“To hear what has been said by the incumbent mayor, I sometimes feel like I’m living in a parallel universe, and that’s the reason why I decided to run,” Pablo Friedmann said, standing up and looking at Mayor Leonardo Williams. It was the first direct critique of Williams during a Sept. 10 candidate forum for this fall’s city election, and it shed light into Friedmann’s young campaign for mayor of Durham.
A week earlier, sitting across from the Major the Bull statue downtown, Friedmann explained his newfound role as a mayoral candidate. Friedmann, an administrator with Durham Public Schools, visualized his thinking with his hands. He spoke calmly, walking through his thinking as if it were a math problem, sounding like the high school algebra teacher he once was.
Friedmann’s colleagues initially questioned his decision to run for mayor. “‘Pablo, I didn’t know you were political…,’” he said, jokingly impersonating his curious coworkers. He straightened his posture. His role as an administrator has been a battle of expectations, he said — expectations from parents, students, and school administration.
From educator to politician
Fifteen years of balancing a delicate political landscape within the education community was good preparation for becoming mayor.
“As a school administrator in 2025, everything we do is political,” he said, leaning forward as he began to paint a picture of his past.
Friedmann was born to Mexican parents from Mexico City. When he was young, his family immigrated to southern California. His mother worked as a research scientist studying brain diseases. His father is an expressionist painter. Freidmann remembers evocative paintings hung all around his house growing up.
His hometown friend, Michael Wang, was Friedmann’s debate partner in their San Diego high school. To Wang, Friedmann’s involvement in politics is not surprising. “It totally makes sense for Pablo,” he said. “When he talks about his work, his passion really shines through.”
Friedmann studied international studies at UNC-Chapel Hill followed by a two-year stint with Teach For America in eastern North Carolina. He was offered a teaching position in Durham in 2011, and was later promoted to director of Durham Public Schools’ Multilingual Resource Center.
A late entry to the campaign
Friedmann was late to the mayoral race compared to other candidates. He filed in the race the day before the city deadline. Friedmann’s team didn’t have much of a campaign infrastructure for several weeks afterwards.
“We were drinking water from a fire hose,” he said. “I think it took a couple of weeks to kind of get that all rolling.”
He felt the pressure quickly. “[There are] all these questionnaires and all these candidate forums and all these political endorsements that happen.”
The delay may have cost him votes. As early voting gets underway, the Peoples Alliance PAC, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, and the Friends of Durham PAC have all endorsed incumbent Leonardo Williams for mayor.
It was Williams who, in part, inspired Friedmann’s campaign as an alternative to the incumbent administration. “I think there’s a lot of frustration from the average person around development,” he explained. “People feel they have no say or voice or control over what’s happening, on taxes, on housing issues.”
During the mayoral forum, the differences between the two were spotlighted. Williams said that Durham can’t have low taxes and little development at the same time.
“We need housing at every level, every income level,” Williams said. “If there are more people trying to buy or rent homes, then there are homes… and therefore it’s going to go up.”
“This is basic math. Some people can’t do math,” he said, drawing frustrated muttering from the crowd.
When it was Friedman’s turn to address housing, he had a response to the mayor.
“I used to teach Algebra 1,” Friedmann said. “[Mayor Williams] is questioning my math skills.”
While the candidates often found themselves agreeing on core issues like policing and environmental protection, Friedmann still inserted his disagreement throughout the evening.
“We keep hearing about ‘we can’t do this,’ ‘we can’t do that,’ ” Friedmann said at one point. “If that’s what you believe, then vote for the incumbent mayor.”
“I’m putting a vision forward tonight, a different vision on development, a different vision on taxes, a different vision on housing, a different vision on leadership,” he said, emphasizing each word.
Friedmann describes his platform as working for “bread and butter issues.” He recalls helping a first-time voter navigate the ballot during the tense 2024 election.
“You know what galvanized him on the ballot?” he asked. “‘They keep raising taxes on my dad,’” said the voter to Friedmann. The voter was referring to a local bond referendum that was affecting his family.
“It was an ‘aha’ moment for me… just how disconnected some of the candidates are from the day-to-day experiences of average people.”
He gave another example. “I’m an immigrant. It’s great that we’re doing all this stuff for immigrants, but at the end of the day, if you call 911 and your call doesn’t get picked up, that’s a problem.”
Friedmann wants to improve government transparency, in part by talking about the impacts of local decisions in simple language. To him, Durham’s current leaders don’t involve enough of the stakeholders affected by development decisions.
For instance, according to Friedmann, the recent annexation of more than 300 acres north of Brier Creek will increase the financial burden on the local school district.
“There needs to be some negotiation of this impact to local schools,” he said. “In neighboring Orange County, there is a process in place to measure the impact of development on your local school system, and we don’t even do that here.”
Friedmann has a lot to catch up on. A late start, lack of key endorsements, and competition from other candidates also fighting for Williams’ spot put him in a pressurized space. However, he seems optimistic.
“The civic fabric in Durham is so strong,” he said. “When we expect the least, we get the least. When we expect the best, we get the best, right?”
At top: Photo of Pablo Friedmann courtesy of the candidate.
Reece MacKinney
