Michael Lee Is No. 2 on Republican Vulnerable List?

 

My last entry (below) was prompted by the contents of a letter Sen. Amy Galey of Alamance County, a Majority Republican Whip in the NC Senate, wrote to Sheriff Sam Page, begging him not to run a primary against Phil Berger, because it would endanger the reelection of three sitting Republican senators. Sen. Lisa Stone Barnes was No. 1. Sen. Michael Lee of New Hanover is No. 2.

Michael V. Lee has been a Republican senator from Wilmington since 2014 when he was appointed to finish out the term of Thom Goolsby for what was then Senate Dist. 9. He had just hung out his lawyer shingle in 2012, started his own firm and specialized in "development law," which means commercial real estate, land use and zoning, which attracted the attention of well-connected Republicans who saw him as an attractive candidate for office. He rose fast and was reelected to the seat in 2016 with 57% of the vote. But in the famous Blue Wave of 2018, Lee went down to Democrat Harper Peterson by 231 votes. Lee is nothing by now if not a survivor of bad odds, because he came back in 2020 -- that weirdly cloudy year -- and retook his seat with a margin of 1,200 votes. In 2022, Lee hung on against Democratic challenger Marcia Morgan by only .06% of the vote.

Since then, Phil Berger and his boys have done great service to Michael Lee, first excising some majority Black urban precincts from Lee's district in their most recent gerrymander (shoving them across the Cape Fear River into a white rural enclave where their Black votes won't count for nothing) and then pouring millions into Lee's 2024 reelection campaign against pediatrician David Hill. The gerrymandering out of Black Democrats did the trick. Challenger Hill got only 43.74% of the vote. In 2025, his Republican colleagues voted Lee in as their Majority Leader.

That's the problem for any Democratic challenger in 2026 in Senate Dist. 7 -- overcoming the loss of solidly Democratic voters through gerrymander. A successful Democrat is going to have to have boots on the ground, canvassers and door-knockers, and staff -- organizers on the various campuses, especially UNC-Wilmington, who'll be teaching young voters the hoops they have to clear, registering new voters, starting a movement that can take on a formidable personality like Michael Lee. 

His Twitter feed puts you in mind of an affable Democrat who doesn't want to offend anyone. His Twitter profile sez he's "committed to prioritizing civility, finding common ground, and fostering cooperation to address the needs of our community." He's very concerned about water safety and holding polluters liable, oh yes indeedy, and never mind that the pollution of the Cape Fear by the Chemours Corp. with "forever chemicals" happened on his watch. But who the unlikely hell would seriously expect a "development lawyer" to be any kind of an environmentalist? Seriously? Lee votes with Phil Berger's majority, always? He presents a moderate facade, once promised people that he wouldn't vote to further restrict abortion rights but then voted for every new restriction in North Carolina. Plus as an affable development lawyer, he's been in tight with the casino gambling people. Peter Castagno in the Port City Daily reported that Lee had received at least $38,000 from those influencers. In that way he's very loyal to Phil Berger and feeds at the same trough.

Jessica Bichler
Wilmington Yoga Center

The Democrat that was recruited (?) to run against Lee in 2026, Jessica Bichler, as yet has no campaign infrastructure to speak of, barely a website, a couple of posts on a brand new Facebook page, but no evidence that she's in this to win it. She does not mention her profession on her website -- yoga instructor, with over 20 years of experience -- and that omission gave me pause. I spent time on the Wilmington Yoga Center website, puzzling why Bichler would hide it. She's going to have to mount a campaign, which means raising money, and she may need Sydney Batch's Democratic Senatorial Campaign operatives to take charge. She doesn't appear to have a lick of experience with the Democratic Party nor with campaigning.