William Theodore Alexander III

Current office and 2026 campaign

W. Ted Alexander is the incumbent Republican member of the North Carolina State Senate for District 44 (Cleveland, Gaston, and Lincoln counties), a seat he has held since January 2019 ¹². He is running for re-election in the November 3, 2026 general election against Democratic challenger Rod Powell; the March 3, 2026 Republican primary was canceled ².

Background and education

Alexander was born and raised in Morganton, North Carolina, the son of the late Bill and Mary Ann Alexander ³. He attended Glen Alpine Elementary and Junior High School and graduated from Freedom High School ³. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from UNC-Charlotte, where he was involved with the North Carolina Student Legislature and was later named a Distinguished Alumnus (2006) ³. He went on to earn a master's degree in Historic Preservation from Cornell University and served for one year as a New York State Senate Fellow ³. He and his wife, the former Patti Powell, have two children ³.

Career

Before entering the state legislature, Alexander worked in downtown revitalization: he served as executive director of the Bedford, Virginia Main Street program and later of the Uptown Shelby Association's Main Street program, and was Virginia's State Main Street Director from 1994 to 1996 ³. He was elected Mayor of Shelby in 2003, re-elected without opposition in 2007, and did not seek re-election in 2011; his campaign credits his tenure with reducing Shelby's crime rate to a near-30-year low and with helping launch the Foothills Commerce Center, the Don Gibson Theatre, and the Earl Scruggs Center ³.

Office history

Alexander sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2014, placing sixth in a seven-candidate primary field (1.9%, 9,258 votes) won by Thom Tillis ⁴. He won the North Carolina State Senate District 44 seat in 2018, defeating incumbent David Curtis in the Republican primary and Democrat David Lee Lattimore in the general election, and has been re-elected in 2020, 2022 (unopposed), and 2024 ⁴. He assumed office on January 1, 2019, succeeding Vickie Sawyer ¹.

Legislative record and accomplishments

For the 2025-2026 session, Alexander chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee on General Government and Information Technology, the Senate State and Local Government Committee, and the Pensions and Retirement and Aging Committee, and also serves on the Appropriations/Base Budget Committee, the Commerce and Insurance Committee, and the Senate Finance Committee ¹⁴.

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