Where Charlotte Republicans go from here

There's no use trying to win municipal races. Instead, lean into statewide campaigns

A few days after the municipal election, The Charlotte Observer wrote a piece asking if this was the “final nail in the coffin” for Republicans in city races. This is the right question to be asking, and it certainly feels like it was.

As I set out to write a response, I really wanted to find a path for a Republican to win a race here in the next cycle. That path would be to follow the simple formula for winning elections: Make it hard to vote for your opponent, and easy to vote for you. Run somebody like Edwin Peacock III or Krista Bokhari again either at-large or in District 6, and then mount an extremely well-funded opposition campaign just absolutely tearing down the Democratic candidate.

At-large, that would look like trying to pick off one of the two lowest vote-getters — James “Smuggie” Mitchell or LaWana Mayfield, both of whom have significant baggage. I’m talking pouring $250,000+ into negative ads hitting unaffiliated voters again and again and again.

Here’s the thing, though.…