Democrat J.D. Wooten Is Taking On a Tea Party Zero in NC Senate District 24

NC Senate District 24 was redrawn and now includes eastern Guilford County and all of Alamance County. In Alamance, the major urban centers are on the I-40 and 85 corridor, including Burlington and Graham. The portion of Guilford in the district includes the towns of Whitsett and McLeansville but only bits of Greensboro.

Incumbent Republican: Rick Gunn. Gunn, a realtor, was first elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010, defeating a Democratic incumbent with just under 53% of the vote. In 2012, Gunn had a Libertarian opponent but no Democrat ran against him. In 2014, Gunn had no opponent whatsoever. In 2016, a Democrat running against Gunn couldn't get to 40% of the vote. In 2016, Gunn ranked 6th most
conservative senator overall in the Civitas rankings. Meanwhile, the League of Conservation Voters have consistently given him a big fat zero. Gunn is above all a loyal soldier for Senate Prez Phil Berger, supporting HB2, the demoralization of public education, the bullying of local municipalities, and the denial of health insurance to the poor through an expansion of Medicaid.

Democrat J.D. Wooten is an Air Force veteran, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights at Womble Bond Dickinson, and a first-time candidate for public office. At the Air Force Academy he

earned a degree in aeronautical engineering and a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant. “My time in the Air Force helped me learn firsthand the importance of service and fighting for what I believe in,”
J.D. said. “My toughest assignment, however, didn’t include a battlefield or cutting-edge technology. Instead, it came as an honor guardsman, where I had the privilege of providing military funeral honors for our nation’s servicemen and women. Helping lay to rest people who gave so much for our country was one of the most difficult but meaningful assignments of my life.”

J.D. Wooten

After a decade of service in the Air Force, Wooten got his law degree at Wake Forest. He's 32 years old and comes from a venerable line of North Carolinians. He says his family "left England to join the Jamestown Colony in 1607 and moved south years later to help establish the North Carolina colony." J.D. Wooten is actually John David Wooten IV. That deep history in the state has made the policies of the Republican majority in the NC General Assembly particularly galling:

“Republicans in Raleigh are chipping away at the values and institutions that made North Carolina the state my family has proudly called home for centuries. These politicians are trampling on individual rights, hurting sustainable economic development, and are underfunding our public schools, asking our teachers to do more with less. In short, they have left too many behind. Breaking the Republican majority is the key to bringing progress and prosperity back to North Carolina.”

“It would be my honor to take the fight for equality, economic development, and education to Raleigh on behalf of the people of District 24,” Wooten concluded.