Bertie
Camden
Currituck
Dare
Gates
Hertford
Northampton
Perquimans
Pasquotank
Tyrell
Bertie Camden Currituck Dare Gates Hertford Northampton Perquimans Pasquotank Tyrell
you matter.
Invest in your schools:
Education should not be an afterthought.
It should be a priority. North Carolina ranks in the bottom of the nation for teacher pay and per pupil spending. And as more responsibility for education continues shifting to the states, you need a legislator who will fight for investment in our teachers and students.
Public funds should go to public schools.
In Senate District 1, millions of your tax dollars are following students to private schools that are not held to the same standards via the school voucher system.
Pay our teachers. Fund our schools.
work for working families:
We are experiencing a cost of living emergency. When groceries cost more, working people feel it first. When healthcare costs rise, working people feel it first. Working people are affected by everything, because they are the ones holding everything together.
When a community has affordable homes and better jobs, doctors, teachers, and young people can live there long term.
When childcare doesn’t cost the same as a mortgage, more parents can work, and entire communities can move forward.
Not Raleigh’s Voice - Yours:
Working to protect and preserve what makes this region so special means listening to watermen, local business owners, farmers, teachers, and service workers.
This campaign is about putting working people first. It’s about widening the circle of who gets a seat at the table in our district. Decisions in Raleigh should be made with real input from here at home.
I’m not running to answer to other politicians in Raleigh.
I’m running to answer to you.
advocate for fair maps:
You should choose your politicians, not the other way around. Poll after poll shows about 84% of NC voters oppose gerrymandering. And yet, in North Carolina, the Republican majority keeps drawing maps that choose their voters instead.
Voters in NC deserve fair voting maps, and by electing Judge Anita Earls, we will move one step closer to making that happen.
Every vote should count the same, no matter where you live or how you vote.
Hi, neighbor!
I’m Melissa Zehner, your Democratic candidate for NC’s 1st Senate District.
I am the mom of two kids who attend public schools, a wife, and an advocate.
My grandfather was an Eastern North Carolina native and a tobacco farmer. I am the daughter of a public school teacher and a small business owner. When I was 6 months old, my parents brought me to the Outer Banks for the first time, and I spent time here every summer following that one. The Outer Banks were the only place my father ever wanted to be in the summer — this place was the dream. Now we are raising our family here, and we call this place home.
Growing up in rural Farmville, Virginia, I learned early what it means to be a part of a community, how much service matters, and why showing up for your neighbors is important.
After graduating from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College I worked in Minor League Baseball and held management positions. I loved my work. Once we started a family, we made the choice that I would be a stay at home parent. It was a decision that many families have had to make because childcare is simply not affordable. And now I see people across Eastern North Caroline with even more basic needs that are not being met.
So, when I received phone calls from Kate Barr and NC Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls in December of 2025, asking if I would run for this seat, it felt like an amazing opportunity to advocate for the people and place that I love.
Senate District 1 is gerrymandered, covering 10 counties. Many people say that Raleigh has done more to us than for us.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
This campaign is about putting working people first, investing in our kids, and working to secure fair maps in 2030.