The election for Wake County District Attorney is a general race among the registered Democrats and independents who choose to vote in the Democratic Primary. Since the county overwhelmingly leans Democratic, the primary will effectively determine who will be elected after defeating the Republican in November.
Given the office of District Attorney is an actual job, where real work must be done to help law enforcement and the State process 10,000s of cases each month, some of the candidates will be prosecutors or defense lawyers who have worked in the system and have ideas on how to make the system better. As a defense attorney, that was part of my campaign in 2022.
But the race itself is not a courthouse race, particularly this time around when the current office holder has announced she will not run again leaving the field wide open.
Consequently, woe be the courthouse lawyer – prosecutor or defense lawyer – who thinks that just because they have been effective at his or her job, and just because he or she understands the system and has reforms to make, he or she is entitled to win the race. Certainly competence is one component of a campaign message, but it is not the only component, and translating an overall message that resonates with voters, many of whom have no idea what the District Attorney is, is a challenge.
The fact is that most people have no interest in the office, and have no understanding of what the office actually does. And so messaging that focuses on internal reforms will not energize votes.
Being a good lawyer will not win the race.
A well-run and well-financed campaign will win the race. The Democratic Party apparatus in Wake County is not what it used to be. It holds very little sway over the Democratic base. In 2022, it didn’t even hold a campaign forum for Wake County District Attorney. It’s run essentially by volunteers with a professional executive director.
While there may be candidates who have attended lots of Wake County Democratic Party events – from precinct zoom events to county wide dinners to meetings of various of usually poorly attended constituent groups – Young Wake Dems, Wake Progressives, etc. – candidates have to get out beyond the courthouse and beyond the Wake Democratic party to reach voters at various gathering that happen where voters are in attendance.
In order to do that, a campaign needs paid staff or a well-organized volunteer staff that can canvass events and canvass targeted neighborhoods that tend to match that campaign’s vision.