Melanie Shekita, who has been an assistant district attorney focused primarily on special victims for much of her two decades in Wake County, has announced her candidacy for Wake County District Attorney.
She plans a fundraiser in a week with Colon Willoughby as a named host. In addition to her length of service to the office, the backing of Willoughby who hired Shekita as a junior prosecutor in the early 2000s and was himself the elected District Attorney for Wake County until his resignation in 2014 puts Shekita in a strong position.
As the special victims’ unit lead, Shekita has lead the time that prosecutes Wake County’s child-victim (child abuse, child pornography) and sex-offense (rape, sexual assaults, and sex offender) cases. She has also prosecuted other high profile and serious offenses, including capital murder cases.
Shekita’s campaign appears to be run by Brad Crone, a Raleigh-based campaign consultant
Her sole announced opponent in the Democratic primary right now is Sherita Walton, whose campaign appears to be run by Maven Strategies, campaign consultants who previous supported outgoing DA Lorrin Freeman’s election efforts.
I’ll post updates here under the tag #wakeDA