Durham had a predictable night for local races. Residents voted for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, with most winning results ranging from 70 to 80 percent of the vote share, including the two bonds.
All five Durham county commissioners were shoe-ins for the five available seats after winning their primary elections in March.
The two incumbent judges on the ballot, Shamieka LaCher Rhinehart, who ran for NC Superior Court Judge in District 16A, and NC District Court Judge Kendra Montgomery-Blinn in District 16, both ran without opposition. Gov. Roy Cooper appointed Montgomery-Blinn to the district court seat in 2023 after Rhinehart was appointed to the superior court.
Sharon A. Davis won reelection for the Durham County Register of Deeds in a one-person race. Davis first took office in 2020.
Ja’Nell Henry was elected as Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor in a race with no other candidates, though 2,246 voters did use the write-in option. Given that this race and the presidency were the only two spaces available for write-ins, it’s possible that folks leveraged the space to “share feedback” with a dissenting vote in the way some folks did during the primary to protest the ongoing war in Gaza.
Overall, Durham residents and political power brokers were focused on state and national races. Attendees at the People’s Alliance watch party on Tuesday night said most of the energy from the last several months went into increasing voter turnout in Durham and elsewhere throughout the state in the hopes of swinging important state congressional seats, council of state positions, and the presidency in favor of Democrats.
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