A new generation in county leadership

Good morning! Today is Monday, October 26, 2026. You’re reading The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.

Today's Charlotte Ledger is sponsored by Carnegie Private Wealth. At Carnegie Private Wealth, we bring clarity to complexity. Through thoughtful planning and personal attention, we help you pursue opportunities and reclaim time for what matters most.

Happy Monday, Ledger readers, Ashley here. There are only a few more days left of early voting (not to get too spooky, but this Saturday, Halloween, marks the last day of early voting), and Election Day is a week from tomorrow. We’re working closely with The Election Hub on covering races, candidates and issues on local voters’ ballots. This morning, we’ve got a profile on the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners candidate who is running unopposed for the District 5 seat, which covers much of south Charlotte. Charles DeLoach will be the youngest member on the commissioners’ board, so The Election Hub’s Rachel Black caught up with him recently about where he stands on key issues.

This story is from The Election Hub, a free, non-partisan resource that empowers voters with unbiased information about statewide and local races in North Carolina.

by Rachel Black

Charles DeLoach, a young husband and father living in Charlotte, believes many well-meaning older politicians don’t understand the struggles of younger generations. For many millennials and Gen Zers across the country, the financial freedom their parents had at their age feels unattainable. Rapidly growing Mecklenburg County is no exception.

“Not having someone [in office locally] with my specific experience of raising children in the year 2026, with all the challenges that that brings, I think has left a bit of a blind spot,” DeLoach, 33, told The Election Hub.

On the current commissioners’ board, the youngest member is Leigh Altman, at 54.

DeLoach, a Democrat, decided to take matters into his own hands. On Nov. 19, 2025, he announced his campaign to represent District 5. Later that day, the south Mecklenburg district’s commissioner, Laura Meier, announced she would not seek re-election — noting that “there is a whole younger generation out there that are waiting to make a difference,” and paving the way for DeLoach to run unopposed. She endorsed DeLoach several days later. 

DeLoach’s pathway to politics unfolded naturally. He grew up in Wilmington and moved to California in high school, where he also attended college. His first job out of college was with Turner Broadcasting, selling ads for TV channels leading up to the 2016 election. 

He told The Election Hub that he witnessed how inflammatory language nets more viewers and revenue — and to try to bridge divides in his own community, he began hosting regular dialogues over beer and snacks with his friends. The group grew from there and became a nonprofit, Common Space Forum, which operated in three cities, including Charlotte.

“That was really important to me — that experience of just being able to connect with people across ideological lines and have a normal conversation like human beings, as opposed to shouting at each other online, which is easier and where a lot of people tend to have their political dialogues nowadays,” he said. The experience has since shaped his approach to politics.

DeLoach, a civil litigation attorney, went to Elon Law School and UNC Law School, and periodically returned to Charlotte to visit family and for various jobs before settling down there full time in 2023. He quickly got involved in local politics, co-founding Indivisible Charlotte-affiliated CLT Engage and serving as a regional vice chair for the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party.

As District 5 commissioner, DeLoach says his main priorities will be affordable housing, childcare and healthcare. 

Other recent stories from The Election Hub:

Today's Charlotte Ledger is sponsored by Carnegie Private Wealth. At Carnegie Private Wealth, we bring clarity to complexity. Through thoughtful planning and personal attention, we help you pursue opportunities and reclaim time for what matters most.

After enjoying nearly two years of an administration that has largely rolled back regulations, the financial services industry seems likely to face a more complicated political environment in Washington following next month’s election.

That’s the assessment of Jim Carlisle, one of the top Washington lobbyists for Charlotte-based Bank of America. He told the Charlotte Economics Club last week that if Democrats take control of at least one chamber of Congress, as most pundits are predicting, banks will have to adjust to the reality that backers of tighter regulations will hold key positions of power.

"We're preparing for a world where the House Financial Services Committee is again chaired by Maxine Waters,” said Carlisle, Bank of America’s senior vice president of federal government relations. “We're preparing for a world [where] Senate Banking is chaired by Elizabeth Warren. So we would expect an awful lot of inquiries into an awful lot of different issues."

Most political watchers believe Democrats will win control of the House, but odds are more evenly split over Democrats taking control of the Senate.

Big banks have generally welcomed changes from Washington since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. Regulators have proposed reducing capital requirements for large banks, streamlined the process for approving bank mergers and pulled back consumer-protection enforcement. Trump also signed legislation overturning a rule that would have capped overdraft fees at large banks.

Charlotte is the nation’s No. 2 banking center and a major employment hub for Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Truist Bank, Ally Financial, Vanguard, TIAA, U.S. Bank and other national and regional financial services companies.

If Democrats win control of at least one chamber, Carlisle said the implications for the financial services industry could include:

If you’ve recently paid $9 for a latte at your favorite local coffee shop and wondered how a little espresso and milk could cost so much, you’re not alone. 

Coffee prices have been climbing nationwide, and Charlotte’s coffee shops are having to adapt. But according to Tanner Morita, co-founder of Charlotte-based HEX Coffee, the higher prices go beyond the cost of wholesale coffee beans.

“We’ve kept our café prices relatively stable while rent, labor, dairy, packaging, shipping and more recently green coffee have all risen significantly,” Morita told The Ledger. 

Those rising expenses have forced local coffee shops to get creative about how they make money without driving away customers. 

The N.C. Court of Appeals is allowing a lawsuit to continue against Hendrick Automotive Group, in which a worker at Hendrick BMW in Charlotte says he was repeatedly hit in the head and neck by one of his supervisors as a motivational technique.

The case was filed in Mecklenburg County Superior Court last year and alleges that Charlotte-based Hendrick Automotive, one of the nation’s largest car dealership groups, did nothing to stop the abuse, which played out over years.

Earlier this month, the Court of Appeals rejected Hendrick’s effort to throw the case out.

Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28: “Eve of the Dead Dinner,” 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Latin American Coalition, 4938 Central Ave. #1. Join the Levine Museum of the New South and the Latin American Coalition for an intimate evening exploring the artistry and traditions behind stunning altars for Día de Muertos, and enjoying delicious, authentic Mexican cuisine. $35/ticket. 

NOVEMBER 5: “Whitton Executive Series,” 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., at Whitton Auditorium, Carroll Hall, Winthrop University, 883 Ebenezer Ave., Rock Hill, South Carolina. Explore technology, entrepreneurship and innovation—and learn what it takes to turn bold ideas into reality.  Featured speaker: Zainab Ghadiyali. Free. 

NOVEMBER 8: “Unlisted Arts Market,” 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Mint Museum Randolph, 2730 Randolph Rd. The Unlisted Arts Market, hosted by Upcycle Arts, is where you find artists first. On Nov. 8 at the Mint Museum Randolph, Charlotte's established makers share the floor with The First-Timer’s Cohort selling their work for the very first time. Come shop both, meet the people behind the work and be able to say you knew them when! Free to enter.

➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.