A Democrat running for Congress in North Carolina got an unwelcome surprise at her own campaign event this month: a police summons for a felony charge.
LaKesha Womack, the Democratic nominee challenging Republican Rep. Tim Moore in North Carolina's 14th Congressional District, was served Oct. 11 at a campaign rally in Polk County, according to the Charlotte Observer. The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office confirmed to Fox News Digital that a Polk County deputy served Womack with a criminal summons for felony failure to return a hired motor vehicle on that date.
The charge dates back nearly seven years. A criminal summons issued Jan. 14, 2020, alleges Womack failed to return a 2019 Toyota Corolla rented from Budget Car Rental by an agreed-upon deadline of Oct. 23, 2019, the Observer reported, citing court records. The document lists the vehicle's value at $20,000. Under North Carolina law, willfully failing to return a rented vehicle valued above $4,000 is a Class H felony.
The summons was initially returned unserved in February 2020. Court records show it was reissued and marked served on Oct. 11, 2026 — nearly seven years after the alleged incident. Womack is scheduled to appear in Mecklenburg County District Court at 9 a.m. on Nov. 10, one week after Election Day.
Womack acknowledged in a video posted online earlier this month that she did not return the rental car on time. She said she was homeless at the time and had no stable address where she could receive legal notices. In the video, she described a 2019 medical emergency that sent her to the ICU while her son was placed in foster care, and said she was later living in a hotel and "scraping together" money for food.
Womack told the Observer she first learned of the pending charge on Oct. 9 — two days before the rally — during a conversation with the Gastonia branch of the NAACP. She has retained an attorney and declined to discuss the circumstances of the rental car, but questioned why the case surfaced just weeks before the Nov. 3 election.
The Townhall account on X flagged the story Tuesday, posting that Womack "was served at a campaign rally for allegedly never returning a rental car she picked up in 2019" and noting she had responded on the record.
Moore's campaign wasted no time. "How is she going to be an advocate for our community when she can't manage her own personal affairs?" the campaign told Fox News Digital. "As an attorney for over 30 years, I think everyone should be held to the same standard of justice, and this situation is no different. Free legal advice: When the rental agreement ends, so does your right to keep the car."
The Moore campaign also said "she owes voters an explanation, especially since her court date is one week after the election."
There is no recent public polling in the race, but an early-year Ragnar Research Partners survey showed Moore with an eight-point lead, according to the Observer. Moore, the sitting congressman, is seeking a second term in a district that leans Republican.
The timing is awkward for Democrats nationally. The party has spent the cycle arguing that Republicans are the ones with legal problems — and now one of their own House nominees will spend the week after the election in a Mecklenburg County courtroom answering to a felony charge.
It is not yet known whether Womack will address the charge further before Election Day, or whether national Democrats plan to weigh in. What is known is that voters in NC-14 now have a documented court record to consider alongside her campaign promises.
Our Take
Here's the thing about the law: it doesn't care what party you're in, and it doesn't care what your campaign schedule looks like. Womack's hardships in 2019 are real — homelessness and a medical crisis are no joke, and nobody should mock that. But seven years is a long time. The car was rented. The deadline passed. A summons was issued in January 2020. And it took a campaign rally in 2026 for the matter to finally land in her hands.
Everyday Americans who rent a car and fail to bring it back don't get a six-year grace period and a press tour. They get a charge, a court date, and a bill. Womack is asking to represent nearly 800,000 North Carolinians in Congress — a body that writes the laws she's now accused of breaking. Voters deserve to hear her explain the gap between October 2019 and October 2026, not just the two days before her rally.
The Democrats have spent years telling anyone who would listen that Republicans are a party of crooks. Turns out their candidate in NC-14 has a felony summons with her name on it, served by a sheriff's deputy at her own event. Patriots, remember this one on Nov. 3 — and again on Nov. 10.
