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martinlongman.substack.com - Lakesha womack the unlikeliest congresswoman

LaKesha Womack, the Unlikeliest Congresswoman

In any large wave election there are always some unlikely victors. Perhaps no victor in this cycle is more unlikely than LaKesha Womack. She raised a total of $56,000 for her campaign in North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District outside Charlotte, and she somehow defeated former state House Speaker Tim Moore who raised nearly $2 million for his reelection bid.

This would be remarkable in any circumstance, but consider what Womack has been through. She suffers from Type I Diabetes and, in 2019, she experienced a medical emergency that required hospitalization. Since she had no family nearby, her son was temporarily put in foster care. The costs of her hospitalization and the disruption to her earning capabilities left her homeless and living out of a hotel. During this time, she apparently was late in returning a rental car and in 2020 a summons was issued for her arrest, although it wasn’t initially delivered because she had no address. She received it during the last week of the campaign and is going to court on November 10 to face the charges.

Her medical episode resulted in a major downturn in her life and career, but everything was on track prior to it. An excellent student, she was accepted at the Alabama School of Math and Science, a residential public school. For there, she was accepted at the prestigious Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she earned a political science degree.

After graduation, she landed a job as a financial advisor at Ameriprise Financial Advisors. She then formed the Womack Consulting Group and “spent more than twenty years helping small businesses, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and community leaders develop strategic plans, strengthen leadership, and build sustainable organizations.”

She’s been active in her church and other civic organizations. This has ramped up since she recovered from her illness:

For the past three years, LaKesha has also served as a consultant with American Baptist Home Mission Societies and Judson Press, where she has helped develop storytelling strategies to support global missions and elevate the voices of faith leaders working in communities worldwide.

LaKesha currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer for ASPIRE Community Capital, an emerging Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for undercapitalized entrepreneurs. In this role, she helps design programs, partnerships, and financial pathways that allow small businesses to access the capital and resources they need to grow. Her leadership in financial inclusion earned her recognition as the 2025 Southeast Women in Fintech Champion.

She also does The Politics of Jesus Podcast. I might have to listen in.

Overall, she seems like a very talented and dedicated person who has achieved a lot more than might be expected from a Black girl raised by her mother in the small rural town of Evergreen, Alabama. But that doesn’t mean anyone could have expected her to be elected a congresswoman when running with virtually no money against someone like Tim Moore in a district like North Carolina’s 14th.

Prior to being elected to Congress in 2024, Moore served as the Speaker of the House in the state legislature for a decade, making him the longest serving Speaker in state history. He is one of the most powerful, aggressive and consequential Republicans in North Carolina.

He actually drew the 14th District while serving as Speaker specifically so he could run in it and easily win, and it worked. In 2024, Trump carried the district by 15 points and Moore won by over 16 points.

Very little media attention was paid to the race, excepting the controversy over the rental car and Womack’s upcoming court date. The congressional committees did not get involved. But Womack quietly went to work.

She grew up in Alabama, and said her campaign focused on the more rural parts of the district.

“I grew up in a rural county and know that rural counties just have a different need than a lot of like Charlotte or Raleigh type elections, so I really ran a campaign that was focused on the area that I was running for,” she said.

Whatever she did, it was just enough. With almost all the votes counted, she has a lead of over 6,000 which is good for just over 51 percent of the vote. She has been declared the winner.

/snip

I’m excited for Ms. Womack. I hope she makes the most of her time in Washington DC, and I know her unique life experiences will bring a much needed perspective to Congress. With luck, perhaps she’ll get to stay there a long time.

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