DEMOCRAT

Harris has represented Mecklenburg County in the N.C. House since 2019. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Clemson and says on his website that he “has become the leading messenger and policy expert for economic and financial issues in the General Assembly.” The key issues he says he wants to focus on are protecting N.C.’s bond ratings, increasing capacity for investment in infrastructure that improves people's lives and ensuring a secure retirement for state employees. His dissertation in 2014 was on why urban poor tend to vote Democratic but not rural poor. He completed his bachelor’s at UNC Chapel Hill and lives in Charlotte’s Ballantyne area. (Age 37)

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REPUBLICAN

Briner managed investments for former New York City mayor and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg. He recently joined the board of trustees at UNC Chapel Hill for a four-year term. He also received his BA from there and an MBA from Harvard. His campaign slogan is “profits not woke politics.” He believes the state’s retirement fund is underperforming relative to peers and that he plans to invest in “other asset classes” other than bonds and cash, which is where much of the investment is now. He is a former Morehead-Cain Scholar, lives in Chapel Hill and has four children. He went to a boarding school (Exeter) for high school and is from Texas. (Age 46)

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