For more election coverage from across North Carolina, visit One Vote N.C., a collaborative between The Chronicle and six other student newspapers that aims to help college students across the state navigate the November election.
While many are already turning in their votes, some Blue Devils have their names on the ballot. Meet the Duke professors and alumni—and a student—hoping to be elected next Tuesday.
U.S. House
The most local of the congressional candidates, Democratic Rep. David Price is running for reelection in North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, which includes part of Durham County. Price, a tenured professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, has served in the House for all but one term since 1987.
Republican Rep. Morris Brooks, Trinity ‘75, has represented Alabama’s 5th Congressional District since assuming office January 2011. He is a member of the House Freedom Caucus—a group of hardline Republican conservatives—voted against impeaching President Donald Trump in 2019 and co-sponsored two bills intended to defund Planned Parenthood. He was criticized in 2014 for accusing the Democratic Party of waging a “war on whites” in an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham.
Rep. Mike Levin received his law degree from Duke Law in 2005. A Democrat from California’s 49th Congressional District, he has served in the House since 2019 and is seeking reelection in November. Levin’s three key campaign messages this year are affordable healthcare, environmental protection and improving the lives of active duty service members, veterans and their families, he told Ballotpedia.
Democratic Rep. Scott Peters, Trinity '80, has represented California’s 52nd Congressional District since 2013. Peters voted to terminate Trump’s declaration of an emergency at the United States-Mexico border. He also voted to direct Trump to end military action in Iran and to mandate federal approval before some states can alter voting practices.
U.S. Senate
Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Trinity ‘75, assumed office in West Virginia in 2015. Before that, she served as the representative for the state’s 2nd Congressional District from 2001 to 2015.
Capito currently serves on four congressional committees, including the Senate Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. She has co-sponsored 272 bills and introduced four bills that became law.
In 2018, Capito voted in support of confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
State and local offices
Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji is running for North Carolina Treasurer. At Duke, Chatterji is the Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess distinguished professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and a professor at Sanford.
Chatterji was a senior economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisors under former president Barack Obama. He was appointed a member of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s Entrepreneurial Council and serves on the N.C. First Commission, which helps direct transportation investments in the state.
Anjali Boyd, a first-year doctoral student at the Nicholas School of the Environment, is running for Durham Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor.
Boyd has proposed increasing investment in e-commerce platforms to help farmers grow their income and expanding high-speed internet to rural areas. A Durham native, she stresses an interdisciplinary approach to various environmental issues, emphasizing the “intersection of conservation, health and environmental justice” in her platform.
State legislature
Professor of Political Science Michael Munger is running for the North Carolina House of Representatives in District 34. He is the director of undergraduate studies and professor of political science, and he directs the philosophy, politics and economics certificate program at Duke.
A Libertarian Party candidate, Munger’s key issues are improving school choice for individuals from lower socioeconomic background and “dismantling and reforming” the Alcoholic Beverage Control system.
Munger ran for governor of North Carolina in 2008 as a Libertarian but did not win.
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Leah Boyd is a Pratt senior and a social chair of The Chronicle's 118th volume. She was previously editor-in-chief for Volume 117.