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Mayoral election in Charlotte, North Carolina (2025)
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| 2025 Charlotte elections |
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| Election dates |
| Filing deadline: July 18, 2025 |
| Primary election: September 9, 2025 Primary runoff: October 7, 2025 General election: November 4, 2025 |
| Election stats |
| Offices up: Mayor |
| Total seats up: 1 (click here for other city elections) |
| Other municipal elections |
| U.S. municipal elections, 2025 |
The city of Charlotte, North Carolina, is holding a general election for mayor on November 4, 2025. A primary was scheduled for September 9, 2025. A primary runoff is scheduled for October 7, 2025. The filing deadline for this election was July 18, 2025.
As of 2025, Charlotte does not have term limits for the position of mayor. Mayors serve two year terms.
Elections
Click on the tabs below to show more information about those topics.
Candidates and results
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Mayor of Charlotte
Incumbent Vi Alexander Lyles, Terrie Donovan, and Rob Yates are running in the general election for Mayor of Charlotte on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Vi Alexander Lyles (D) | |
| Terrie Donovan (R) | ||
 | Rob Yates (L) | |
| ||||
 = 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 Mayor of Charlotte
Incumbent Vi Alexander Lyles defeated Brendan K. Maginnis, Jaraun Boyd, Tigress Sydney Acute McDaniel, and Delter Guin in the Democratic primary for Mayor of Charlotte on September 9, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Vi Alexander Lyles | 70.7 | 27,506 |
 | Brendan K. Maginnis | 12.2 | 4,740 | |
| Jaraun Boyd | 10.0 | 3,898 | ||
 | Tigress Sydney Acute McDaniel | 4.2 | 1,632 | |
 | Delter Guin | 2.8 | 1,102 | |
| Total votes: 38,878 | |||
| = 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
The Republican primary election was canceled. Terrie Donovan advanced from the Republican primary for Mayor of Charlotte.
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Matthew Grasela (R)
Libertarian primary election
The Libertarian primary election was canceled. Rob Yates advanced from the Libertarian primary for Mayor of Charlotte.
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: North Carolina elections, 2025
September 9, 2025
November 4, 2025
Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses
Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
No candidate in this race has completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Ballotpedia is seeking 100 percent participation so voters can learn more about all the candidates on their ballots.
You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:
Candidate profiles
There are currently no candidate profiles created for this race. Candidate profiles will appear here as they are created. Encourage the candidates in this race to complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey so that their profile will appear here. You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:
Mayoral partisanship
Charlotte has a Democratic mayor. As of September 2025, 66 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 23 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, three are independents, five identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and two mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Help inform our readers
Take our candidate survey
- See also: Survey
At Ballotpedia, we believe that everyone deserves meaningful, reliable, trustworthy information about their candidates. We also know that good information—especially at the local level—is hard to find. That's why Ballotpedia created Candidate Connection.
We ask all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Our survey helps voters better understand how their candidates think about the world and how they intend to govern—information they need to feel confident they're picking the best person for the role.
If you are a candidate, take our survey here. Or you can ask a candidate to take the survey by sharing the link with them.
Submit endorsements
Endorsements can be particularly helpful for voters trying to decide between candidates in local races, which often feature nonpartisan candidates. Endorsements from individuals and organizations can help voters better understand policy differences between candidates in these cases where little or no other news coverage of policy stances exists.
Candidates, share endorsements here. Readers, share endorsements you know about here.
About the city
- See also: Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is a city located in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. As of 2020, its population was 874,579.
City government
- See also: Council-manager government
Since 1929, the city of Charlotte has utilized a council-manager system. In this form of municipal government, an elected city council—which includes the mayor and serves as the city's primary legislative body—appoints a chief executive called a city manager to oversee day-to-day municipal operations and implement the council's policy and legislative initiatives.[1]
Demographics
The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.
| Demographic Data for Charlotte, North Carolina | ||
|---|---|---|
| Charlotte | North Carolina | |
| Population | 874,579 | 10,439,388 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 309 | 48,623 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White | 46.7% | 67.6% |
| Black/African American | 35.5% | 21.4% |
| Asian | 6.6% | 3% |
| Native American | 0.4% | 1.2% |
| Pacific Islander | 0% | 0.1% |
| Other (single race) | N/A | 3.2% |
| Multiple | 4.1% | 3.6% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 14.6% | 9.5% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate | 89.4% | 88.5% |
| College graduation rate | 44.8% | 32% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income | $65,359 | $56,642 |
| Persons below poverty level | 11.9% | 14% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2015-2020). | ||
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
See also
| Charlotte, North Carolina | North Carolina | Municipal government | Other local coverage |
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External links
Footnotes
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