She Didn’t Return a $20,000 Rental. North Carolina Still Sent Her to Congress.

LaKesha Womack flipped North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District on Tuesday. Next week she is due in Mecklenburg County District Court on a pending Class H felony for allegedly failing to return a $20,000 rental car.

Unofficial results from the North Carolina State Board of Elections put the Democrat at 147,388 votes (51.11%) and Republican Rep. Tim Moore at 140,973 (48.89%) — a 6,415-vote margin with all 142 precincts in. Moore had won the seat in 2024 after years as North Carolina’s House speaker.

Moore won five counties. Mecklenburg alone flipped the seat.

The NCSBE precinct file shows Moore carried Burke, Cleveland, Gaston, Polk and Rutherford. Womack’s entire lead came from Mecklenburg County, where she took 73,515 votes to Moore’s 37,712 — a 35,803-vote cushion that wiped out his five-county advantage.

Decision Desk HQ’s county table mirrors that split and notes the district had backed Donald Trump by about 15 points in 2024. Womack’s win is a 17-point swing the other way on the same map.

Case 20CR201748-590: Budget Corolla, Class H felony

Mecklenburg District Court case No. 20CR201748-590 charges Womack with “FAIL RETURN HIRED MV >$4000,” a Class H felony under N.C.G.S. § 14-167. Carolina Journal obtained the summons and a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police incident report through a public-records request. Brittany Foster, public information officer for the Mecklenburg County Clerk of Superior Court, told CJ the summons for that case number is viewable on the eCourts portal.

The reissued summons alleges Womack willfully failed to return a 2019 Toyota Corolla rented from Budget Car Rental, with a stated vehicle value of $20,000. Per the police report CJ published, an officer wrote that she rented the car on Oct. 7, 2019, at 11:31 a.m., it was due back Oct. 23, 2019, at noon, and “the suspect did not return the vehicle.”

The case was filed Jan. 14, 2020. The original summons came back “returned unserved” on Feb. 13, 2020. It was reissued and served Oct. 11, 2026 — less than a month before Election Day — by a Polk County sheriff’s deputy at a campaign event, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Fox News Digital. Her next appearance is set for Nov. 10.

Under § 14-167, willfully failing to return a rented motor vehicle valued above $4,000 at the time of rental is a Class H felony. The statute turns on the vehicle’s value, not unpaid rental fees.

Her words: “I do owe them people some money”

In an Oct. 9 campaign “family meeting” video reviewed by Carolina Journal and Fox News, Womack said she “did not return the rental car on time,” that she thought she “had resolved the issue, but it’s not resolved,” and “I do owe them people some money.” She said she was homeless when the 2020 summons issued and had nowhere to receive mail.

After the Polk County service, she accused Moore’s campaign of slander and said in an Oct. 14 Facebook post that “people worried about my pending legal issue are the same ones supporting a president with 30+ felony convictions.” In a later written statement she said accountability “must be grounded in facts, fairness, and due process rather than speculation or sensationalism.”

Moore told Carolina Journal he believes “everyone should be held to the same standard of justice” and that “the best thing she could do is to hire a good lawyer.” His campaign told Fox News Digital the episode “raises serious questions” and that when a rental agreement ends, “so does your right to keep the car.”

A felony conviction would not automatically remove her from the House. Expulsion still takes a two-thirds vote. The charge remains pending; she has not been convicted.