Quickly moving from newcomer to established voice, Melton has a step-by-step vision for the capital city.
Jonathan Melton remembers clearly his first time speaking as a candidate for Raleigh City Council.
Specifically, he remembers one crowd member’s reaction.
“I get done speaking and walk off the stage, and this person comes up to me,” Melton recalls. “She says, ‘No one knows who you are and you will never win.’”
This was ahead of the 2019 municipal elections, at a time of significant change in Raleigh. The city was growing, and Melton did not believe the emerging needs that accompany that growth—housing, transit and accessibility, among others—were being adequately addressed. He recalls the difficulties he had personally in finding a place to live and in getting to and from work downtown. Melton had been an involved citizen during his 15 years in Raleigh, but this was his first foray into local politics.
“There’s this feeling that you are an outsider and that you won’t be accepted by this established group involved in city affairs,” Melton said.
“When she said that, I thought, ‘Well, I’m definitely going to win now.’ I was going to prove her wrong.”
Throughout Melton’s career, two characteristics seem to consistently shine bright: determination and inclusivity. This was a moment to tap into both, and it catalyzed Melton’s approach to campaigning and then to local office.
He knew the issues he prioritized were important and pressing to his community. These were not far-flung ideals—they were problems fundamental to the wellbeing of both his neighbors and the city as a whole. Perhaps, he thought, the challenge was not an inability to resonate with certain members of the already-engaged group, but rather that the group of citizens included in the discussion was not large enough.
“I understood that not everyone was going to agree with me,” Melton said. “Instead, we tried to reach more people. It became an activation campaign.” Specifically, Melton targeted those that had voted in state and federal elections, but often sat out municipal elections. The strategy proved effective in an election that saw Raleigh elect a new mayor and return only three incumbents to its seven-person council. “If you look at the margins of that election, it was the new voters that made the difference,” he said.
Local politics, while not a long-held goal of Melton, is a natural landing place for the driven and always-involved North Carolina native. Raised in Mooresville, Melton moved to Raleigh to attend North Carolina State University, where he majored in Political Science with an eye towards a legal career. After a quick stop in Durham to attend law school at North Carolina Central University, Melton moved back to Raleigh in 2011. He worked two years as a law clerk at the North Carolina Court of Appeals, then moved into family law at Gailor, Hunt, Davis, Taylor & Gibbs, PLLC, where he has worked now for more than 11 years.
Through that professional period, Melton kept an eye on the needs of his community. While at NC State, he served on the student senate and interned with the Government Affairs office within the Chancellor’s Office. Then, upon graduating, in addition to his focus on large-scale issues, such as the aforementioned housing and transportation problems that impacted the early years of his career and that motivated his eventual run to public office, Melton saw a community need in the area of recreation. He became a founding board member of Stonewall Sports, a community-based, nonprofit sports organization for LGBTQIA+ people and their allies. Melton is the first openly LGBTQIA+ person elected citywide in Raleigh.
“Stonewall Sports is something I’m really proud of,” Melton said. What began as an effort for inclusivity in his community is now a nationwide success. Stonewall Sports now has 28 chapter cities across 20 states.
Through his work with Stonewall Sports, Melton started his interaction with local government. He needed to work with the Parks and Recreation Department to coordinate schedules and to reserve sporting venues. That work allowed Melton to develop both connections within city hall and an interest in further involvement.
“I started to think about joining one of Raleigh’s boards and commissions,” Melton said. “I thought that would be a good way to get involved.” When he reached out to his connections, however, he did not hear back. The boards and commissions cycle came and went, and he was not appointed to one.
Determined as usual, Melton decided to forgo that stepping stone altogether. “I said, ‘Well I’ll just skip that and run for office.’”
In his five years on council, Melton, now Mayor Pro Tem, has an impressive list of accomplishments, many of which address the priorities that pushed him into public office in the first place. Raleigh has successfully addressed zoning changes that encourage housing affordability and is on the path to developing several bus mass transit lines. He’s worked towards attracting and retaining Raleigh’s city staff as well—one of the best municipal workforces in the country, Melton says—allowing for further innovation and service delivery to residents. He was sworn in to the League’s Board of Directors in 2023. And in more administrative areas, such as construction and permitting, he’s worked to simplify processes to support small businesses.
Melton often takes a step-by-step path towards these goals. Given the enormity of some of his priorities—housing and transit among them—a piecemeal approach can be difficult to commit to. But Melton says that he doesn’t concern himself with the size or scale of the fixes. He simply stays determined towards the end vision.
“I try not to look at it that way. Anytime I start to veer in that direction, I instead start to look at it as one chunk at a time,” Melton says. As an example, he points to the transit improvements presently underway in Raleigh. Those upgrades comprise many different elements, from rezoning efforts to infrastructure upgrades to increasing service capacity, and more. “If you try to fix it all at once, it’s overwhelming—you won’t be able to. But incrementally, you can achieve change. We’ve had significant successes.”
He found many of these successes quickly, even despite his first months in office coinciding with the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, when it was difficult if not impossible to connect with community members and even his fellow council members.
“You ran, you’re confident in your ideas, but you also want to get it right. Part of that is just getting your sea legs,” Melton said. Now two terms in, his effectiveness and impact on his community has only grown. “Once I was re-elected, I was more sure of myself. I understood how things work at City Hall, the cadence of decision making.”
Throughout Melton’s progression—first as an outsider, then as a newcomer, and now an established voice for Raleigh—inclusiveness still guides his leadership, not just towards the residents and communities of Raleigh, but for the newly-elected officials on the City Council.
“There’s no hierarchy,” Melton said. “But having been there, that confidence is important. I try to the extent that I can share information, that’s always helpful.”
His plans for the future are much the same as his plans for the present: to better his community, to take on large challenges, and to achieve them bit by bit, step by step, and determined and resolute the whole way. For the growing, changing and dynamic capital city, Melton’s approach has proven to be the right one.
“It’s all working together,” Melton said. “There’s a lot to be excited about.”
