About
MEET NC SENATOR JULIE MAYFIELD
A DEMOCRAT SERVING BUNCOMBE COUNTY SINCE 2020
I am a practical progressive. I have a deeply rooted sense of justice and fairness, and an overriding desire to accomplish real change that improves lives and makes our community stronger.
While I was born and raised in Atlanta, the North Carolina mountains helped make me the person I am today. My mother was born in Asheville and raised in Jackson County, where our family’s roots date back more than 150 years. I have strong childhood memories of playing in the barn and fields around my family’s farmhouse in Sylva and hiking in the Smokies. Those experiences were the beginning of my love for these beautiful mountains.
Though I worked for a short time as an attorney in private practice, I have spent most of my professional life working for progressive nonprofit advocacy groups such as Amnesty International USA, the Georgia Justice Project, the Georgia Conservancy, and MountainTrue. I also led the Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law, representing neighborhood groups and nonprofit organizations in environmental fights against companies and government agencies. My elected service began with my election to Asheville City Council in 2015, where I served until elected to the Senate in 2020.
I received my undergraduate degree from Davidson College in 1989, and I earned my law degree from Emory University School of Law in 1996.
SERVING BUNCOMBE COUNTY IN RALEIGH
Committee assignments can change over time. Currently, I serve on the following Senate standing committees: Agriculture, Energy, and Environment; Appropriations on Agriculture, Natural, and Economic Resources; Elections; Health Care; Rules and Operations of the Senate; and Transportation. I also serve on the Transportation Oversight Committee and the Administrative Procedure Oversight Committee, which meet in between sessions, and am a member of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations Subcommittee on Hurricane Response and Recovery. I also serve in one of three elected leadership positions as Secretary for the Senate Democratic Caucus, and I am the Treasurer for the Joint Legislative Women’s Caucus.
LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS
Each session, I introduce a number of bills and cosponsor many others (cosponsoring means I support the bill but am not leading the effort for its passage). Of the bills I introduce, only a handful ever have a chance of passing, and I increase those chances by finding Republican co-sponsors who will help move the bill forward. The rest of the bills are “messaging” bills that send a statement about the policies I and others would like to see adopted, but that we know will not be.
For a full listing of bills on which I am the primary sponsor or a cosponsor, click here. Check my recent legislative newsletters for updates on the bills I am working hard to move through the legislative process.