GOP candidate for Charlotte Mayor on crime: Is this what we want?! (10-16-2025--Hour2)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, And again, thank you so much for your support. I would like to. Welcome to the program Terry Donovan. She is the Republican nominee for mayor of Charlotte. Early voting starts today, so I'm sure she's actually pretty busy today, so I appreciate her making time to join us. Terry, how are you welcome? Happy? I'm doing well? How are you doing? I'm doing all right myself. So i'd imagine you got a pretty jam packed schedule, are you like bouncing around early voting sites and such today? Yes, I've got a pretty jam packed last thirty days, that's for sure. More so than that, then, today is definitely a bit chaotic. And I've got an event tonight and another event to stop by before that event. So it's a little it's a little crazy, but I definitely wanted to come on and say hello. Yes, no, I appreciate that. And when I reached out to you and I said, oh, why don't you know come on? And then I was like, oh, it's actually the first day of early voting, so she might not be able to swing it. So I do appreciate you coming on, so tell me, yeah, go ahead. We want I absolutely want to. I've got a great team of people out there for me, so I'm good. So tell people a little bit about yourself. You're a small business owner. What's the what is that small business? And why did you decide to dip your toes into the political waters. Well, I've been in real estate in Charlotte since two thousand and I've just seen, you know a lot of owned a few different companies in my lifetime, but most recently, you know, I'm in real estate. I'm a real estate broker, so I've sull real estate here for years and I just can't sit back and watch what's happening our city anymore. It's just as awful. And I have I hear from my clients every day and people just don't feel safe in their neighborhoods anymore. And that was the main reason I decided to step up and get involved. I mean, we hear people complain and complain and complain every day, and we've got to stop that. We've got to step up and actually do something. So that's why I'm here. So and I did read I read the op ed I guess that you wrote for I saw it at the Daily Caller. And this was back in September, after the murder of Arena Zarutska. Were you already considering a run before that murder or did that? Did that prompt it? Well, I'll tell you, I actually filed on the very last day on the deadline, which was July nineteenth. So I filed on July nineteenth to run. Arena Zarutska was. Murdered on August twenty second. Second, Yeah, which was horrific. And you know, I'll be honest. I mean after that incident, everything really escalated. I mean, just the level of seriousness of everything in our city. Obviously, we've got national media attention, and it's just a horrific reason to have it, terrible reason to have all of this negative publicity on Charlotte right now. But you know, it is really shining a light on a lot of things that were broken in our city, and safety being one. Yeah, So what do you attribute the brokenness to? What broke it? Well, I think for starters, these cash list bail programs that we've been doing here in Charlotte are just not working. I mean, we've got people walking around on our streets that have been arrested more than thirty times. You know, we've got I spoke to a police officer last week that arrested the same guy twice in one day. How is that even possible? People hear these things and you know, just like I did before, I would think, oh, you know, that's just an exaggeration. There's no way that can be true. But you know what, don't even believe me, Go find out for yourself. Get involved. It is true and it is absolutely happening. And right now, what's happening in our city is it's absolutely it's just unacceptable and it has got to stop. People do not feel safe in their neighborhoods. People don't feel safe sending their kids to school, and we have got to turn this city around. We can't have what's happening in our you know, Uptown. Uptown, the murder rate is up two hundred percent. Since I have been involved and signed up for this, I now have people sending me things that are happening and that they're dealing with on a daily basis. You know, a lot of things aren't even being reported on local media. And what I'm hearing from them is that they can't get to all of the stories because there's so many of them. Yeah. Yeah, Well, and for people who are who don't know how media operates, like especially TV news, you get assigned a story. If you're a reporter, you get a story. You got to turn a story a day, and so I mean, just do the math on that. If you've got two or three crimes occurring every single day, you have to make choices on what to go cover. Exactly. And unfortunately, that's what started to happen here, is that people are almost becoming numb to it because it happens every day now. I mean, we just had a murder, homicide, we had a shooting, and a woman died in South Park, Yeah, and her parking garage when she was leaving for work that morning. And you know, I'm not you just can hardly process one thing before you're hearing of another one the night after that, I think it was there was a girl on her scooter over near is it Fin and Fino that restaurant and she is pushed off of her scooter by a deranged homeless man, ends up, you know, injured, and you know, where's the reporting on that? I mean, we're living in some dangerous, dangerous times, and I know there's a crime report that just came out. In certain stats, they're saying that have gone down, but you know, we need to look at our murder rate. Our murder rate uptown is up over two hundred percent. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, yeah, I was going over in the last hour. Overall crime reported for the first nine months of the year down eight percent, violent crime down twenty percent when compared to last year first nine months. But like I always take a longer view of it, like, well, what's the trend from the previous five to ten years, because just being down year over year while good, don't get me wrong, that is good, but that's only that, that's just one marker, you know, Like, because we saw a massive jump in crime in twenty twenty, so are we pre pandemic levels yet? Are were are we going back to like twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, Have we gotten back down to those lows? But there also seems to be sort of an acceptance. You said that we've gotten numb to it. I completely agree. It's like there's this idea that, oh, well, you know, if you're going to live in the city and you know Charlotte's now, you know, top twenty market, So therefore we just have to accept a level of violence because that's what living in a city means. And I don't I don't accept that. I just don't accept that that has to be the case. I was going to say, is that what we want is that what we want? I mean, is that how we want our kids to grow up? Is that how we want to you know, what kind of business can drive in that environment? Uptown? I'm hearing some business owners that are closing their restaurants every week. I mean, they can't find employees to work because the employees don't feel safe walking from their car to work. Yeah, it's unaccessible, It's absolutely unacceptable. It's just we've got to focus on this. We've got to clean up this city, and that is an absolute top priority. That is the main That is the main reason I'm decided to get involved. I just can't sit back and watch this anymore. So I'm sure you're aware. In North Carolina, Uh, the mayor is a weak position when it comes to actually, you know, voting on things and such. So what can a mayor do with regard to crime. It's a council manager form of government a lot. You know, the mayor's got virtually no real authority. You can't you can't force the judicial branch to behave So what exactly can you do as mayor if you win? You're exactly right. Uh, And I'm so glad you brought that point up. And I will say this, that's why it's never been more important, ever been more important. We need to vote like our life depends on it. There are eleven city council members. Nine of them right now are Democrats, to are Republicans. We have some new candidates running this year. Every single one of these candidates that's running on the Republican ticket needs to win. We've got to get them in and if we can do that, we can turn this whole city around. We've got to have fresh new people on city council. We've got to have new ideas. We've just gotten There's a lot of questionable things that have happened to as far as transparency go. Here's what will change on day one. Immediately, attitude, attitude, and acknowledgement. We are going to acknowledge that we have a public safety issue. People are not safe now, Businesses are not able to thrive. This is the heart of our city, our entertainment district, our hospitality district. I'm hearing from you know, panther players, I'm hearing from you Just won't believe the number of people contacting me right now. I mean, this city is hurting. Do not have anybody acknowledging that we have an issue? Instead, what we have is we keep hearing the same old, same old narrative. Oh, the crime stats are down, and you know we do have a mental health crisis in this country and we really need to focus on more mental health solutions. Well, you're right, we do have a mental health issue in this country. Everybody needs therapy right now. I wonder why we've got to do both. But until we figure that side out, we can't just have deranged Olympics running around on our streets attacking people. One of the people working on my campaign that lives uptown very close to the stadium. Last night was texting me around midnight he got he almost got attacked last night by another you know person all tweaked out on whatever drug he was on, had a piece of glass in his hands and said he was going to stab him. This just happened last night. You know, there were reports and I don't even know if you all have heard about it yet, but there were reports last night of a man walking down Tryon Street threatening people and trying to attack people. So I want to ask you also because you touched on something there about this, about the narratives. But I got to take a break. Terry Donovan can hang on a moment. I'm going to put you on hold here. We'll bring her back. Terry Donovan the Republican nominee for the mayor of Charlotte. She's running in the election. Early voting starts today. By the way, her website Terryfoor Charlotte dot com. And that's T E R R I E Terryfoor Charlotte dot com. More with Terry Donovan in a moment. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. We are talking with Terry Donovan. She's the Republican candidate for Charlotte Mayer and Terry. Before the break there you mentioned we were talking about crime. This is the focus I think, right, the focus of your campaign seems like it. Well, is what prompted me to step up and get involved in a you know that I had never considered before. Yeah, right, and so, and I mean, look, it's a topic I think that a lot of people relate to and that personal experience with I got an email here from Ron who is from rock Hill but says he has been a Broadway Lights series season ticket holder for twenty five plus years, coming into Uptown to watch the plays and they would go and walk a couple of blocks to get a quick drink and a snack before or after the show. But he says the last time they did that, they had to walk through a gauntlet of homeless people and aggressive panhandlers. And now they just make a b line back to the car because they don't feel safe walking around. And this gets to this narrative. Council Member Malcolm Graham is quoted in a Queen City News article as saying, if you don't feel safe, you're not safe. And too many of the citizens throughout the city aren't feeling safe. And like this narrative that I keep hearing from city leadership is like, oh, it's the perception of being insecure and unsafe, as if like we are somehow delusional in that, Oh we feel this way, but that's not really the case. Oh yeah, yeah, Well, all I can say is that they just chose to how tone death they are. I mean, get out and talk to people, go walk up town and when the last time they actually walked uptown and walked into the businesses and spoke to business owners and spoke to all the bar owners. People are not thriving in their businesses anymore. Like I said, they're even having a hard time hiring people because the employees are scared to walk from the car to the office. I mean, it's just it's out of control. And for them to come out and say, oh, there's no issue here, nothing to see here, you know, people, it's just their perception. What a cruck wowy. Yeah. While they're unveiling their safety plans to increase police presence in center city, right, so it's p so that's why they're going to put more cops on the streets and such. Did you did you see the their safety plan that they rolled out about two weeks ago or I guess I am. What do you think of that? Well? You know, first of all, I commend them for making an effort and at least a step in the right direction, So kudos on that, and you know, let's see. But all I can say is, you know, I was just uptown last Friday. I had an event there last Friday, and I can tell you I did not see any signs of any more police officers on the streets. I mean, we need armed, you know, CMPD officers on the streets. That's the only way to clean this up. We've got to fund CMPD. They're understaffed, they're underfunded. I think they are doing this thing now where they've got what they call public safety awareness officers. It looks like, you know, people wearing orange vests that say safety Awareness Officers on it. I'm not sure if these people, you know, go around giving hugs to people in need or what. But that's not the answer. We need armed officers on our streets, and that's the solution that we need right now. I mean, now, do I believe that we need other options, that we also need to look at root causes of all these issues and obviously come up with other solutions there. But in the meantime, the answer is not to let these lunatics roam around attacking people. Like I said, Peter Classic, that's working on my campaign at the moment. He was attacked last night. I mean he had to call nine to one one last night. Last time I heard from him around midnight. It had taken the police officer. He had waited thirty minutes before anybody even came. And that's what we're having, you know, to deal with now when you call the police, now you can't even get them. And so all these people who want to push the narrative that everything's fine, you know, and that people are just it's their perception, you know, that's great. What are you going to do when it's your child? What are you going to do when it's your kid? And that's what I want them to think about. They've got to acknowledge that we have an issue, and they're not doing that. There are is no longer this is no longer an issue over Republicans or Democrats. It's not a matter of that. It's a matter of common sense or delusion. There are other there are other issues that the city is facing. And if you don't mind, can we keep you for another segment? And I want to go into some other topics with you real quick after the news. Sure, okay, Great Terry Donovan is with me. She is the Republican candidate for mayor of Charlotte again her website Terryford Charlotte dot com. We'll have more with her in a moment. So when I was a kid, my grandpa died with Alzheimer's, and before he died, my mom and my dad took care of him as he got worse. Forty years ago, there were no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family. Things are different today because of the work of so many people, including the Alzheimer's Association of Western Carolina. It's a great organization with awesome people with huge hearts. I've been a supporter for twenty five years. This cause means a lot to me. I participate in the annual Walk to End Alzheimer's and I'm leading a Charlotte team again this year, and it's called once again Pete's Pack. You can sign up and you can join the team and walk with us. It's on October eighteenth that truest field sign up at alz dot org slash walk and then you can search for my team name Pete's pack. There's also a link at thepetepod dot com. There's also a link in the description of this podcast. Also, I'll be am seeing the Gastonia Walk on October eleventh, and so you can make a team and join that one too, or make a donation and help me hit my goal of five thousand dollars. If you do, I really appreciate it. There are a. Bunch of other walks all over the Carolinas. You can go to alz dot org slash walk for all the dates and locations. We're closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's. Can you help us get there? Will you walk with me? For a different future, for families, for more time for treatments? This is why we walk. Final segment here with Terry Donovan. She is the Republican nominee for Mayor of Charlotte, running for mayor, trying to unseat the incumbent by Liles. Her website Terry for Charlotte dot com. So we talked about crime. I want to ask you a couple of questions about other things that the city is dealing with. Number One, the transit referendum, I think is kind of tied to the crime issue, but there's big push for people to increase the sales tax by one cent. Are you in favor of the sales tax referendum? Are you endorsing it or are you opposing it? You just said transit right, transit tax. Yes, the transit reference, yeah, the referendum. Yes, No, I do not support that. How can we propose a transit tax when people are worried about getting murdered on our transit I don't support that yet. We don't even need to bring that up yet. We need to table that conversation for later after we clean up this city and make it safe again. You talk about, and you mentioned it earlier, about transparency as well. So how do you if you if you win your mayor, how do you improve transparency? Are there any concrete steps that you want to take? Well, we just can't have deals being made behind closed doors any longer. If we're going to be doing things like that. I mean, obviously, how can the public trust anyone with tax pier funds it's going to make closed door deals, you know. We can't have that. Yeah, not tolerated. So you coming from the real estate background as well, you know, housing big problem, housing shortage, the high prices of housing. No starter homes are getting built, it seems anymore, by anybody anywhere. So how do you how do you help address the affordability issue of housing in Charlotte. Yeah, that's another thing that we've heard just all talk, all talk, all talk on for so long, you know, affordable housing. And I know firsthand that we have an issue with that. I mean, when we have listings that have thirty offers in a weekend, there's a problem. So it needs to be addressed. And we've got to collaborate with the right people and bring the right developers to the table. That's the good thing. I do have several relationships with the right people to collaborate, bring them to the table, and actually make true affordable housing happen, because right now we do not have it. What we have is we've created a city where people can't even afford to buy homes. People are being forced to rent, and so you know, people just don't have options to even live within city limits. So how do you how does the city drive down that price? Well, like I said, you've got to bring the right developers to the table and make those decisions, bring creative solutions that we haven't thought of yet. There's so many things that we can do that just haven't been done yet. It's a matter of collaborating with the right people. I think there are a lot of just relationships that are in place right now that might not be personal relationships between city council members and so forth. Not necessarily what's best for the public, but what's best for their pockets. Right If the issue is starter homes, right those are it seems like that's the issue. You've got a lot of apartments that are sort of filling that gap right now because people can't afford the homes that are getting built that are brand new and they're running you know, three hundred and fifty to and above the You know, there always used to be sort of this stock of starter homes. Why aren't those getting built anymore? Is that a regulatory framework? If so, do you do you know of like what types of regulations that the city imposes could be wound down in order to incentivize builders, because they're like, they've got to make a profit, right, So you can't ask them to build a bunch of homes and then lose money on the project. So how do you how do you address the regulatory framework. Well, we've got a press for that. We've got to make it a priority and absolutely just make that a top priority where it hasn't been before. But like I said, for me, going back to the public safety issue, nothing else matters and nothing else will fall into place until we have a safe city. We've got to fix that. We've got to clean up this city. People don't even want to move to certain areas right now because they don't feel safe. Not to mention values, property values on people's homes. What's that doing to property values right now? You know, we've got to clean up uptown. It just absolutely has to happen. So you mentioned in your at your website under the category of infrastructure, you say delayed projects and bureaucratic red tape only hold us back. So what kinds of red tape do you think are holding us back in the infrastructure category? Well, like I said, the mayor alone isn't going to have the power to change things in that regard. We've got to get the new city council members that are running right now on there, and if we can do that, we can accomplish a lot without that, though, my hands are going to be somewhat tied. So we've got to make sure early voting open today. We do have five days of early voting only at one location, which is uptown, the how Marshall Center. But we do need to get our at large candidates direct you know elected. One is me Son kim Ed Peacock District three. James Bowers absolutely he needs to get on. He's got to win Christa Bakari District six. And then I know the school board members that are running as well, Wan Hill District two, Build Fountain District one, Lisa Kline District Fine, District five, and Justin's Chile District six. We've got to clean this city up, and I can tell you the best chance that we're going to stand is getting every single one of these candidates elected this November. And now, like I said, uptown is the only location open right now for the first five days. But we've got to get every single one of these people on there. We've got to shake up what's been going on in our city, and the only way to do that is to get these new voices, these new people who are not career politicians on city council. If we just continue with the status quo, which is what we've had going on in Charlotte for years, which is how we got here. Then the truth is is that I'm going to be able to change very little. So without having these new members elected, my hands are going to be somewhat tied. We've got to have the right city council members on city council and then we can accomplish everything we need to accomplish. So obviously, you know the voter demographics here. Democrats have like forty two percent of the party affiliation, unaffiliated's forty one percent, and Republicans only seventeen percent. So how do you overcome those demographics? Hey, look, here's the thing. We are not even talking about Republicans versus Democrats anymore at all. I mean, for me, I've got plenty of Democrat friends. I mean, my best friend's a Democrat, right, her husband's are Republican votes Democrat, and don't ask me how they live together, but they do. And I've got several neighbors that are Democrats, and guess look, we hang out and we can have dinner together. We get along. Everybody wants the same thing. We've got these people that are so far right and so far left. But I think that the majority of us live somewhere in the middle. Not any of us agree with everything on the right or everything on the left. So we've got to acknowledge that and just start bridging the gap. It's just no longer a race about Democrats versus Republicans. It's more about good versus evil. You know, when you look at what's happening in our judicial system right now, especially, you know these people who are arrested thirty plus times. How is this even possible in our city? I mean, is that what we want? Is that how we want to live? Terry Donovan, thank you very much for your time today. I appreciate it. I know you're busy. Early voting is underway. Look for Terry out at the polling stations and such. She'll be bouncing all around the city of Charlotte for the early voting. And again the website Terry for Charlotte dot com. Terry, thank you so much. Could I say one thing? Yeah? Absolutely, yeah, go ahead. There is key on the end of my name for everybody, So it's te r R I E for fo R Charlotte. That's my website and I will be posting several events and everything on there. I know we actually have an event at Sycamore tonight bringing in a lot of the younger demographics in South End. So anyway, thank you so much for your time. Pete. No, thank you, Yeah no, I appreciate you making time for us on this busy day. Terry Donovan, thank you, take care, Thank you all right again. Terry for Charlotte dot com. T E R R I E for Charlotte, Terry for Charlotte dot Com. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. 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Call her text eight two eight three six, seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabins of Aashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Let me venture over to the WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC, where a lot of people have been texting in about the interview with Terry Donovan. Steve says, thank you for having her on. You made my day friend. You're welcome. Let me see this is random seven oh four number when Iso Lyle's coming on for an interview and take some questions from Rawla. I don't think that's going to happen. The door is open, Like the door is always open. If any elected official ever wants to come on the show, they are always allowed to come on the show. I have no problem with any elected official. The problem is a lot of Democrats don't ever want to come on the show. So, which is weird because like I've interviewed democrats for my entire career, I treat them respectfully. I ask them questions, and the questions I think of are probably a lot different than the questions that they are used to receiving, and so a lot of them are anxious or nervous about what those types of questions might be. I don't ever, you know, rate or make fun of people or anything like that. I mean, when they're with me. I'm just kidding, no, but seriously, like I I'm perfectly capable of having conversations with anybody of any political strength except commies, communists, lie and so all right, another random seven h four number. Unfortunately, Pete, not much there there. That's a sad testament. So you ask some hard questions that there aren't easy answers too, But there was really nothing at all to sink your teeth into. This is from. Dan, who says he thinks she's she avoided answering questions and redirected to public safety every time. Well, so, look, there is. There is something to be said for message discipline, which I understand in a campaign you want to just hammer away at the issue that is most advantageous, and crime is the crime in public safety issue is the focal point. And it's smart. I understand it. Let me see here, this is Alan. We need this woman for mayor, says Alan. Kimberly says, I need her signs. I guess her yard signs. Yeah, I'm sure we'll go reach out to the campaign on the website. I'm sure they'll be happy to give you some signs, some yard signs. Which, by the way, the thing on yard signs I learned actually the former Speaker of the House now Congressman Tim Moore told me this years ago, which was I was chatting with them at an event in Asheville at the time, and he was asking, you know, what the prospects were for some of the local candidates and that sort of thing, and I said, I don't know, and like, I'm seeing yard signs and this and that, and I was like, but I don't really know if that's a good gauge, and he said yard signs on private property are a good sign. Yard signs in the public right of way not so much. Because if you're just sticking yard signs, if you're a campaign and nobody wants your signs for their own property, means you're just trying to put them out everywhere, and you can only do that on the public right of way at intersections, you know, along the sidewalks, along the roads and stuff. So if you see a lot of yard signs for a candidate, but they're all along the road and they're not in people's yards, then that is not indicative of support necessarily. That's just the campaign workers. But if you see, like if you drive through and I've gone through a couple of neighborhoods and you see yard signs for local candidates and it's like, you know, the whole street is filled with these yard signs, that means the campaign workers went to every one of these homes probably and talked to the homeowners who all agreed to put the yard sign in their yard. That's indicative of support. John said, he wants to like her, but this is a little cringe. I don't know why people think that uh hm, I don't know. I didn't get that at all. Appreciate your conversation about the lawlessness. While tired of the expense of victimhood day by day, realized my safe is my responsibility. Cameras cost me. Okay, this is a very Angela. That's a very lengthy message. I'm not going to be able to read it all in the time I've got left. Thanks so much for having Terry on. Will there be a debate? Oh that's a good question. Probably not. Incumbents that are as secure as vil Isles never want a debate. There's no upside for them. And then I guess these are about the it's all about the police. This is from Mike. I always know who not to vote for by looking at the yard signs in my neighbor's front yard. Well, there you go. It's like a palm card for you. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the peak on our show dot com again, Thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.