Every Wake voter will have real choices in the 2026 election. You will not have to settle for the "lesser of two evils."  You can choose to vote for at least three Libertarians…depending where they live, some voters will have up to five on their ballots. 

US Senate Shannon Bray

US House 2 Matt Laszacs

US House 4 Guy Meilleur

US House 13 Steven Swinton

NC Senate 16 Jonathan D. Miller

NC Senate 17 Patrick Bowersox

NC Senate 18 Brad Hessel

NC House 11 Matthew Kordon

NC House 34 Ed George

NC House 39 Wayne Cockrell

NC House 40 Lucas Everett Jones

Wake Soil & Water Supervisor Brian K. Lewis

Other Candidates on Wake County Ballots

WakeLP cannot formally endorse non-Libertarian candidates, but we work across all aisles to deliver the very best results we can for the residents of Wake County. To that end, we look forward to working with good people at all levels of government, including folks such as:

NC Senate 14 Dan Blue-I (Democrat)

After a decade of pinging around the state fundraising and working to keep everyone more-or-less happy as the minority leader, Senator Blue was deposed by Sydney Batch after the 2024 election, and so for the last two years has been able to focus on his own constituents and his own policy preferences…and we commend the results. He not only favors legalizing medical marijuana but also expunging all state convictions for possession. He voted to help pass bills eliminating municipal parking minimum mandates (which had been driving up the price on missing middle housing) and implementing occupational licensing reciprocity with several nearby states. And he provided one of only two Democratic votes for a bill to eliminate NC’s Certificate of Need system (a health services rationing mechanism that constricts supply and drives up prices and wait times). He also supports having the NCSBE conduct a needs assessment to determine what it would take to implement instant-runoff voting for municipalities and county-wide in Wake. Like most Democrats, he still tends to believe he knows how to spend your money better than you do, but is most definitely someone we can work with a number of issues.

NC Senate 15 Jay Chaudhuri-I (Democrat)

Like all the Democratic NCGA candidates in Wake races with no Libertarian, Senator Chaudhuri voted against HB 87 (allowing NC to participate in the new federal tax-credit scholarship program); he is horrible on school choice. However, he is a principal sponsor of SB 350, which would legalize medical and recreational use of marijuana in North Carolina. He also voted for eliminating municipal parking minimum mandates and implementing occupational licensing reciprocity. Overall, he appears to be a Democrat we can work with.

NC House 35 Erin Paré-I (Republican)

Rep. Paré checks a lot of good boxes: either did or would vote for CON repeal, occupational licensing reciprocity, eliminating parking minimum mandates, zoning deregulation (to afford owners more latitude as to what to do with their property), school choice, having the NCSBE conduct an instant-runoff voting needs assessment, and the 3.5% cap on income tax constitutional amendment. But beyond that, she has carried a lot of water for Wake County. She is principally responsible for the electoral reform that eliminated the zany system where Wake County Commissioners for each district were all elected via county-wide votes; now only residents of each district can vote in district commissioner elections, a victory for local control and greater representational diversity. And she elicited a significant teacher pay raise out of the Republican-dominated NCGA—after several years where inflation outstripped compensation, leading to serious teacher retention challenges—which was welcome news to Wake County property tax payers, who now won’t be asked to kick in as much to cover that gap. 

NC House 37 Mike Schietzelt-I (Republican)

Freshman Rep. Schietzelt-rhymes-with-“seatbelt” has been a revelation. Intelligent, diligent, open-minded, and analytical, he has focused on issues with strategic import to both NC in general and Wake in particular, and relentlessly deployed his considerable charm to both advancing the ball for beneficial policies—notably, he has become a respected leader on energy policy—and blocking bad ideas (for example, he was a key player in scotching the proposed hemp ban). He supports rescinding CON, occupational licensing reciprocity, eliminating parking minimum mandates, zoning deregulation, school choice, legalizing medical marijuana, having the NCSBE conduct an instant-runoff voting needs assessment, and the 3.5% cap on income tax constitutional amendment. Not to mention having a member of the Wake NC House delegation with the ear of Republican leadership is a plus. 

Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe-I (Democrat)

We recommended voters consider Sheriff Rowe when he ran to replace Gerald Baker—whom our former chair, Travis Groo, had to sue to force the resumption of pistol permit issuance during COVID—back in 2022, and we have not been disappointed that he won election. He has invariably been willing to listen when civil liberty issues are raised, and while he does not agree with us on everything, he genuinely appreciates where we are coming from. In particular, he is a strong supporter of body cam transparency and expanded use of citations/discretion instead of arrest for non-violent potential crime situations. He has implemented the integration of mental health specialists into policing operations so as to reduce the incidence of situations that escalate into violence. He has resisted cooperation with ICE (although his discretion here has been limited since the passage of HB 318 last year). He supports surveillance tech, of course, but is open to strengthening safeguards to protect the data from unauthorized access. We are happy to recommend Sheriff Rowe for consideration again in 2026.

Wake County Board of Commissioners At Large Gary Hartong (Republican)

Mr. Hartong is easily the most fiscally responsible candidate for Wake County Commissioner in 2026. He emphasizes minimizing property taxes. He is skeptical of picking winners and loser with corporate subsidies. He prefers pay-as-you-go financing to incurring debt. He is not a fan of the hospitality/prepared-food tax model. He strongly advocates analyzing existing and proposed new programs on an ROI basis before continuing/approving them. And, moving beyond fiscal matters, he is a proponent of zoning reform/deregulation to goose the supply of affordable and missing middle housing. 

Wake County Board of Education District 7 Jacob Arthur (Republican)

This is also the second time we have recommended Mr. Arthur for consideration; the first was in 2024 when he ran for Wake County Board of Commissioners. He appears to be an even stronger candidate this time around. He offers a common sensical “Wake Framework” tying every significant discretionary expenditure to measurable student outcomes, transparent public reporting, and continuing evaluation. He believes there is excessive administrative/bureaucratic spending in public education, that federal education money can undermine local control, and that the curriculum should be determined locally with parent and teacher input and concentrate primarily on academics. He supports the right of individual students to express how they identify/ask others to use a particular name or pronoun but also says that schools shouldn't facilitate a student's gender transition without parental involvement, or in any circumstance punish students for declining to use names or pronouns that affirm another student’s transition. He is a strong proponent of parental control and believes opting-out of objectionable subjects/material should be at their discretion…but that broader objections that would affect other students require a review/approval process. 

Raleigh City Council At Large Clark Rinehart (Democrat)

This is Mr. Rinehart’s first run for office. He is touting a strong market approach to addressing the housing supply shortage: removing land-use barriers and allowing supply to increase combined with some novel ideas such as his “Holy Density” initiative to partner with faith-based nonprofits to repurpose parking lots, aging education wings, and other underused acreage that could become housing while continuing to serve those institutions’ congregations and overall mission. He also stresses taxpayer accountability on capital projects. He wants realistic cost estimates before projects are approved, more planning before bonds go to voters, public reporting of costs and schedules, and earlier changes when projects begin going off track. He is less market-oriented when it comes to transportation; he supports substantial transit investment and talks about reducing automobile dependency through multimodal transportation rather than depending on market choices to sort things out. But on balance he compares favorably with all the other candidate running for city council in Raleigh.