We need your help to keep making a difference in Wake County!

2024 was our best year yet. WakeLP ran 14 candidates for North Carolina General Assembly (“NCGA”) seats in Wake County, four more than the WakeGOP fielded—and with so many of our candidates in 1v1 races against a Democrat five of them broke our all-time record for the highest percentage of the vote by a WakeLP NCGA candidate (19.51% votes for Lee Griffin running for NC House 50 back in 2002):

1. Patrick Bowersox (S17)—25.62% (the new all-time record…for now)
2. Mike Nelson (H66)—25.15%
3. Ed George (H34)—24.21%
4. Matt Laszacs (H41)—23.42%
5. Chris Costello (H33)—19.81%

With so many 1v1 races, it’s hardly surprising that we also set an all-time record for the most votes ever for WakeLP NCGA candidates…although not many were expecting us to utterly smash the old record, more than doubling it:

And speaking of smashing, Mr. Bowersox’s 24,661 votes amounted to more than double the old record for the most votes for a single WakeLP NCGA candidate (10,934, again for Mr. Griffin, that time running for S15 in 2004). We also had strong candidates for Soil & Water Conservation Supervisor (Brian K.  Lewis, 98,344 votes, a new all-time record for a Libertarian candidate in any NC county for any office), Raleigh City Council (James Bledsoe, 48,776 votes), and four Council of State candidates. Overall, there were 324,543 votes cast for Libertarian candidates in Wake County in 2024…almost triple the old record of 115,201 set in 2022!

This is the sort of performance that commands attention from establishment party politicians and their advisors…not to mention the media and voters. We are building a libertarian constituency in Wake County and establishment party candidates who ignore our issues are increasingly at risk of defeat. There aren’t a lot of competitive NCGA seats in Wake, but in S18, Brad Hessel’s 3,906 votes dwarfed the 128-vote margin that separated his two establishment party opponents. In neighboring red-leaning Granville County, Libertarian Ryan Brown ran hard to the right of the Republican—focusing on the failure of the GOP to enact Constitutional Carry legislation when they had supermajorities in both Houses in 2023-24—and most observers believe his 1,140 votes made the difference in the Democrat’s 228-vote upset victory…which cost the NCGOP their supermajority in the House!

We don’t need to win elections to be able to influence policy, but we do need to compete. There are some local elections that we have a fighting chance to win…but in order to incentivize politicians to take our policy initiatives seriously, we also have to run serious campaigns at the state level even where winning is a long shot. We need for both voters to see us as a reliable option—and politicians to see us as a persistent threat to their chances of winning—on the ballot, every year. And increasing the number of votes for Libertarian candidates in Wake County from 48k in 2004 to 324k in 2024 is the kind of action that amplifies our policy voice…even if we don’t have an elected representative in the NC House or Senate.

To get the maximum bang for our buck out of limited financial and staff resources, we have designed the WakeLP Candidate Accelerator Program (”CAP”). CAP enables us to support each of our NCGA candidates with a professional grade web site, Facebook page, X/Blue Sky accounts, campaign-branded e-mail accounts, business cards, standard designs for yard signs and door hangers—which both cuts costs and, with multiple candidates using the same recognizable design, helps make it seem like we are everywhere—a treasurer to manage financial reporting, centrally-coordinated volunteer services, and database support. 

Of course, to effectively implement CAP requires an investment of financial and sweat equity…and that’s where we need your help!

We need $6000 by 31 December 2025 to pull this off. That level of funding would enable up to a dozen Libertarian NCGA candidates to hit the ground running in 2026…and if all goes according to the master plan, it’s just the start. We will be mobilizing our volunteers to canvas heavily in two or three key competitive districts where we have the opportunity to beat the spread, and helping those candidates with strategy, operations, and their own fundraising.

Between the coordinated, harmonious chorus all our campaigns will generate and the crescendos of solo turns our candidates will produce in two or three key 2026 races, we aim to make the loudest libertarian noise ever in Wake County—and have the most impact on the results. (And this is just a warmup for 2028!)

But it all depends on having those funds available by the time our 2026 candidates file to run in December. So please…be a part of helping rock the establishment parties and promote libertarian policies right here in Wake County!