Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles celebrates landslide win in primary race

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles won the Democratic primary for mayor, defeating her opponents by a landslide.

Channel 9 was with Lyles Tuesday night as her campaign celebrated the victory.

[Poll: Mayor Vi Lyles is popular, Charlotte City Council is not]

"I'm thankful to each one of you and the other 30,000 people right now that are on the lists voting 'yes' for Mayor Vi Lyles," she said.

The city's first African American female mayor was facing Roderick Davis, Tigress McDaniel, Lucille Puckett and Joel Odom. She won with 87% of the votes.

Lyles will face Republican contender David Michael Rice.

In the race for Charlotte City Council At-Large, Braxton Winston, James Mitchell, Julie Eiselt and Dimple Ajmera will move on to the ballot in November.

One thing people were closely watching was to see if there would be any voter pushback over the city council's decision to bring in the 2020 Republican National Convention.

That did not appear to be a major issue for voters. Everyone who voted in favor of it won their primary challenges.

Councilwoman Lawana Mayfield ended up being the fifth-place finisher.

Mayfield was the only person consistently opposed to it and she did not earn one of the top four slots.

Former Councilman Kenny Smith said he is not surprised RNC opposition didn't translate into voter mobilization

“While there may be some frustrations politically with the Republican party at the local level, I think most people recognize by and large this will be a good economic event for the city,” Smith said.

Cox Media Group