Rob Yates

Rob Yates

Libertarian Party

Candidate, Mayor of Charlotte

Elections and appointments

Next election

November 4, 2025

Education

Bachelor's

George Mason University, 2003

Graduate

Wake Forest University, 2016

Personal

Birthplace

District of Columbia

Profession

Communications director

Contact

Campaign website

Personal LinkedIn

Rob Yates (Libertarian Party) is running for election for Mayor of Charlotte in North Carolina. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. The Libertarian Party primary for this office on September 9, 2025, was canceled.

Biography

Rob Yates was born in Washington, D.C. He earned a bachelor's degree from George Mason University in 2003 and a graduate degree from Wake Forest University in 2016. His career experience includes working as a communications director.

Elections

2025

See also: Mayoral election in Charlotte, North Carolina (2025)

General election

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)
	Submit photo	Terrie Donovan (R)
		Rob Yates (L)

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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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

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 38,878
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates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.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

2024

See also: North Carolina House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for North Carolina House of Representatives District 99

Incumbent Nasif Majeed defeated Rob Yates in the general election for North Carolina House of Representatives District 99 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Nasif Majeed (D)	86.4	27,772
		Rob Yates (L)	13.6	4,373

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 32,145
= 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

• Isaiah Payne (R)

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Incumbent Nasif Majeed advanced from the Democratic primary for North Carolina House of Representatives District 99.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Isaiah Payne advanced from the Republican primary for North Carolina House of Representatives District 99.

Libertarian primary election

The Libertarian primary election was canceled. Rob Yates advanced from the Libertarian primary for North Carolina House of Representatives District 99.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Yates in this election.

Pledges

Yates signed the following pledges.

• U.S. Term Limits

2023

See also: Mayoral election in Charlotte, North Carolina (2023)

General election

General election for Mayor of Charlotte

Incumbent Vi Alexander Lyles defeated Misun Kim and Rob Yates in the general election for Mayor of Charlotte on November 7, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Vi Alexander Lyles (D)	73.6	64,564
		Misun Kim (R)	21.3	18,713
		Rob Yates (L)	4.7	4,087
		Other/Write-in votes	0.4	317

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 87,681
= 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 Lucille Puckett in the Democratic primary for Mayor of Charlotte on September 12, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Vi Alexander Lyles	85.4	20,109
		Lucille Puckett	14.6	3,449

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 23,558
= 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. Misun Kim advanced from the Republican primary for Mayor of Charlotte.

Libertarian primary election

The Libertarian primary election was canceled. Rob Yates advanced from the Libertarian primary for Mayor of Charlotte.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Yates in this election.

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Rob Yates has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Rob Yates asking him to fill out the survey. If you are Rob Yates, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

Any candidate running for elected office, at any level, can complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Survey. Completing the survey will update the candidate's Ballotpedia profile, letting voters know who they are and what they stand for.  More than 22,000 candidates have taken Ballotpedia's candidate survey since we launched it in 2015. Learn more about the survey here.

You can ask Rob Yates to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing ryates@lpnc.org.

2024

Rob Yates did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2023

Rob Yates completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Yates' 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 am not a complicated person. I came up poor, though I didn't know it until later, which shaped me at a deep level. I like helping people, and I don't think I deserve any special accolades for that. I like music a lot, and the beach is my favorite place to be. I love this state, and this city, and I hate to see it fall apart, not because of people that want to hurt it, but because of people who think that they are helping.

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?

• Government accountability - Charlote has operated like a casino for too long.
• A home for everyone - housing prices are ridiculous, but they don't have to be.
• Prosper Charlotte - get the city government out of the way so people can thrive.

Community Question Featured local question

How important is it to involve residents in the government’s decision-making process? What plans do you have regarding resident involvement in this process?

It is important for members of the community to make their own decisions. It is important that government not be involved in this decision-making process.

Community Question Featured local question

How would you address crime and public safety? Do you have a different stance than current city council policy?

I want to move to a community policing model

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Criminal justice reform, decreasing government size, scope and power.

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

Daryl Davis

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

Honesty

What is your favorite book? Why?

There are a lot. Probably The Bell Jar, The Virgin Suicides, The Brothers Karamazov, and 100 Years of Solitude tied at the top.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

I wouldn't.

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

Old Friend by Rancid

Tell us your favorite joke.

It's not fit for polite company.

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.

Note: Community Questions were submitted by the public and chosen for inclusion by a volunteer advisory board. The chosen questions were modified by staff to adhere to Ballotpedia’s neutrality standards. To learn more about Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project, click here.

Campaign finance summary

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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.

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Rob Yates campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	North Carolina House of Representatives District 99	Lost general	$179	$0
Grand total			$179	$0
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

See also

2025 Elections

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Candidate

Mayor of Charlotte

Website

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