5 Things To Know: Jeff Jackson Raises 500K for Senate Run in Two Days
…and four more stories from Jan. 24-30, 2021
Jeff Jackson Announces Senate Run, Raises Half a Mill
Less than 48 hours after announcing his campaign for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2022, N.C. Sen. Jeff Jackson raised more than $500,000, with 90% of donations from North Carolinians, 78% of contributions under $100, and no contributions from political action committees or self-funding, according to the Democratic state senator’s campaign.
Jeff Jackson represents the recently redrawn 37th district in the North Carolina Senate, and in 2014 became the second-youngest state senator in state history after he was chosen to replace Dan Clodfelter, who left the seat to become Charlotte’s mayor. Jeff Jackson has gone on to win four N.C. Senate general elections since then, including his first relatively competitive race in 2020 after his district was redrawn to include more traditionally Republican areas. Jackson beat Republican Sonja Nichols by 14% percentage points in that race.
Jackson will be running to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, who has served as one of North Carolina’s two U.S. senators since 2005. Burr announced in 2016 that he wouldn’t be running for reelection in 2022.
At the moment, Jeff Jackson is only up against Republican Mark Walker for the Senate Seat. Comparative to Jackson’s skyrocketing contributions, Walker reportedly raised just $366,918 in his first six weeks of fundraising. There has been speculation that Lara Trump could enter the race on the Republican side, though nothing has substantiated these rumors.
In January 2020, we talked to Jeff Jackson about his goals in the North Carolina senate during an episode of Nooze Hounds podcast.
More Than 100 Candidates Vie for City Council Appointment
More than 140 people applied to fill James “Smuggie” Mitchell’s at-large Charlotte City Council seat following his recent resignation, and city staff narrowed that down to 103 eligible applicants in the lead-up to a virtual special meeting held on Friday at which more than half of those applicants stated their reasons for applying.
The list of candidates includes folks such as Deborah Woolard, founder of Block Love CLT and Best Local Hero honoree in Queen City Nerve’s recent Best in the Nest issue; Bruce Clark, founder of Digital Charlotte; Jasmine Sherman of Greater Charlotte RISE; Amy Goudy, owner of The Corner; Larry Mims, aka No Limit Larry of Power 98’s Morning Maddhouse, also a Block Love CLT lead organizer; and many more candidates with deep ties to the community.
Council members will vote on the appointment during a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, Feb. 1, though it’s unclear exactly how they will narrow down the list from where it currently stands in order to make a majority vote feasible. The newly appointed member will be officially sworn in on Tuesday, with a swearing-in ceremony taking place on Monday, Feb. 8.
North Carolina Jumps Ahead in Vaccine Rollout
After changing its vaccine rollout to focus on more large-scale vaccination clinics like those held at Charlotte Motor Speedway last weekend and Bank of America Stadium this weekend, North Carolina jumped from 40th in the country in administering first doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 12th, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dashboard. The state ranks sixth in the nation for total doses administered and 17th for total doses administered per 100,000 people.
According to the latest data from Mecklenburg County Public Health, released Friday morning, there had been 84,444 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 766 deaths due to the coronavirus at that time. That’s an increase of 4,770 cases and 45 deaths since the same time last week. According to more in-depth data for cases that had occurred through the week up to Wednesday, the average test-positivity rate was at 11.9%, while the average number of people hospitalized on any given day was at 420, both decreasing trends.
ASC Names New Interim President
The Arts & Science Council (ASC) board named Krista Terrell as the organization’s new acting president on Tuesday, as she’ll replace R. Jeep Bryant, who announced his resignation on Jan. 13. Terrell, an accredited public relations practitioner, has been with the local arts agency for nearly 19 years, most recently as vice president of marketing and communications. She will serve in this short-term role until an interim president is named.
“Krista is a respected and known leader in the community and in the cultural sector. Her experience and leadership are needed during this transition,” ASC Board Chair Susan Patterson wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “ASC’s Board of Directors has every confidence in Krista and her abilities to provide steady leadership for the organization and its team members. This move will ensure ASC’s work to support the cultural sector continues to move forward at this critical time as we determine a long-term plan.”
The ASC has faced a trying two years, as a proposed sales tax that would have raised the sales tax a quarter-cent, generating $50 million a year in revenue with 45% earmarked for arts and culture, failed in 2019. The measure was rejected by 57% of voters. Supporters had hoped the tax would help the ASC overcome its fundraising shortfall. Shortly thereafter, COVID-19 wielded a further blow against the city’s highest profile arts-and-culture nonprofit.
Six Murders Occur in Charlotte in Last Week of January
After just two homicides occurred in Charlotte during the first three weeks of 2021, six happened in city limits this week, with three murders taking place within a 24-hour span on Thursday and Friday.
Just before 12:30 a.m. on Sunday, police responded to a shooting call on Merlane Drive next to Sugaw Creek Park in north Charlotte and found two people suffering from gunshot wounds. One of the victims, 21-year-old Jamias Shropshire, was pronounced dead on the scene. The second was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A third victim in the same incident later arrived at Atrium Health in University City with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.
Just after 10:30 a.m. on Monday, police responded to a call about a shooting on Creekridge Road in southeast Charlotte and found a witness and evidence of a shooting, but no victims. Shortly thereafter, two men arrived at a nearby hospital with gunshot wounds. One of the men, 33-year-old Jonathan Robinson, was pronounced dead by hospital staff. The other man, 39-year-old Jamell Robinson, was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. Upon his release from the hospital, Jamell was charged with felony breaking and entering and shooting into an occupied dwelling. It is believed both men were shot while attempting to carry out a robbery, and no charges were filed against the person who shot Jamell and Jonathan.
Just after 9 p.m. on Tuesday, police responded to a shooting call on West Sugar Creek Road near Sugaw Creek Park in north Charlotte, just feet from where Jamias Shropshire was killed on Sunday morning, and found two people suffering from gunshot wounds. One of the victims, 20-year-old Jyasin Dearmon, was pronounced dead on the scene. The second victim was transported to CMC Main with non-life-threatening injuries. Police later arrested a 22-year-old man and charged him with Dearmon’s murder.
Just before 10:15 p.m. on Thursday, police responded to a single-car wreck on Arrowood Road near the I-77 interchange and found a black Mercedes sedan crashed off the roadway. Inside, they found 25-year-old Kharee Cartwright suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
At 2:21 p.m. on Friday, police responded to an assault call on Riverbirch Drive in south Charlotte and found 24-year-old Divante Brown dead from apparent trauma. About an hour later on that same afternoon in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of west Charlotte, police responded to a shooting call on LaSalle Street and found a GMC SUV that had crashed into a tree on Madrid Street. The driver was pronounced dead on the scene. Police later said people in two cars exchanged gunfire on LaSalle Street before the wreck. The name of the victim has not yet been released.
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