Megan Patton

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Megan Patton
Image of Megan Patton
Raleigh City Council District B
Tenure

2022 - Present

Term ends

2026

Years in position

2

Predecessor
Elections and appointments
Last elected

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2010

Personal
Profession
Manager
Contact

Megan Patton is a member of the Raleigh City Council in North Carolina, representing District B. She assumed office on December 5, 2022. Her current term ends in 2026.

Patton ran for re-election to the Raleigh City Council to represent District B in North Carolina. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Biography

Megan Patton earned a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2010. Her career experience includes working as a manager, elementary school teacher, tutor, server, nanny, dog washer, and in manufacturing. Patton has served as a Mom’s Demand Action, HOA, and PTA member.[1]

Elections

2024

See also: City elections in Raleigh, North Carolina (2024)

General election

General election for Raleigh City Council District B

Incumbent Megan Patton defeated Jennifer McCollum in the general election for Raleigh City Council District B on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Megan Patton
Megan Patton (Nonpartisan)
 
54.3
 
23,138
Image of Jennifer McCollum
Jennifer McCollum (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
45.1
 
19,221
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.6
 
246

Total votes: 42,605
Candidate Connection = 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.

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Endorsements

2022

See also: City elections in Raleigh, North Carolina (2022)

General election

General election for Raleigh City Council District B

Megan Patton defeated Minu Lee, Frank Pierce, Zainab Baloch, and Jakob Lorberblatt in the general election for Raleigh City Council District B on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Megan Patton
Megan Patton (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
41.6
 
11,003
Image of Minu Lee
Minu Lee (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
30.8
 
8,139
Image of Frank Pierce
Frank Pierce (Nonpartisan)
 
15.3
 
4,044
Image of Zainab Baloch
Zainab Baloch (Nonpartisan)
 
7.3
 
1,925
Jakob Lorberblatt (Nonpartisan)
 
4.0
 
1,054
 Other/Write-in votes
 
1.0
 
264

Total votes: 26,429
Candidate Connection = 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.

Endorsements

To view Patton's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Megan Patton did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Candidate Connection

Megan Patton completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Patton's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a working mom. I’m a Tarheel, a manager, a gardener, a wife, a daughter, and a friend. I moved to Raleigh six years ago for the promise of a better life for my daughter. Raleigh is our home and I love raising my family here, but when we hear a radio story about climate change or we see an unhoused person on the side of the road, my daughter asks why we allow those things to happen. I’m running because I need to have a better answer for her. She, and all of our neighbors, deserve a place where they can grow and thrive in safety and comfort for years to come.
  • Housing: We must take a comprehensive approach to providing access to reasonably-priced housing, for rent and ownership, to folks across the income spectrum.
  • Sustainability: We need to act swiftly to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions so that we have a livable planet for years to come.
  • Community Engagement: We can envision a version of city government where residents feel heard, represented, and like the Council has their best interests at heart — and we can make that a reality.
Affordable housing and sustainability are two areas of public policy that I’m particularly passionate about.

Raleigh is expected to grow to 600,000 people before the year 2030. We need places for all those folks to live, and we need to protect housing opportunities for those that already live here. We need homes across the income spectrum, for rent and to own, so that all the folks living in and coming to our city can comfortably live and build wealth. When folks are stably housed in affordable homes, they can work, raise families, and contribute to a thriving community. Health outcomes improve, and so does safety. If we want to protect vulnerable communities, it begins with housing.

In 2021, Raleigh adopted a Community Climate Action Plan that aims to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emissions by 80% by 2050, and laid out several good strategies to get there. But we must accelerate these efforts and amplify them in order to preserve a world where we have enough food, water, and safety from extreme weather events. From City Council, there will be work to do around accelerating and expanding both the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan and Greater Triangle Commuter Rail Project, holding developers accountable for building with sustainability in mind and decreasing the barriers to entry for communities and individuals who would like to adopt sustainable improvements to their homes and businesses but simply cannot afford to do so.
One of the main functions of City Council is to regulate land use in within the city limits. This impacts what types of building can built across our city. When they say that all politics is local, land use is a great representation of that. If you've ever driven through an area and wondered why there is no park or why a huge building is right beside a much smaller one, the answer probably lies in a City Council decision.

It is uniquely important to have great City Councilors who understand the impact that the physical space - the locations of parks, green spaces, roads, and buildings - has on quality of life for folks living in the city. And it is uniquely important that those Councilors are dedicated bring positive impacts of land us to all communities in our city.
I believe that elected officials should be stellar listeners, lifelong learners and humble people. I want to see leaders who listen deeply to their constituents - not just to surface level complaints, but closely and carefully enough to hear the root causes underlying. I want to see elected officials who continue to read and learn about their city, the subject matter and their constituents. And I want to see leaders who know they sometimes get it wrong and are willing to admit that with humility.

In my professional and civic life, I’ve had opportunities to do each of these things. As a manager, I’ve been able to listen deeply and then advocate for my employees. As an HOA leader, I’ve researched and studied the history of HOAs, as well as land use and zoning. Even as a mom, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to say “Whoops! I thought that would go differently and I’m sorry. Let’s try again.” I plan to bring these same traits to my seat on the council.
As I mentioned in an earlier answer, I am a good listener and lifelong learner which I think will be essential in this particular office, as there is significant public trust to restore between the council and Raleigh residents.

Beyond that, I am patient and tenacious. Having worked with Moms Demand Action for years, I know that the movement for gun safety is long, slow work. I understand that we can't always come to the table on an issue once and expect it to be resolved. While we need to understand the urgency of the situation, we also have to be ready to stay at the table, sometimes for years, keeping pressure on the issues that are most important.
I was in middle school when 9/11 happened. I remember how the tension hung in the air as teachers scrambled to figure out the best way to explain it to us. I remember the images of New York City blanketed in smoke as the news played in the classroom. I remember arriving home from school before my mom and turning on the TV to see the same footage on repeat — watching it over and over until she got home from work and turned it off as a measure of our own self-care.
My first job was waiting tables at a breakfast and dessertery in my hometown. I worked there throughout high school and during breaks from college.
I love the YA book When you Reach Me. This story is unique in that it involves time travel, but the protagonist isn't the one doing the traveling — it’s her best friend. I also love that she carries a copy of A Wrinkle In Time everywhere she goes because it’s another one of my favorite books.
Leslie Knope, easily. Not only did she run for (and become) a City Council member, she advocated for the folks who needed her most, brought an ideological diverse team of people together to make noticeable change for the people of Pawnee, and lived on a diet of waffles from JJ's Diner — that sounds like a dream to me.
We're big broadway fans in our house, so “Wait For Me” from Hadestown is probably the most recent song that’s been stuck in my head.
Early motherhood was a difficult chapter of my life. Since I was between jobs, I had no paid family leave, so I returned to work six weeks postpartum. Since child care can cost more than a mortgage, I worked nights and weekends - my husband and I would literally swap the baby in the parking lot of my job before I headed into work. During that same season, we were hit with some unexpected medical costs for the birth, an ER visit, and a need for a new brake system on one of our cars. We were able to live with family during that chapter, which was instrumental in helping us get back on our feet. And I’m forever grateful to the amazing female bosses I had during that time who enabled me to meet my family’s needs, like the family I nannied for allowing me to bring my daughter with me, for instance, but it still wasn’t easy.

However, when I think about this part of our story, I am reminded that this is not a unique story. So many Raleighites live this same story. I’m running for City Council to do my part in making it easier on regular folks with stories just like mine.
Q: Why did the pony go to the doctor?
A: Because he was a little horse (hoarse).

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


External links

Footnotes

  1. Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 10, 2022

Political offices
Preceded by
David Cox
Raleigh City Council District B
2022-Present
Succeeded by
-