Editor’s note: In keeping with our reenvisioned mission to provide hyperlocal news to the Triangle, including elections coverage, we are dedicating our limited staff resources to making endorsements only in local elections, including municipal, county-level, school board, local state legislative, and judicial races. We will no longer make endorsements in statewide, congressional, or national elections. We are happy to assist with some recommendations of where to find other information for the top-of-ballot races. Just email us at editors@indyweek.com.

Early voting begins next week for Durham, Orange, and Wake Counties’ March 5 primary elections, and several local races are on voters’ ballots.

In Durham, voters will select five county commissioners from a field of 11 candidates. Commissioner Heidi Carter isn’t running for reelection, but the four other incumbents are all running to keep their seats. Durham Public Schools has one competitive at-large race and three candidates running unopposed, whose names will also appear on the ballot. 

In Orange County, one county commissioner is running to keep her seat against two challengers in the Democratic primary, while three school board seats are up for election. These candidates include three incumbents and four newcomers. 

And in Wake County, there’s a Democratic primary (and a Republican primary, sort of) for the county board of commissioners. Races for four district court judges’ seats are also competitive. 

Finally, across the Triangle, a handful of state House and Senate races have Democratic primaries.

Our team of four writers and one editor met to make endorsements in these races last week. We considered a variety of factors including individual skill sets, past experience in governing and civic life, volunteer experience, and other publicly available information. We also used much of our own reporting over the past year to inform our decisions. 

Read our endorsements below and refer to our handy clip-out guide when you head to the polls. And if you want even more information, check out online candidate questionnaires that will be available on our website by next Wednesday, February 14.

Durham County

Durham County Board of Commissioners

This is a partisan primary. Voters elect five candidates at-large.

Nida Allam

The first Muslim woman elected to public office in North Carolina, Nida Allam has proven herself to be a dedicated public servant and progressive voice for Durham. On the board of commissioners, Allam played a crucial role in raising wages for county employees and securing tax relief for low-income families. She’s also a staunch advocate for women, women’s health care, and reproductive freedoms as a Planned Parenthood board member and chair of the Durham Mayor’s Council for Women. We endorse Allam for another term. 

Wendy Jacobs

Wendy Jacobs has served on the board since 2012 and done a reliably good job of collaborating with colleagues and county staff, making herself accessible and accountable to constituents, and navigating controversies carefully and with a level head. A Durham Public Schools (DPS) parent and former teacher, Jacobs has advocated to increase funding to DPS, championed the 2022 public education bond, and worked to ensure families in the county have access to high-quality pre-K. With priorities for affordable housing and the UDO rewrite, plus implementation of the new county transit plan, on the agenda for the next term, we think Jacobs has the institutional knowledge that’s needed to carry the county forward. 

Michael Lee

Michael “Mike” Lee served as a member of the DPS Board of Education from 2014 to 2022, serving as the board chair from 2016 to 2020 and vice chair in 2015 and 2021. During his tenure, he oversaw the development of the DPS Office of Equity Affairs. Lee also has over 20 years of business experience, and holds an MBA and doctorate in business administration. Lee’s blend of private- and public-sector experience would bring valuable skills to the board as it tackles major challenges such as procuring affordable housing and funding public education.

Stephen Valentine

Stephen Valentine has a long history of public service. He served in the U.S. Army for nearly two decades before attending law school at NC Central University, where he worked as an associate professor in the department of social work before becoming director of NCCU’s Veterans Law Clinic. Valentine would draw on years of building private-public partnerships to improve access to education for students and economic opportunities and health services for Durham residents. Valentine also has served on Durham’s Planning Commission since 2022, giving him a deeper level of understanding for how Durham should approach development and growth.

Michelle Burton

Michelle Burton built her career advocating for public education. She served as the president of the Durham Association of Educators union from 2019 to 2023, and has worked as a public school librarian for over 20 years. Burton has a thorough understanding of the challenges students, parents, and teachers face in the classroom and offers decades of experience building coalitions to solve them. At a time when educators and staff need a strong voice for them on the board, and as someone who has a good working relationship with what is in effect Durham’s teachers’ union, we think Burton will bring a valuable perspective to the board.

Other candidates: Nimasheena Burns (i), Brenda Howerton (i), Fredrick A. Davis, Jovonia Lewis, Daryl Payton, Renee Vaughan

Durham Public Schools Board of Education

This is a nonpartisan election. Voters elect one candidate in District A, District B, District 3, and one at-large.

District A

Wendell Tabb

As director of Hillside High School’s award-winning drama department for 35 years, Wendell Tabb has had a profound impact on hundreds, maybe thousands, of DPS students’ lives and futures. When he retired in 2022, a former student of Tabb’s told the INDY that Tabb “wasn’t just a teacher” but devoted his “time, soul, and money” to his students. He’s also pushed the district to live up to its stated commitment to equity for all students. Tabb is running unopposed and he has our endorsement.  

District B

Millicent Rogers

A Durham native, DPS alumna, and PTA volunteer, Millicent Rogers is a reliable advocate for students, parents, and school staff. Working to foster family engagement, recruiting and retaining staff, and creating welcoming, inclusive learning environments are the cornerstones of Rogers’s work on the school board. Though Rogers is running unopposed, we endorse her for another term.

District 3

Jessica Carda-Auten

Jessica Carda-Auten was appointed to the school board in March 2023 following the resignation of former board member Matt Sears. She is an active member of the DPS elementary school that her two oldest children attend. Carda-Auten currently works at UNC-Chapel Hill as a public health practitioner and researcher. She’s running unopposed and we support her bid for election to a full term.

At-Large

Joy Harrell

An NCCU alumna and former public-school music teacher with 13 years of classroom experience, Joy Harrell has dedicated her two-decades-long career to working with young people as an educator and artist. Currently, Harrell is the executive director of BUMP: The Triangle, a nonprofit that builds artistic proficiency and social-emotional wellness in youth through visual and performing arts.

Harrell’s opponent, Atrayus Goode, is president and CEO of the Youth Mentoring Collaborative, which provides mentoring, training, resources, and advocacy to Black and brown youth in the Triangle, and Goode has worked in mentoring since graduating from UNC-CH in 2007. Last month, during his school board campaign, Goode was publicly accused of sexually harassing an 18-year-old coworker in 2013. Goode was terminated from his job that year, following the allegation. The INDY reported on the allegation and other public records.

We think Harrell will bring a creative, student-first approach to the school board. Harrell is the clear choice in this race and she has our endorsement.  

NC Senate District 22

This is the only competitive state legislative primary for Durham County voters this cycle. 

Mike Woodard

Do we like that he supported a bill promoting charter schools? No. Do we approve of him voting to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto? Also no. But when state senator Mike Woodard talks about having to work with Republicans in the legislature who have gerrymandered themselves into a supermajority for what looks like the rest of time, he makes a good point: a Democrat has to be able to work with the other side to make truly appalling pieces of legislation less bad and stand by those efforts. 

Woodard has represented Durham in the state Senate since 2012, and this is the first time he’s drawn a primary challenger in political (and Triangle) newcomer Sophia Chitlik. A former organizer for President Obama’s 2008 campaign and later a strategist in his administration’s Department of Labor, Chitlik, a California native, now works as an impact investor and philanthropist supporting women-led businesses in the health and wellness sector, namely birthing centers. She’s a true progressive, her credentials and talking points suggest—but with the GOP stranglehold in Raleigh, could she get anything done?

While moderate, Woodard is certainly a Democrat. On the important civil and social issues—voting rights, the abortion ban, the so-called Parents’ Bill of Rights—his constituents can trust Woodard to vote the right way. He champions his work on the state’s clean energy bill, a rare piece of actually-good legislation to emerge from Raleigh in the past decade. 

The reality is, while he didn’t earn our endorsement to lead the state’s bluest city, the legislature is a different animal entirely. Woodard has years of experience and existing relationships in the General Assembly that make him an effective leader. He also has deep relationships with Durham residents. 

We don’t always agree with Woodard’s decisions, but we think his absence from the senate would be a loss. We’re endorsing Woodard for another term. 

Orange County

Orange County Board of Commissioners

This is a partisan primary. Voters elect one candidate in District 2.

Phyllis Portie-Ascott

Phyllis Portie-Ascott is a realtor and former vice chair of the Orange County Democratic Party. Last February, Portie-Ascott’s six elected colleagues on the board of commissioners unanimously appointed her to the District 2 seat following former commissioner Renee Price’s election to the NC House, and Portie-Ascott will serve in that seat through the rest of this year. 

Portie-Ascott’s opponents in the primary are Adam J. Beeman, a business owner and seven-year member and current chair of Orange County’s planning board and member of the county’s board of adjustments, and Horace Johnson Jr., a retired Duke Health worker who applied for Price’s open seat last year. 

Beeman’s experience in planning and zoning would be useful on the board, but with a platform focused on securing affordable housing, workforce development, and strengthening mental health services, we’d like to see what Portie-Ascott will do with a full term. 

Orange County Schools Board of Education

This is a nonpartisan election. Voters elect three candidates at-large.

Carrie Doyle

A high school science teacher in DPS and the mother of three students in Orange County Schools (OCS), Carrie Doyle is a reliably progressive vote. During her first term on the board, Doyle has championed inclusive opportunities for students, including those who speak Spanish or one of the 40 languages other than English that are spoken in the school district. And during a tumultuous time that saw the departure of the district’s former superintendent, Doyle maintained good working relationships with her colleagues on the board as well as school administrators. For her commitment to equity and academic excellence, we endorse Doyle for another term. 

Jennifer Moore

With experience in education in Durham, Wayne, and Orange Counties, Jennifer Moore has proven herself to be a strong progressive presence on the board. Moore has stood out particularly because of her clear stance on equity. Any candidate can allude to the issue without actually addressing it—by highlighting differential education, as well as the differences between equity and equality, Moore has acted on a clearheaded view of how the district can best support students and families. We endorse Moore for another term.

Wendy Padilla

Wendy Padilla stands out for her strong statement against Senate Bill 49 (the “Don’t Say Gay” bill or “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” depending on who you ask), a law that she called too restrictive. In her past role, in the administrative office of a public school, she provided support for Spanish-speaking students and families, a growing demographic in OCS. Padilla has emphasized the need to meet communities where they are by making sure they are aware of assistance available to them instead of expecting them to find help on their own. We would be pleased to see Padilla as a newcomer on the board. 

Other candidates include Kevin Alston Jr., a behavior interventionist, who stood out among the pack for his empathetic views and, as a relatively recent OCS graduate, his sheer proximity to the issues that impact students today. We look forward to seeing his future work in the community. 

We appreciate incumbent Bonnie Hauser’s attention to detail, but don’t believe she, Cindy Shriner, or Michael Johnson share the commitment to equity that the other candidates do. 

Wake County

Wake County Board of Commissioners

This is a partisan primary. Voters elect candidates in the District 5 Democratic primary and the District 6 Republican primary. We are not making endorsements in District 6, and Darren Eustance, who will appear on the ballot in that race, says he has suspended his campaign. 

Tara Waters

Democrats will be making a good choice this year whether they vote for former school board member Tara Waters or community activist DaQuanta Copeland, but we ultimately came down in favor of Waters as the recipient of our endorsement. Appointed to the board of commissioners in January to fill the vacant seat of longtime commissioner James West, who died in November, Waters deserves more than a few months to bring her education experience and dedication to reducing racial disparities to service for the residents of Wake County. 

As a former school board member, Waters is committed to netting more funding for public schools, an issue that deserves more attention this year in the midst of the housing crisis. She’s also passionate about lifting up the voices of underrepresented people in her district, which includes historically underserved communities in Southeast Raleigh. 

Wake County District Court Judges 

These are Democratic primary elections. Voters elect judges in Districts 10 A, Seat 3; 10 C, Seat 3; 10 D, Seat 5; and 10 E, Seat 3.

10 A, Seat 3

No endorsement

While this is an important race, we don’t feel confident making an endorsement for either candidate. 

Incumbent Cindy Kenney, whom Gov. Cooper appointed to the bench just two years ago, was a former prosecutor. While she may deserve a chance to continue to serve as a judge, she ran unopposed in her last election. 

Douglas Brown, on the other hand, doesn’t have any particular qualifications that inspire an endorsement over incumbent Kenney. Brown also worked as a Wake County prosecutor for several years before moving on to private practice and criminal defense work. We don’t have a great sense of what he’ll bring to the bench. 

10 C, Seat 3

Renee Jordan

In a courtroom that is often dominated by the same judges year after year, longtime defense attorney Renee Jordan promises to bring a new perspective to the bench. Jordan, who has spent much of her career as a public defender, is dedicated to helping poor and minority residents who, in her words, “get pushed through the justice system without getting the help that they need.” Many judges are historically recruited from the prosecutor’s office; as someone who works on the other side of the system, Jordan’s pledge to listen compassionately to everyone who appears before her feels authentic. 

That’s not to say incumbent Anna Elena Worley doesn’t have a good record. Worley has done solid work in family court and as an advocate for children. But in a court that often feels stagnant, we’re in favor of change.

10 D, Seat 5

Kevin Boxberger

In the race for retiring judge Debra Ann Sasser’s seat, Kevin Boxberger is the clear choice. Boxberger, a young defense attorney, spent a little more than 10 years representing impoverished clients in District Court, some of whom struggled with mental health issues or substance use disorder. Currently, he oversees the public defender’s office for seven counties, including Wake. 

Like fellow candidate Jordan, Boxberger has pledged to treat everyone who comes through the courtroom “with fairness, dignity, and respect,” regardless of their circumstances. He supports exploring treatment and other diversion programs before resorting to incarceration. Finally, Boxberger’s recent criminal defense experience gives him an advantage over his opponent Blair Williams, an estate and civil attorney, who currently serves as Wake County Clerk of Superior Court.

10 E, Seat 3

Crystal Grimes

It was a tough call in District 10 E, where another defense attorney, Crystal Grimes, is challenging incumbent Eric Craig Chasse. Chasse touts his experience, arguing that institutional knowledge helps make court operations more efficient. He’s also passionate about reform, working to expunge criminal records, “reunite families in crisis,” and help people with substance abuse disorder avoid incarceration. 

But in a court where progressive perspectives are desperately needed, Grimes is a breath of fresh air. Grimes has spent her entire 17-year career as a public defender, demonstrating a true commitment to public service. She says she has seen the system not work for her clients and pledges to examine how race and poverty impact defendants. Grimes wants to make a difference as a district court judge, intervening at the lowest level of the justice system to, ideally, keep people out of it for good.

NC Senate District 13

This is a Republican primary. The candidates are Vicki Harry and Scott Lassiter. The INDY is not making an endorsement in this race. 

NC Senate District 14

This is a Democratic primary. 

Dan Blue

Now the NC Senate minority leader, Raleigh attorney Dan Blue has served in the General Assembly, on and off, since 1981. Accordingly, Blue has a strong legislative record to fall back on, including, this past session, sponsoring bills to codify Roe v. Wade in North Carolina and provide capital project funding for NCCU and Wake County. We can’t find much information about Blue’s opponent, Terry Passione. Regardless, we think Blue has earned another term.

NC House District 33

This is a Democratic primary. 

Monika Johnson-Hostler

Following a solid decade of service on Wake County Public Schools Board of Education where she has been a successful advocate for staff salary increases and student achievement beyond test scores, we think Monika Johnson-Hostler will continue to serve Wake County well in a state legislative role. Johnson-Hostler, who runs a local nonprofit that works to prevent sexual assault and support victims and survivors, offers an education policy expert’s breadth of knowledge coupled with a passion for public schools. With a Republican-majority legislature, that’s a type that we can never have too many of in the state House chambers. 

Johnson-Hostler’s main opponent in this race, Antoine G. Marshall, is a former attorney for Legal Aid and now owns his own law practice, where he is a community economic development attorney. With a platform focus on housing, justice, and fair wages, we think Marshall is a strong candidate. But Johnson-Hostler’s years of service and experience give her the edge.

A third candidate, retired state employee Debra Dunston, is also running in this primary. 

NC House District 35

This is a Republican primary. The candidates are James Norman and Mike Schietzelt. The INDY is not making an endorsement in this race.  

Correction: The Wake County District Court races are Democratic primary elections, not non-partisan elections. This has been corrected.

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