in parks, and local businesses are at the heart of our town. Investing in greenways, walkability, and local shops isn’t just “nice to have” - it’s what keeps Holly Springs strong and connected.
- Transparency & Putting People First I’ve built my career on listening, problem-solving, and challenging broken systems. On council, I’ll do the same: listen to residents, share decisions openly, and always put people over politics. I will never take developer money and will keep our town’s future in the hands of its citizens.
This makes the office critically important. Council members are stewards of public resources, responsible for balancing growth with quality of life, protecting green space, and ensuring that our community remains healthy, vibrant, and connected. The council sets the vision for how a town grows, not just physically, but socially and culturally. Decisions about attainable housing, walkability, small business support, and public safety determine whether Holly Springs remains a place where teachers, first responders, young families, and seniors can all thrive.
It is also a position that demands transparency and accountability. Because the council is directly accountable to the people it serves, residents should expect openness, honesty, and a willingness to listen. That proximity to the people is what makes this office both unique and powerful, it is government at its most immediate and personal.
Her example reminds me that leadership isn’t about the loudest voice in the room, it’s about the steady, thoughtful one that lifts others. Michelle Obama embodies the idea that true power comes from service, resilience, and using your platform to make a difference in people’s daily lives. That’s the kind of leader I aspire to be: thoughtful, compassionate, and unafraid to challenge broken systems, but always with the goal of inspiring hope and unity rather than deepening divides.
As a healthcare provider, I’ve spent more than 20 years listening to people’s needs and solving problems. In medicine, listening is often more powerful than any test or prescription, it’s how you truly understand someone’s challenges and create solutions that fit their life. I believe government should work the same way: listen first, then lead with transparency and trust.
Transparency builds confidence between residents and their leaders. When decisions are made openly, and when leaders explain the “why” behind policies, people feel respected and heard. In my practice, I’ve built trust by being upfront about pricing, treatment options, and care plans, and I’ve seen how much people value honesty, even when the answers aren’t easy.
A heart of service means remembering leadership is stewardship. It’s about making choices today that protect and strengthen our town for tomorrow, whether that’s supporting schools, building green space, or ensuring safe neighborhoods.
For me, that vision isn’t limited to a clinic or a hospital. Health is built into the fabric of everyday life. It’s greenways and sidewalks that make it safe for families to walk or bike. It’s farmers’ markets that make fresh food affordable and accessible. It’s neighborhoods designed for connection instead of isolation. It’s prevention, not just treatment, policies that make the healthy choice the easy choice.
These are changes that cut across politics. No matter our background or beliefs, we all want safe streets for our kids, fresh food on the table, and access to care when we need it. By focusing on these nonpartisan improvements, we can give people not only longer lives, but better lives.
It was the first time in my life that the world felt unsafe, the first time I realized how quickly everything we take for granted can be shaken. For my generation, it was a defining moment, we went from being wide-eyed young adults ready to take on the world to suddenly confronting the reality of loss, vulnerability, and global conflict.
That job taught me the value of showing up, working hard, and treating every person with respect. I wasn’t a “job hopper” - I stuck with it, never called out, and built strong relationships with both my coworkers and the people I served. I learned how to handle long shifts on my feet, how to juggle competing demands with a smile, and how much of a difference kindness makes when you’re serving others.
Recently, I re-read The Giver with my daughter, and experiencing it through her eyes gave the story new layers of meaning. As a parent, I felt the weight of the adults in the book who knew the truth but avoided it, and the bravery of Jonas, who chose to carry the burden so others could live more fully. It reminded me how important it is to model courage and critical thinking for our children, so they grow up knowing that change is possible when we are willing to ask hard questions.
I connect with her because I share that same drive to serve my community with energy and heart. Like Leslie, I believe small acts of leadership, investing in parks, building greenways, supporting local businesses, and listening to residents, add up to big change. She reminds us that public service can be both joyful and impactful, and that caring deeply about your town is one of the most powerful forces for good. And of course, like Leslie, I never underestimate the power of good coffee and a plate of waffles to keep you going.
After graduation, I took another leap of faith: opening my own business. It wasn’t easy, and when I chose to opt out of all insurance contracts to protect the kind of care I believe patients deserve, everyone told me I wouldn’t last a month. I did it anyway, and more than a decade later my practice is thriving because I refused to compromise on values.
Life tested me again when I went through a divorce and became a single mom myself. Balancing the demands of running a business while raising my daughter alone pushed me in ways I could never have imagined. But each challenge deepened my resilience and reminded me that strength often grows in the hardest seasons.
What these struggles taught me is simple but powerful: we don’t always get to choose what happens to us, but we always get to choose how we respond. I learned to look for what I could change, to keep a positive attitude even in dark moments, and to believe that with determination and support, anyone can create an opportunity for themselves.
As a mom of girls myself, his story struck me deeply. I could see my own family in his, and I thought about how many parents carry that same quiet fear: of not being able to give their kids the life they deserve, even when they’ve done everything “right.”
For me, the marathon symbolizes more than a race. It represents resilience, setting big goals, and proving to myself that persistence matters more than perfection. I carry that lesson into every area of my life, from raising my daughters to running my business to serving my community. The Berlin Marathon wasn’t just about 26.2 miles, it was a reminder that with vision, commitment, and grit, we can do hard things and achieve more than we think possible.
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.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
