Press release from Mayfield for N.C. Senate:
Promising to change the “policies that make it hard to protect the environment and the people and communities we love,” Asheville City Council Member Julie Mayfield announced on March 23 her decision to seek the North Carolina Senate seat for District 49.
Known for her ability to channel a passion for justice into concrete action, Julie has been instrumental in enacting local policies on climate change, police reform, and transit since voters elected her to Council in 2015.
Julie helps lead efforts to expand affordable housing, including a new program for down payment assistance for homeownership. Julie led the effort to transform the relationship between the City and the TDA, “so that, as a community, we can re-imagine and re-invent how tourism dollars are spent.”
Julie helped re-write APD’s use of force policy, “which resulted in a 61% decrease in use of force in the first year of implementation and, I believe, will save lives.”
As a leader of WNC’s largest environmental nonprofit MountainTrue since 2008, Julie helped shut down Duke Energy’s coal-fired power plant on Lake Julian and clean up their coal ash pits.
“Not only will I take on climate change and restore protections for air and water, I will fight to free Asheville and Buncombe County from the restraints of Raleigh, which holds us hostage when it comes to enacting Local Living Wage laws, generating revenue, releasing body cam video, enacting green building standards, and adopting simple things like tree protections and a plastic bag ban. The General Assembly has been an obstacle to local progress for far too long,” she said.
“I ask for your support to elect me as your next senator from District 49. And I look forward to this new challenge to improve our state and make a better Buncombe for all.”
Julie served for 11 years on the board of the Georgia Justice Project, which is nationally recognized for innovative and impactful criminal justice reform policy. Prior to her job as Co-Director of MountainTrue, Julie worked for Amnesty International USA, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, and the Georgia Justice Project, working with an indigent client facing the death penalty. She earned a law degree at Emory University.
“As an attorney, I understand the language of government and have written laws, regulations, ordinances, and resolutions – skills that will help me serve our community as a Senator,” she said.
Julie is a registered Democrat. She lives in West Asheville with her spouse, Jim Grode, an attorney who works for the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail and consults with nonprofits and small businesses. Julie served on the City’s Transit and Multi-Modal Commissions, was appointed by Governor Bev Perdue to the Mountain Resources Commission, served on the board of the WNC Chapter of the ACLU, and served on and chaired the board of the North Carolina Conservation Network. In her role on Council, she serves on several local and regional boards and is the liaison to several Council commissions.
NC Senate District 49 comprises portions of Asheville and much of Buncombe County and will be an open seat in the 2020 election; current Senator Terry Van Duyn is running for NC Lieutenant Governor.
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