Jonah Garson

Chair

My roots in Chapel Hill–Carrboro run deep. I’m a proud alumnus of Frank Porter Graham Elementary School, Culbreth Middle School, Chapel Hill High School, and UNC Chapel Hill, where I graduated in 2009 with a degree in English. My first jobs were slinging baklava at Mediterranean Deli and teaching classical guitar to students of all ages here in town, many of whom I’m still close with today.

I’ve spent the past decade working for a better North Carolina, empowering people to find their civic voice and to be champions for democracy at a time when it feels more fragile than ever. That’s meant helping dozens of legislative candidates with fundraising, field organizing, and strategy. That’s meant applying my law degree from Columbia University to the work of voter protection. In 2019 I served as the Voter Protection Director for the 9th Congressional redo election. In 2020 I represented Chief Justice Cheri Beasley’s campaign locally to ensure that every ballot was properly counted. Most recently, I represented a key legislator-witness in successful litigation to prevent a voter ID requirement that was intentionally designed to disenfranchise Black North Carolinians.

Here in my home community, my commitment to political change has meant local leadership, serving as chair of the Orange County Democratic Party — with a focus on making our party a modern, inclusive, dynamic agent of statewide change — and serving on the executive committee of the Chapel-Hill Carrboro NAACP.