Michael Felder

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Michael Felder

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

May 17, 2022

Education

Associate

Montreat College, 2009

Bachelor's

University of North Carolina, Charlotte, 2011

Personal

Birthplace

Fletcher, N.C.

Religion

Methodist

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Michael Felder (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent North Carolina's 10th Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary on May 17, 2022.

Felder completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Michael Felder was born in Fletcher, North Carolina. Felder earned an associate degree from Montreat College in 2009 and a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2011.

Elections

2022

See also: North Carolina's 10th Congressional District election, 2022

North Carolina's 10th Congressional District election, 2022 (May 17 Democratic primary)

North Carolina's 10th Congressional District election, 2022 (May 17 Republican primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House North Carolina District 10

Incumbent Patrick T. McHenry defeated Pamela Genant and Diana Jimison in the general election for U.S. House North Carolina District 10 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Patrick T. McHenry (R)	72.6	194,681
		Pamela Genant (D)	27.3	73,174
		Diana Jimison (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	110
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	242

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 268,207
= 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.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Anthony Culler (Independent)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 10

Pamela Genant defeated Michael Felder in the Democratic primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 10 on May 17, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Pamela Genant	77.5	13,028
		Michael Felder	22.5	3,790

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 16,818
= 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.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Maddie Parra (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 10

Incumbent Patrick T. McHenry defeated Gary Robinson, Michael Magnotta, Jeff Gregory, and Richard Speer in the Republican primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 10 on May 17, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Patrick T. McHenry	68.1	49,973
	Submit photo	Gary Robinson	15.9	11,671
		Michael Magnotta	6.4	4,703
		Jeff Gregory	5.0	3,649
		Richard Speer	4.6	3,381

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 73,377
= 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.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

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

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in Western North Carolina as well as lived most of my adult life here. I've always followed politics, events and happenings locally, nationally and around the world. I've got a Bachelors of Science with a concentration in Finance and minor in Economics from the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. I own and operate my own construction business that started in 2015. Before that I worked in a few different positions in factories, including inventory control, assembler, and material handler. I've been married to wife Heather for ten years and we have two boys together.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Lets get the political fringes out of the mainstream and find common ground together in the middle.
• We are all Americans, and just because your neighbor has a Trump flag or BLM flag it doesn't mean they're your enemy.
• I want term limits, lower taxes, science, education, social security, medicare, medicaid, and freedom.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

As a small business owner and blue collar working class family man I'm very passionate about taxes, social security and retirement. My wife and I work very hard so do all our friends and the vast majority of Americans and we all pay federal income taxes. For us it's a slap in the face to hear of corporations paying zero in federal income taxes and getting permit tax cuts while ours are temporary and essentially guaranteed to be raised. Another aspect of taxes is that I've been working and paying into social security since I was 14 years old all the while being told that I won't get social security when I retire. I plan on working to shore up the social security trust fund. I also want to try and bring back defined benefit pension plans. 401k is great but the old system of defined payouts and healthcare through retirement just can't be beat.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I'm inspired by Elon Musk and other tech people. I love science and the future of technology. Musk particularly sticks out to me because he's involved in so many things. PayPal just seemed kind of silly to me when it came out. I remember thinking I'll just go to the bank or use cash why would I use PayPal. Now everyone has an online, venmo, paypall, apple pay, etc... He's doing the same thing with his cars. Why would anyone start a car company when you can just buy a toyota, volkswagon, ford, etc.. Now hes forcing them all to move electric. I may not agree with politically on many things but I admire his innovations and drive to change or push things forward.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The core responsibility is to represent the people of my district. I think it's important to remember who represent the people, not a political party, not another politician, and not a corporation.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The first event that really sticks out in my memory was Saddam Huessien setting the Kuwaiti oil fields on fire in the first Iraq war. I think I was about 8 years old. We would always watch the nightly news and fires were just so vivid and wild to me.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was mowing lawns and landscaping. I started helping a neighbor with her landscaping. She had just built her house. I planted shrubs, small trees, flowers, moved dirt, and mulched. From there I went around the neighborhoods closest to me door to door seeking more work. I got a few jobs, and have done little handyman things my whole working career. Although, I did move on pretty quick to steady work in the food industry.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

I love outlaw country, but the wife and kids are into pop culture. We don't talk about Bruno!

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I've worked hard my whole life and as a blue collar worker it's always a struggle and I'm with you on it. Paying that mortgage, paying for child care, keeping food on the table, paying the car payments, healthcare cost, saving for retirement, and trying to put family time before all that. The struggle is real and I know how you feel.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

Yes, experience is always beneficial for any field, but it's not and shouldn't be a requirement. It is supposed to be the people's house and fresh eyes outside of government and politics is beneficial as well.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Partisan political divide is our biggest challenge. We must remember were all Americans and were in this together.

If you are not a current representative, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

All the committees seem very important for me, but ways and means, budget, over sight and reform, and appropriations seem most desirable to me. For my district it agriculture, and small business might be more beneficial.

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

No, the house should not be run by new members every year this is a bad idea.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

I support term limits. I can see the value in gaining knowledge and experience about things while in office and realize the house and senate or any branch of government shouldn't be run with entirely new people every 2 or 4 years. I think that the limits should be about 28 years maybe less.

Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

There is not one particular representative that comes to mind. I respect representatives that will stand up their own party or leadership if something isn't right. A great example that was recently brought to my attention is Walter B. Jones Jr. He was able to call out his own party about things that were obviously wrong.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

Compromise is necessary and desirable for policy making. Lets work together to try and achieve something.

The Constitution says that all bills for raising revenue must originate in the House. What role would this power play in your priorities if elected?

I would make revenue, the national debt and government budgets my priority.

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

2022 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

The Heart of the Primaries The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel Union Station

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Candidate

U.S. House North Carolina District 10

Website

Facebook

Footnotes

[show]

North Carolina's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Ted Budd (R)

Thom Tillis (R)

Representatives

District 1

Donald Davis (D)

District 2

Deborah Ross (D)

District 3

Gregory Murphy (R)

District 4

Valerie Foushee (D)

District 5

Virginia Foxx (R)

District 6

Addison McDowell (R)

District 7

David Rouzer (R)

District 8

Mark Harris (R)

District 9

Richard Hudson (R)

District 10

Pat Harrigan (R)

District 11

Chuck Edwards (R)

District 12

Alma Adams (D)

District 13

Brad Knott (R)

District 14

Timothy Moore (R)

Republican Party (12)

Democratic Party (4)