{"campaigns":[{"candidatename":"Wiley Nickel","chatgptsummary":null,"notes":null,"party":"DEM","person":{"biography":"## Current office and 2026 campaign\nGeorge Wilmarth \"Wiley\" Nickel III is the Democratic candidate for District Attorney of Wake County (Prosecutorial District 10). He won the Democratic primary on March 3, 2026, receiving 49 percent of the vote in a three-candidate race against Melanie Shekita and Sherita Walton. He is running unopposed in the November 2026 general election, as no Republican filed for the seat.\n\nNickel has stated he is running to \"increase support for police and first responders and to make sure our justice system is more fair, more accountable, and more focused on real public safety.\" He has pledged to prosecute political corruption, establish a full-time mental health court for Wake County, and secure additional funding for the district attorney's office.\n\n## Background and education\nNickel was born on November 23, 1975, in Fresno, California. He graduated from Francis W. Parker School in Chicago and earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Tulane University. He received his Juris Doctor from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2005.\n\n## Career\nNickel worked on Vice President Al Gore's advance staff from 1996 to 2001 and contributed to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. He established a criminal defense law practice in Cary, North Carolina, in 2011. He served in the North Carolina State Senate representing the 16th district from 2019 to 2023. He then represented North Carolina's 13th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2023 to 2025, choosing not to seek re-election in 2024 following unfavorable redistricting. In April 2025, he launched a campaign for the U.S. Senate but withdrew in July 2025 after former Governor Roy Cooper entered the race. He announced his candidacy for Wake County District Attorney in September 2025.\n\n## Family\nNickel married Caroline in 2007 and they have two children.\n\n## Sources\n- [1] [Former Rep. Wiley Nickel is running to become the top prosecutor in North Carolina's largest county \u2013 WUNC](https://www.wunc.org/politics/2025-09-16/wiley-nickel-wake-county-district-attorney-race)\n- [2] [Wiley Nickel wins Democratic primary for Wake County District Attorney \u2013 WUNC](https://www.wunc.org/politics/2026-03-04/wiley-nickel-wins-wake-county-district-attorney)\n- [3] [Wiley Nickel \u2013 Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Nickel)\n- [4] [Former Congressman Wiley Nickel cruises to win primary for Wake County DA \u2013 NC Newsline](https://ncnewsline.com/2026/03/03/former-congressman-wiley-nickel-cruises-to-win-primary-for-wake-county-district-attorney/)\n","firstname":"George","lastname":"Nickel","middlename":"Wilmarth","suffix":"III","token":"e758d9c2c1c9aff1"},"token":"YVsbkCGIY9wx3MKH"},{"candidatename":"Melanie Shekita","chatgptsummary":null,"notes":null,"party":"DEM","person":{"biography":"## Current office and 2026 campaign\n\nMelanie Shekita ran in the 2026 Democratic primary for Wake County District Attorney (North Carolina's 10th Prosecutorial District), one of three Democrats -- alongside Sherita Walton and former U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel -- seeking to succeed outgoing DA Lorrin Freeman. She lost the March 3, 2026 primary [1][2].\n\n## Career\n\nShekita is an Assistant District Attorney in the Wake County District Attorney's Office. In a candidate questionnaire, she said she has spent almost three decades in the office, working under two long-serving district attorneys, and has tried more than 250 cases, most involving crimes against children or violent crime [1]. She said she is a founding member of the office's Special Victims Unit for more than 20 years and now heads the unit, supervising a team of nine, and that she and a colleague were the first prosecutors in North Carolina to secure a conviction for a domestic violence homicide under Britny's Law [1].\n\nShekita has lived in Wake County for 48 years, by her own account. She describes herself as a former volunteer firefighter of 10 years, now president of Western Wake Fire Rescue and a member of the Wake County Fire Commission, and as president of the Board of Criminal Justice Alternatives since 2022 [1].\n\n## Sources\n\n- [1] [Wake County District Attorney: Melanie Shekita | 2026 Primary Candidates \u2013 Indy Week](https://indyweek.com/news/wake-county-district-attorney-melanie-shekita-2026/)\n- [2] [Three Democrats jockey to replace outgoing Wake County district attorney \u2013 WRAL](https://www.wral.com/news/nccapitol/wake-county-district-attorney-candidates-february-2026/)","firstname":"Melanie","lastname":"Shekita","middlename":"Anne","suffix":null,"token":"cbcc71446c85eda2"},"token":"V5UVNaW4NRCKp51v"},{"candidatename":"Sherita Walton","chatgptsummary":null,"notes":null,"party":"DEM","person":{"biography":"## Current office and 2026 campaign\n**Status update.** Walton lost the March 3, 2026 Democratic primary for District Attorney, Prosecutorial District 10 (Wake County), to Wiley Nickel, 40,123 votes (30.5%) to Nickel's 64,402 votes (49.0%); Melanie Shekita placed third with 27,004 votes (20.5%) of 131,529 total votes cast. Nickel -- unopposed in the Republican primary, which was canceled -- advances to the November 3, 2026 general election [4].\n\nSherita Walton was a Democratic candidate for District Attorney, Prosecutorial District 10 (Wake County), according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections' 2026 candidate filing list [1]. Sherita filed for candidacy on December 1, 2025, for Wake County [1].\n\n## Background\nAccording to the North Carolina voter file, Sherita Walton is a registered voter in Wake County, North Carolina, registered since 2016 (10 years), with party affiliation listed as Democratic [2]. The voter file shows Sherita Walton's year of birth as 1977; NC publishes only the year of birth in its bulk voter export, so day and month are not part of the public record [2]. The voter history file shows 8 elections voted in since 2016, most recently the 2026-03-03 primary [3].\n\nVoters with personal knowledge of Sherita Walton can reach ballotproject.org with corrections or additions.\n\n## Sources\n[1] North Carolina State Board of Elections, 2026 Candidate Filing List (bulk CSV), accessed 2026-07-21 -- https://s3.amazonaws.com/dl.ncsbe.gov/Elections/2026/Candidate%20Filing/Candidate_Listing_2026.csv\n[2] [North Carolina State Board of Elections - Voter Search](https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/)\n[3] North Carolina State Board of Elections voter history file (`ncvhis_Statewide`), published at [dl.ncsbe.gov](https://dl.ncsbe.gov/)\n[4] Ballotpedia, \"Sherita Walton,\" March 3, 2026 Democratic primary results for NC 10th Prosecutorial District Attorney (accessed 2026-07-24); WRAL, \"Three Democrats jockey to replace outgoing Wake County [DA],\" February 26, 2026","firstname":"Sherita","lastname":"Walton","middlename":null,"suffix":null,"token":"c6823070a8f04e07"},"token":"MR8cPbKecwj7vmla"}],"choices":null,"description":null,"district":null,"districtgroup":null,"districtgroupname":null,"districtname":null,"job_type":"district_attorney_general","o.office":"district_attorney","office":"district_attorney","officedescription":"The district attorney general is the elected chief prosecutor for a judicial district \u2014 deciding what cases are charged, presenting cases to the grand jury, and prosecuting criminal matters. It is a leadership role over a public-law office with wide discretion.","officequalities":"- Prosecutorial leadership of a district attorney's office of attorneys, investigators, and victim-services staff.\n- Working knowledge of Tennessee criminal law and procedure, constitutional law, and prosecutorial ethics under the Rules of Professional Conduct.\n- Charging-policy judgment that shapes the whole criminal-court docket \u2014 what is presented to the grand jury, diverted, or resolved by plea.\n- Budget and personnel management of a public-law-office operation.\n- Public-facing communication on cases of community concern, in cooperation with police, courts, and victim communities.","officeterm":4,"officetitle":"District Attorney","partisan":1,"pgr":"general","quantity":1,"referendum":null,"source":null,"title":"District Attorney District 10"}