Garson to run for NC Senate District 23 seat

Attorney and North Carolina Democratic Party First Vice Chair Jonah Garson announced today that he will seek appointment to represent NC Senate District 23 (Caswell, Orange, Person). Current Senator Graig Meyer, also a Democrat, announced that he will be stepping down from the position at the end of March.

"We are a state and country in crisis. We need leaders right now who understand that the job of representing this Senate District is more than just being a consistent vote for progressive policy in a gerrymandered, MAGA-dominated legislature," said Garson. "With democracy under assault, with GOP legislative leadership that has failed in its most basic responsibility to pass a budget, with millions of North Carolina suffering under the costs of regressive taxes, skyrocketing health insurance premiums, and costs that continue to rise across the board, we need legislators who have the strategic vision and statewide relationships to organize and win at the ballot box, in the field, and, as necessary, in the courtroom if we're going to meet the moment."

Senator Graig Meyer, who has represented Senate District since 2023, and, before that, House District 50, announced Monday that he would be resigning from the State Senate to take a job as Executive Director of the North Carolina Justice Center.

"During his tenure in the legislature, Sen. Meyer has put in enormous amounts of energy into fighting for better policy from Raleigh and to rebuilding Democratic power across this state. He brought creative, vocal leadership to the job of representing Caswell, Orange, and Person Counties. I am grateful for his friendship over the years, and for the work we've shared trying to make this state a place where everyone can live a good life and thrive. I believe he will do great things at the North Carolina Justice Center."

Raised in Chapel Hill, Garson is an alumnus of Chapel Hill High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He worked for former N.C. Senate District 23 Senator Ellie Kinnaird, the late N.C. Rep. Paul Luebke, for the campaign of former N.C. House Speaker Joe Hackney, and for the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy, before attending Columbia Law School, where he graduated in 2014 as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

In his over 10 years of law practice in North Carolina and New York, Garson has served in the Labor Bureau of the Office of the New York Attorney General, as a corporate attorney at an international law firm, and, for the past six years, as a litigator in state and federal court at the Orange County-based Parry firm representing businesses, individuals, nonprofits, and state agencies in high-stakes civil litigation in state and federal court. During this time he has also represented current state legislators as witnesses in voting rights and anti-gerrymandering litigation.

Outside of private law practice, Garson has served as the Chair of the Orange Country Democratic Party, a Governor Cooper appointee to the North Carolina Education and Workforce Innovation Commission, as a multi-term executive committee member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, and as a voter protection director. In 2022, he ran in an open primary for N.C. House District, receiving just under 50% of the vote. In 2023, Garson was elected First Vice Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party alongside Chair Anderson Clayton of Person County and other statewide leaders. The state party has grown under their tenure to be one of the largest state parties in the country, which successfully opposed Republican Party attempts to invalidate hundreds of thousands of voter registration and overturn the election of Justice Allison Riggs to the North Carolina Supreme Court, and which helped lead efforts to recruit candidates for all 170 North Carolina state legislative seats in 2025. Garson also serves as an at-large member of the Orange County Planning Board.

Garson touts his statewide political and community organization experience as preparation for a diverse district with both rural and urban communities. "I have worked in every corner of this state, in almost all 100 counties, to get good, smart leaders elected at every level of government. Caswell, Orange, and Person counties are very different from one another. If you're going to do this job right, it looks like strategizing with a Caswell County farmer on Friday to win policies to fight farm loss and a Yanceyville resident about how to fix their failing water system; talking to Roxboro small business owners on Saturday about a data farm approved over massive public opposition; and working with UNC nursing faculty and staff on Sunday to coordinate emergency response to massive federal cuts to health programs and new threats to Medicaid expansion funding. Then raising money to flip seats Monday. And then working with legislative colleagues in session on Tuesday to uphold Governor Stein's veto. All the while helping constituents get the local services they need to get by. It's a big job."

The appointment process for mid-term resignations of Democratic legislators is governed by the State Democratic Party Plan of Organization. In multi-county districts, each county party elects two committee members, who recommend a candidate to fill the remainder of the unexpired term. The Governor ultimately makes the appointment; the appointee will be sworn in to serve the remainder of the unexpired term, and will appear on the ballot in November against a Republican challenger.