Reversing his decision that he would not seek a fifth term as mayor of Fayetteville, Mayor Mitch Colvin filed for reelection Friday morning, shortly before the filing period ended at noon.
“I got a lot of calls,” from people asking him to run, Colvin told CityView on Friday.
Colvin previously announced on June 12 that he would not run again. He said he wanted to spend more time with family and on his businesses.
Since then, people have been asking Colvin to change his mind, he said on Friday. Over the past two weeks of the filing period “the urgency of the calls picked up quite a bit as they were seeing a potentially new, high turnover council. And the voters — I mean Republicans and Democrats, to business people, to regular people — were very concerned with the candidate list.”
Colvin said he decided on Friday morning to get back into the fray after City Council Member Courtney Banks-McLaughlin decided to run for mayor instead of seek reelection to her District 8 seat. With her decision, the council is guaranteed to get at least three new members, as Council Members Mario Benavente and Kathy Keefe Jensen are also running for mayor.
“It was just a time of a lot of instability, and people were concerned with that. I was concerned with that,” Colvin said. “No one wants to work for 12 years to build a legacy. And then you have a new police chief, new sheriff. And potentially [a] new board, new mayor. It’s just a lot. And so, you know, I felt compelled … to try to bring a little bit more stability to the process.”
Colvin served two two-year terms on the Fayetteville City Council before he was elected mayor in 2017.
Are the odds in Colvin’s favor?
As the incumbent, Colvin appears to be the front-runner in a 10-person primary. He has consistently achieved victories by significant margins in past elections. In the last mayoral election in November 2023, Colvin won 65% of the vote, while his competitor Freddie de la Cruz won 35% of the vote.
The Fayetteville mayoral race has heated up considerably since the first day of the filing period on July 7, with several new candidates filing the day of and the day before the deadline. There are now 10 candidates competing to lead the city, six of whom are current or former elected officials:
- Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin
- Fayetteville City Council Member Courtney Banks-McLaughlin (District 8)
- Fayetteville City Council Member Mario Benavente (District 3)
- Fayetteville City Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen (District 1)
- Former Fayetteville City Council Member Tisha Waddell
- Former Fayetteville City Council Member Paul Williams
Mayoral candidates who have never held office but have run for mayor before:
- Freddie de la Cruz, who ran for mayor in the past two mayoral races
- John Ashford, who ran for mayor in 2023 as a write-in candidate
- Clifton L. Johnson, who ran for mayor in 2022
Political newcomer Nahlee Iris Smith is also running for mayor.
The top two candidates from the primary election on Oct. 7 will advance to the Nov. 4 general election.
Government accountability reporter Evey Weisblat can be reached at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
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