With final (though unofficial) results in for town councils and boards in municipalities across Wake County, local Democrats are likely taking a victory lap. In the western Wake towns of Apex and Cary, the county party’s endorsed candidates won all of their seats, and their endorsed mayoral candidate won in Morrisville. 

In Apex, Sue Mu was the top vote-getter in a pack of eight candidates competing for three open seats on the council, winning 8,499 votes, or about 23 percent. Shane Reese and Ed Gray, the only incumbent in the race, placed second and third respectively; Reese pulled in 8,318 votes and Gray won 8,184 votes, both around 22 percent. Mary Miskimon placed fourth, followed by Aditya Ahlawat, TJ Evans, Andre Powell, and Kyrone Nebolisa. See all the results below:

In the Cary at-large race, first-term incumbent Carissa Johnson bested challenger Marjorie Eastman, winning 21,374 votes from voters town-wide, or about 65 percent to Eastman’s 35 percent. In District A, challenger Brittany Richards beat longtime incumbent Jennifer Robinson, and the race wasn’t particularly close. Richards won the northern Cary district with 5,756 votes or 59 percent to Robinson’s 41 percent. And in Cary’s southernmost District C, Bella Huang came out way ahead of Renee Miller, with 7,116 votes, or 65 percent, to Miller’s 35 percent.

In Morrisville, Mayor TJ Cawley handily beat his challenger, town council member Satish Garimella, with 3,174 votes or 64 percent, to Garimella’s 31 percent. Richard Reinhart came in third, with 246 votes, about 5 percent overall. 

In the race for one at-large seat on the Morrisville town council, Harrison Kesling came out ahead of Subba Reddy Madireddy, with 2,403 votes, or about 49 percent to Madireddy’s 32 percent. Liz Dann trailed the two, winning 923 votes, about 19 percent overall.

In Morrisville’s southeastern District 2, Ashit Patel won against Jashi Abhirajan with 2,677 votes, or 56 percent, to Abhirajan’s 43 percent. Write-in candidates took about 1 percent of the vote. The county Democratic party endorsed Abhirajan, though Patel is also a registered Democrat. 

Finally, in Morrisville’s largest district, District 4 in the northeastern part of town, incumbent Vicki Scroggins-Johnson defeated Patty Cheng, with 2,807 votes, or 59 percent to Cheng’s 41 percent. Scroggins-Johnson is a registered Democrat, though she didn’t receive the county party’s endorsement this cycle; Cheng is a Republican. 

The Durham City Council will have two new members: Matt Kopac and Shanetta Burris have defeated incumbents in Wards 1 and 2 respectively. 

Results from all of Durham’s precincts are in, though they’re considered unofficial until certified by the state.

Leonardo Williams won a second term as mayor, with 26,084 votes (about 58 percent) to challenger Anjanée Bell’s 18,984. And in Ward 3, incumbent Chelsea Cook easily retained their seat against challenger Diana Medoff with 33,347 votes, or about 75 percent. Cook earned more votes than any other candidate on the ballot in Durham.

Burris similarly had a wide margin over Ward 2 incumbent Mark-Anthony Middleton, winning 30,652 votes (68.5 percent) to his 13,952. As expected, the Ward 1 race was closer: Kopac won 23,426 votes (about 52 percent) to incumbent DeDreana Freeman’s 21,585.

At the newly renovated Old North Bar, Resistance HQ is hunkered down with drinks, hot dogs and other snacks as early results start to trickle in. Candidates DeDreana Freeman and Chelsea Cook are huddled next to a laptop opened to the Board of Elections  results page, and Burris is tucked in a nearby booth having a laugh with a friend. Supporters of the three candidates have promoted the slate as a rebuke of a status quo that they say is too favorable to developers.

Recent candidates are also peppered throughout the crowd: Pablo Friedmann and Andrea Cazales, who ran in the primary for mayor and Ward 1, respectively, are deep in conversation with sitting council member Nate Baker. And Marshall Williams, a Riverside High School grad who ran for mayor in 2023, can be seen towering over most of the crowd, making the rounds while also working the phones.

Other notable politicos include former county commissioner Brenda Howerton, who spoke glowingly of Burris, praising the council hopeful for her willingness to be coached and listen to others. Howerton also plugged her upcoming memoir, which she says chronicles her life in politics and her personal tragedy.

Over at Lakewood Social, Anjanée Bell has ended her party, but hadn’t quite ended her campaign even as the vote tally indicated a victory for mayor Leonardo Williams.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she told supporters. “This is gonna be one of those go to sleep, wake up, and see what it is kind of nights.”

Full unofficial results now say Bell got about 42 percent of the vote to Williams’s 58.

Bell, who came into the general election as the underdog, has been determinedly high-energy all night, dancing and hugging friends at the end of what has been a long election in Durham. Her campaign message was centered around “building a better Durham for everyone.” In practice, that meant targeting incumbent mayor Williams over his voting record on developments that have come before the council.

Results are in for the Chapel Hill Town Council race.

Five candidates were on the ballot for four seats on the council. Two incumbents seeking reelection—Camille Berry and Paris Miller-Foushee—both earned second terms. They’ll be joined by two new faces, Louie Rivers III and Wes McMahon. 

Rivers and McMahon were the top vote-getters of the night, with 5,177 and 5,101 votes, respectively. Berry came in third with 5,057 votes and Miller-Foushee with 4,736. Erik Valera came in fifth, about 800 votes short of snagging a seat on council. Overall, 11,685 ballots were cast in the town council race.

McMahon and Rivers have both served on the town’s Planning Commission. McMahon is an ESL instructor who previously worked in refugee resettlement. Rivers is a professor and former social scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency.

All the town council candidates had relatively similar platforms centering on housing affordability, climate resilience, and community engagement, and the results aren’t expected to shift the balance of the council drastically. 

Mayor Jess Anderson, who was unopposed tonight, will also get a second term.

With most precincts reporting results, Durham Mayor Leonard Williams has called his race. His victory speech has so far largely focused on his detractors.

This election cycle has boiled down to “waking up every day, trying to see, okay, so what attack is it today?” Williams says. “Waking up every day—what smear will it be today? Which one of my friends or which one of my family members will it be today? Which lie will it be today? It’s not healthy to wake up thinking about negativity every single day.”

Next, Williams addresses the media, warmly:

“You guys take a lot of heat, and sometimes I don’t like you. But you’re not at your job for any candidate or elected official to like you. I am a true proponent of local journalism. I ask you to keep a close eye on everything that’s happening, including me.”

Major bar mitzvah vibes at Ekhaya, the restaurant that Mayor Leonardo Williams owns with his wife Zweli. Williams and Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton—both running for reelection—are gathered with supporters for an indoor-outdoor affair.

Towering balloon structures flank either side of the door. A thumpy dance song obscure enough that Shazam can’t identify it pulses overhead. Multicolor lights bathe the patio.

A throng of TV news folks are here, keeping warm by the fire while the votes trickle in.

Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam just showed up to Ward 1 candidate Matt Kopac’s watch party in a “Hot Girls for Zohran” sweatshirt. (Allam’s political committee has donated a few thousand dollars to Kopac’s campaign.)

She says she’s excited to see if there was any kind of “Zohran effect” on boosting turnout in Durham, referring to the New York City mayoral race that has seen historic turnout today.

“I’m wondering if younger people showed up more locally here in Durham, just because of how it’s been made really clear recently how important the roles of mayor and city council can be,” Allam says.

The bubbly is flowing and the mood is high at RBF, a cozy champagne bar in Downtown Cary where town council candidates Bella Huang, Carissa Kohn-Johnson, and Brittany Richards are watching the results come in. Actually, Richards isn’t here yet—I’m told she’s putting her kids to bed, then she’ll be on her way.

Around 50 of the candidates’ supporters and friends are crammed into the bar, mingling beneath pendant lamps and lounging on plush turquoise sofas. Among them I’ve spotted Cary mayor Harold Weinbrecht, town council members Lori Bush, Michelle Craig, and Sarika Bansal, state representative Ya Liu, former Wake School Board member Christine Kushner, and Wake County commissioners Susan Evans and Cheryl Stallings.

Bush and Liu have gotten hold of some early precinct results, and they tell me their intel suggests Huang, Kohn-Johnson, and Richards will each win their races. Early voting results support that: so far, Richards leads incumbent Jennifer Robinson by about 30 percent, and Huang and Kohn-Johnson are ahead in their respective races by about 40 percent.

Early voting results are in for town councils and boards in municipalities across Wake County, and here’s where things stand in the western Wake towns of Apex, Cary, and Morrisville. 

In Apex, Sue Mu is leading in a pack of eight candidates who are competing for three open seats on the board, with 24.36 percent of the vote. Close behind her are Shane Reese and the only incumbent in the race, current mayor pro tem Ed Gray, with 24.31 and 23.78 percent of the vote respectively. Here’s how the rest stack up:

In the Cary at-large race, first-term incumbent Carissa Johnson is running ahead of challenger Marjorie Eastman with 70.13 percent of the vote to Eastman’s 29.67 percent. In District A, challenger Brittany Richards is leading longtime incumbent Jennifer Robinson with 64.43 percent of early vote ballots to Robinson’s 35.49 percent. And in District C, Bella Huang leads Renee Miller, 70.85 percent to 29.02 percent; both Richards and Huang would be newcomers to the town council. 

In Morrisville, Mayor TJ Cawley is leading over challenger and sitting town council member Satish Garimella, with 61.62 percent of the vote to Garimella’s 33.93 percent. Richard Reinhart trails with 4.12 percent. 

In the race for one at-large seat on the Morrisville town council, Harrison Kesling is running ahead of Subba Reddy Madireddy, 43.97 percent to 37.35 percent. Liz Dann trails with 18.55 percent of the early vote.

In the Morrisville town council District 2 race, Ashit Patel leads Jashi Abhirajan with 56.85 percent of the early vote to 42.89 percent.

And in the Morrisville town council District 4 race, incumbent Vicki Scroggins-Johnson has a lead over Patty Cheng, with 57.07 percent of the vote to Cheng’s 42.33 percent. 

We’ll see if the early voting results hold through the night as Election Day results roll in.

At Pour, where Ward 1 Durham City Council candidate Matt Kopac is hosting his watch party, around 50 people are mingling over Costco brand canapés and cashew cheddar biscuits that Kopac’s mom baked.

She would’ve liked to prepare a whole spread of food, but she was at the polls all day, according to Kopac.

This is the tightest race of the night in Durham, and Kopac says he’s prepared for any outcome. Early numbers show him with a less than 2 point lead.

“City council is a critical role in our community. It’s also only one way of being of service,” Kopac tells the INDY.  “If I don’t win, I still want to find ways to bring voice for folks in the community.”

There’s been some chatter about Kopac’s fundraising over the past few weeks, mostly just about how much he’s raised: $76,100, as of the latest filing.

Asked about his campaign finance, Kopac says, “It allowed me to pay my campaign staff living wage. It allowed me to get a message out as a challenger to a long-term incumbent.“

We have early voting results in the Durham mayor and city council races. 

So far, results are mirroring the outcomes of the primary. Here’s how results are looking, with the caveat that Election Day totals haven’t been counted yet.

Mayor Leonardo Williams leads challenger Anjanée Bell, with about 60 percent of votes cast to Bell’s 39 percent. In Ward 3, Chelsea Cook has a big lead so far (about 73 percent of votes) over challenger Diana Medoff (about 27 percent)

In Ward 2, challenger Shanetta Burris has a big lead as well with about 65 percent of votes cast so far to incumbent Mark-Anthony Middleton’s 35 percent. 

The Ward 1 race between incumbent DeDreana Freeman and challenger Matt Kopac is much closer. With early votes and mail-in ballots counted, Kopac has about a three-point lead over Freeman, with 51 percent of votes.

Just under 15,000 ballots have been counted so far from early voting and absentee voting by-mail. Stay tuned for more results as they come in. In the meantime, take a closer look at the early voting and mail-in results:

Mayor

City Council Ward 1

City Council Ward 2

City Council Ward 3

Check back for official results—hopefully not too late tonight.

Voters were scarce after nightfall on North Carolina Central University’s campus. 

Rob Wilkerson, who was passing out pamphlets promoting the UE-150 Durham City Workers’ Union’s slate of endorsed candidates, sat at a table alone in front of the polling site. Wilkerson was born and raised in Durham, though he lives in Wake County now. The self-proclaimed Durhamite says he volunteered to pass flyers out for three-and-a-half hours because he wants the city to prosper. 

Wilkerson says he thinks much of the development in Durham is good, but it can also lead to crime when citizens are priced out of their homes. 

“I just feel like the politicians aren’t open-minded about that aspect of how gentrification harms the city,” Wilkerson says. “I love to see Durham growing the way it is, but at the same time, I hate to see some of the people that’s been lifelong residents tell me, ‘I have to live in Burlington now’ or ‘I got to move to Oxford because I can’t afford to pay $3,000 a month for a two bedroom.’”

Wilkerson says he has attended many city council meetings over the last three years. He recalls one time when the council approved a 140-unit apartment complex along Pickett Road in March over the objections of a packed room of people who showed up to oppose it. 

Having politicians stay in touch with their constituents and out of donor’s pockets is important, Wilkerson says.

“We need politicians that’s going to listen to the people, and we need politicians that’s going to work for Durham and not for big developers,” Wilkerson says.

Any minute, results from Durham’s municipal elections will start to roll in, starting with mail-in votes and the ballots cast during early voting.  

In the meantime, we have some data on who cast ballots during the early voting period and where, and how that all stacks up with the last time Durham had elections in 2023. 

This year, a total of 14,540 Durhamites voted during early voting, which ended November 1. While that’s a mere 7 percent (!!) of eligible registered voters in the city, it is an uptick from 2023’s general election, in which 12,597 early votes were cast. 

Party affiliation of early voters this year was consistent with 2023, with a small uptick among unaffiliated voters and small dip among Republican voters.

And once again this year, voters in the 65+ age group made up the largest share of early votes, casting about 43 percent of ballots. Only about 22 percent of early votes were cast by people under 40.

A majority (59 percent) of early voters this year were female and just under 52 percent were white. That’s about the same as 2023, when 58 percent of early voters were female and 58 percent were white. A larger percentage of early ballots were cast by Black voters this year compared with 2023 (37.4 percent and 31.7, respectively).

As with early voting ahead of the October primary, voters were most active in Ward 2, casting just under 40 percent of ballots (5,736). In that race, incumbent Mark-Anthony Middleton is defending his seat against challenger Shanetta Burris.

Ward 3, where incumbent Chelsea Cook is likely to beat out challenger Diana Medoff, was second with 4,474 ballots cast. Ward 1, which saw a super close primary race between incumbent DeDreana Freeman and challenger Matt Kopac, saw the fewest early votes cast with 4,261—but all ward totals were higher than the primary during the early voting periods. (Voters in each of Durham’s wards can make their picks for all seats on the ballot, not just in the ward in which they reside.)

We’ll post an update when we get early voting results after polls close at 7:30 tonight.

I’ll be eagerly refreshing the results page tonight to see who comes out on top in the election for Chapel Hill Town Council.

With five well-credentialed and on-message candidates for four seats, I have no idea who is going to win in a year with a dearth of drama.

Will the incumbents, Camille Berry and Paris Miller-Foushee, come out on top because of their name recognition? Will the three challengers, Wes McMahon, Louie Rivers, and Erik Valera, benefit from their assurances to voters that they would not have approved this year’s controversial budget, which raised property taxes for the fifth year in a row?

When I first started at the INDY in 2023, I dove headfirst into a rather vitriolic Chapel Hill town council election that had 10 candidates fighting for four seats alongside a mayoral election that saw a record amount of money raised (the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board race also had a whopping 14 candidates for four seats).

This year’s election looks nothing like that. I haven’t heard any candidates say anything bad about each other—at least not on the record—and it’s hard to say that the town will experience any major shift no matter who wins.

That’s partly because the political apparatus in Chapel Hill has changed drastically as Chapel Hill for a Livable Town (CHALT) has seen its influence wane. Pair that with the relative quiet from Triangle Blog Blog, the hyperlocal blog that helped make 2023’s election accessible to Chapel Hill’s younger people, and the race feels pretty darn tame. 

In 2015, CHALT backed Pam Hemminger’s bid to unseat incumbent mayor Mark Kleinschmidt. Hemminger won, and went on to serve as mayor until 2023, although her and CHALT-backed council member Jess Anderson (now mayor Anderson) both were rejected by CHALT in later elections.

Last cycle, CHALT backed a slate for four candidates for council and Adam Searing for mayor, and only one of their council candidates won.

This year, the group isn’t fielding any candidates and, according to Triangle Blog Blog, has officially disbanded its PAC.

Early voting ended on November 1 in Wake County, and the unofficial totals are in. With elections in 11 of the 12 municipalities (Raleigh elects its mayor and city council in even years), 20,054 people voted early across the county. 

Comparisons to previous municipal cycles are imperfect since most towns stagger their elections so that different seats are on the ballot each year. Still, early turnout this year was a lot higher than in 2023, when 6,962 Wake County residents in 11 towns voted early, or 2021, when 6,203 residents in 10 towns did. All those numbers are dwarfed, of course, by the 466,130 early votes cast in Wake County for the 2024 general election.

According to statistics published by the Wake County Board of Elections, the “typical” early voter this year was an unaffiliated (43 percent) white (70 percent) woman (52 percent) over 55 (61 percent) who lives in Cary (41 percent). 

After Cary, Apex had the highest early turnout, followed by Holly Springs, Morrisville, and Garner. Early turnout was lowest in Rolesville, where three candidates are running for three seats.

Early voting results will be posted to the NC State Board of Elections’ results dashboard within a couple hours of polls closing at 7:30 p.m.

About 50 voters lined up outside the Durham County Main Library just after the work day ended. One of them was Kelsey Graywill and her canine companion Poptart, who was eager to say hello. 

Graywill says she is keeping her fellow pedestrians in mind as she heads into the polls. 

“I would say probably transit and development in Durham are kind of top of mind right now for me as a working class adult here; I want to see the city change in a way that’s positive,” Graywill says.

Graywill works for local nonprofit Bike Durham, which advocates for “safe, affordable, and sustainable transportation,” according to its website. Graywill says the group cares about how policymakers are part of Durham’s changing transit landscape for pedestrians, cyclists, and bus riders. 

For Graywill, casting a ballot for Ward 3 incumbent Chelsea Cook, who she sees as a “pretty good champion of transit issues,” is an easy choice.

But not all voters had decided who would get their vote. Ferdinand Rouse, an undecided voter, joined the back of the long line as the sun began to set. 

Still mulling over his options, Rouse says he wanted to exercise his civic duty.

Some issues he is taking interest in are affordable housing and transparency with how the city spends its money. Regardless of who wins tonight, Rouse says he believes anyone who is elected cares for Durham because they are seeking leadership. 

“I believe that the folks that we elect, that the people will ultimately make the best decision, and that those folks will have the best interest of the city at heart,” Rouse says. 

In 2021, 558 Zebulonians turned out to vote in that year’s election for mayor of the small eastern Wake County town. Glenn York, the current mayor, won about 83 percent of those votes.

With the mayor’s seat on the ballot again, I’m interested in whether turnout is higher in the town of about 8,000 this year given the, let’s say, tumult the local government has seen recently. 

There’s a whole backstory—involving staff resignations, bees, and a rejected rezoning request that resulted in a lawsuit—that you can and should read up on here. But here are some topline points. 

There are five candidates in the race: York is the incumbent. Jessica Harrison and Shannon Baxter are sitting commissioners. Gilbert Todd is the former town manager and Larry Loucks is a former commissioner. 

About 500 residents—nearly as many people as voted in the last mayoral election—have signed petitions calling for the resignation of York, Harrison, Baxter and another sitting commissioner, citing “widespread and profound loss of public trust, stemming from concerns of a lack of transparency, accountability.” Todd resigned in protest earlier this year after he says the board asked him to put his assistant manager on leave without cause. 

Todd and Loucks are pledging to restore trust and stability to the town government, while York, Harrison and Baxter have defended the elected leadership’s work, such as providing town services.

In a race that hinges on just a few hundred votes, I wouldn’t purport to know which way Zebulon voters will go. York enjoys an incumbent’s advantage but has barely campaigned, and it’s worth noting Todd has raised over $14,000 this election cycle—about $10,000 more than Harrison and Loucks, and over $11,000 more than York reported (Baxter filed notice that she doesn’t expect to raise or spend more than $1,000.)

With a few hours left before the polls close, turnout seems to be high in Morrisville, where there are four races on the ballot including a mayoral election. This year, 1,428 people voted early here. Mayoral candidate and sitting town council member Satish Garimella tells me he was the 501st person to vote at the Parkside Elementary polling location. At a different polling place, a volunteer tells me about 1,000 voters have come through today. All told, the town is on track to surpass the 3,091-person turnout in the 2021 mayoral contest.

Garimella tells me he’s optimistic about his chances of winning. He’s been getting text messages all day from local leaders—state senator Gale Adcock, senate Democratic leader Sydney Batch, Wake County commissioner Vickie Adamson, Wake register of deeds Tammy Brunner, congresswoman Valerie Foushee—wishing him luck. He says he has about 60 friends and supporters who’ve taken the day off work to volunteer as poll greeters or make phone calls.

“Ashish called 100 people,” Garimella grins, gesturing towards his friend Ashish Patel, the head chef at the Morrisville restaurant Annapurna. Patel is one of ten or so Garimella supporters hanging out with him at Parkside this afternoon. Also in the cohort is Manoj Pandya, president of the Hindu Society of North Carolina (HSNC). 

Pandya says Garimella has been a huge help to Morrisville’s Indian community, connecting people with government services and helping them access resources. During the pandemic, Pandya and Garimella collaborated on setting up a vaccination clinic and a food program (which is still running today). “It’s all about commitment, and supporting a good person,” Pandya says of Garimella. “I’ve seen his track record. He’s been helping people so much.”

A few miles away outside the HSNC, incumbent mayor TJ Cawley is greeting voters as they head to cast their ballots. He, too, feels good about his chances.

“I’m pretty confident that positivity will win, because the Morrisville voters are educated and smart, and they know truth, transparency and trust matter,” Cawley says. “Those are my values.”

In truth, Cawley’s campaign hasn’t been 100 percent positive. Neither has Garimella’s. They’ve both thrown some jabs at each other, disagreeing on apartment construction and the importance of having a “full-time” mayor, among other things. It’s actually gotten pretty tense these last couple weeks. 

Case in point: Morrisville town council member Liz Johnson is standing right behind Cawley at HSNC, campaigning for his opponent, Garimella. As Cawley shakes hands with voters, Johnson tells me why she’s supporting his challenger: “It’s the difference between a show horse and a workhorse,” she says. “Satish is working for us all the time.”

One race I’ll be watching with interest tonight is the Morrisville mayoral contest between two-term incumbent TJ Cawley and his mayor pro tem, Satish Garimella, two Democrats with very different political styles and positions on local issues. 

Three of the candidates’ town council colleagues have endorsed Garimella while the other two have endorsed Cawley. The mayor earned the Wake County Democratic Party’s support, but his opponent is endorsed by a long list of local Democrats.

Garimella raised a mind-boggling $147,000 leading up to this election, according to his latest campaign finance report. That’s head and shoulders more than any other candidate in Wake County, including Cawley, who raised about $29,000. Garimella spent almost all of his haul (about $141,000), with big sums going toward campaign literature, consulting, audio and video equipment, video production, and food for his team and volunteers. Cawley spent about $22,000.

When I interviewed the candidates in September, they seemed collegial enough. Cawley told me that “if voters believe we both add value and represent important perspectives, you don’t have to choose between us” (because Garimella’s council term doesn’t expire until 2027). Garimella said “my race is not against TJ; it is about what is good for Morrisville.”

But as the election neared, the candidates’ rhetoric grew a touch more adversarial. Last week they posted dueling social media infographics detailing their positions on local development issues; Cawley emphasized his preference for low density and opposition to apartments, while Garimella positioned himself as pro-housing and pro-small business.

Cawley calls himself a “full-time mayor” and is very visible around town, but some of his colleagues have suggested he isn’t a productive leader behind the scenes. Still, he seems popular among Morrisville residents. It’ll be interesting to see whether Garimella’s messaging and immense fundraising can overcome Cawley’s incumbent’s advantage, and how close the race will be.

There’s also a third mayoral candidate, Richard Reinhart. He’s brand new to local politics, has raised exactly $300 for his campaign, and mainly uses his social media to criticize his opponents for voting to raise Morrisville’s property taxes—a statement that doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny and isn’t paired with any actionable solutions, but taps into a deeply-held feeling among some western Wake residents that the cost of living has risen too quickly over the last several years. I’m curious to see how far Reinhart’s pitch of “common sense fiscal conservat[ism]” takes him tonight.

Here’s my story on Morrisville’s mayoral contest from September.

I’m keeping a close eye on the race for Durham City Council’s Ward 2 seat. It’s shaping up as a referendum on how Durham handles growth, and whether grassroots organizing can overcome a significant cash disadvantage.

Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton, who’s seeking a third term, has been one of the current council’s most reliable votes in favor of rezoning requests from developers, while his challenger, Shanetta Burris, has signaled she would bring more scrutiny. The council currently splits 4-3 on many development-related decisions, so depending on how the other races shake out, a Burris win could shift that balance.

The candidates’ divergence on development is mirrored in where their money is coming from. Middleton raised $36,000 total this election cycle, two-thirds of which came in during the latest reporting period—much of it from developer-aligned donors. His biggest receipts in that period include $6,800 from Georgia real estate developer Mark Hall, $6,000 from the NC Realtors PAC, and $2,500 from Raleigh real estate developer Gregg Sandreuter. Middleton has been spending aggressively to close the gap with Burris, dropping $28,200 between September 23 and October 20. 

Burris, meanwhile, has raised and spent under $6,000 the entire election cycle. But she’s built support through organizing and has more endorsements than Middleton, including endorsements from the People’s Alliance, Durham Progressive Democrats, UE Local 150, the North Carolina AFL-CIO, Sunrise Durham, Sierra Club, and Run For Something.

Burris has the edge going into Tuesday’s election. She led Middleton by nine points in the primary and will likely pick up votes from eliminated candidate Ashley Robbins, a frequent critic of Middleton who earned 11 percent of the primary vote.

One more potential shift worth watching: If Middleton loses while Mayor Leonardo Williams wins reelection—likely, given Williams’ commanding primary lead—we’d see the mayor without his closest ally. The two typically vote in lockstep.

The District A race in Cary has all the hallmarks of a close local matchup: a well-known, long-serving incumbent; an energetic challenger with grassroots and institutional support; virtually indistinguishable policy platforms, and a politically moderate electorate. It could be anyone’s race between Jennifer Robinson, who has served in the district seat since 1999, and Brittany Richards, who’s racked up endorsements from leaders across Wake County as well as from at least two sitting Cary town council members. 

Robinson is winning the fundraising game. The most recent filings show she’s taken in $67,000 to Richards’s $25,000 (Robinson is the third-highest fundraiser in the three-seat, six-candidate Cary races; Richards has raised the least of all). 

Robinson’s donations mostly come from residents of Cary and western Wake County, and she has some large contributions from members of the real estate and development industries, including John Kane, construction company exec David Ferrell, and the Ward brothers. Richards, by contrast, has received dozens of smaller contributions, mostly from local residents.

But in Triangle elections, more dollars raised doesn’t always translate neatly into more votes, and although it’s officially a nonpartisan race, the outcome could boil down to a question of red or blue, and which local party is able to turn out more voters. 

Robinson, a registered Republican, has a reputation for governing as a moderate on the town council. Though she hasn’t closely allied herself with the decidedly more MAGA candidates running in Cary this cycle, emails from her town account bashing the LGBTQ community won’t have won her much favor with liberal voters. Richards, on the other hand, has the endorsement of the county Democratic Party, as well as Democratic leaders across Wake at the state and local levels. 

“Just to be perfectly frank, the major distinction between me and my opponent is our party affiliation,” Richards told the INDY in an interview this fall. “I have no appetite to bring national-level political rancor to this local race …. I try to make just a factual distinction, which is, I am running as an endorsed Democrat, my opponent is running as a Republican, and we live in times right now, for better or worse, that tells voters, without me having to fill in a lot of blanks for them, that she and I have different perspectives.”

In what was the most contested race in Durham’s primary election last month, challenger Matt Kopac and incumbent DeDreana Freeman claimed the top two spots, with Kopac narrowly edging out Freeman by 451 votes (Kopac won 10,071 votes and Freeman 9,620).

Kopac’s fundraising efforts have put him, and the Ward 1 race, at the center of debate this election cycle. Kopac raised over $60,000 during his campaign, but big coffers don’t always equal success. Just ask UNC football.

Some voters view Kopac’s substantial bankroll as an effort by developers to “buy” the Ward 1 seat, believing that he will rubber stamp future development projects and perpetuate the favorable 4-3 voting split that many cases often result in.

But Kopac, who has served on the Planning Commission since 2024, said he would bring “a thoughtful, balanced approach to how we grow” should he get elected.

Freeman, who has been an outspoken voice for marginalized communities during her time on council, says she still has unfinished business, specifically around major development projects in Durham’s historically Black neighborhoods like Hayti, Walltown and the West End. “It’s about making sure that people are at the table, so that they don’t feel left out of the conversation or left behind.”

Given the more sizable margin of victory in the three other races, the balance of the council, at least when it comes to rezoning votes, could come down to the winner in Ward 1.

Results are in from Durham’s municipal primary. 

As expected, incumbents advanced to the general election in each race. The big news of the night was challenger Shanetta Burris’s substantial lead over Ward 2 councilman Mark-Anthony Middleton.

In the mayor’s race, mayor Leonardo Williams and challenger Anjanée Bell will move forward to the November 4 election. Williams maintained a wide lead over Bell throughout the night, finishing with 13,761 votes over her 7,357 (55.47 percent vs. 29.66 percent).

In Ward 1, challenger Matt Kopac and incumbent DeDreana Freeman will be on general election ballots. Kopac and Freeman traded top-spots as results rolled in, with Kopac ultimately eking out a 451 vote lead over Freeman. Kopac ended the night with 40.89 percent of votes and Freeman with 39.05 percent.

In Ward 2, Burris and Middleton will advance. Burris took an early lead and ended with 2,326 votes over Middleton (49.31 percent of votes vs. 39.54 percent).

Finally, in Ward 3, incumbent Chelsea Cook and challenger Diana Medoff took the top spots, though Cook led Medoff by 34 percentage points, or about 8,500 votes.

Results are unofficial until certified.

Leo Williams and Anjanée Bell are set to face off in the general election next month.

Williams, in comments at his watch party at the Velvet Hippo, is already trying to strike a conciliatory tone. That strategy makes sense for an incumbent who just won about 55 percent of the vote compared to Bell’s 30 percent.

“I’m not running against Anjanée Bell,” Williams says when asked to distinguish himself from his competitor. “I’m running for the record that I’ve set. I’m running for the work that myself, my council, and past councils have put forth. So I don’t really focus on an opponent. I focus on what we can do together moving forward, I have nothing to say negative about Ms. Bell … I hope that she’ll join me as an ally to work to make Durham even better than what it is today.”

Just a block and a half away at High Dive, Bell does not quite sound ready to take him up on that offer. Her father, former mayor Bill Bell, is perched on a stool by the door while Ward 1 incumbent DeDreana Freeman and former council member Monique Holsey-Hyman mingle with the crowd.

“I think it matters to have someone in leadership that genuinely cares about Durham as a whole. That includes its people, that includes the ability to stay here, that includes the ability to be resourced, and everything that is required to live,” says Bell. “And when people see that, and they get to know that about me, that I’m someone who will sit and I will listen and I will take the time to go wherever is needed, that will show the distinction between myself and the incumbent.”

At the Velvet Hippo, mayor Leo Williams seems more concerned about the Ward 2 election than his own. That’s because, while he maintained a comfortable lead throughout the night, his ally and mayor pro tem Mark-Anthony Middleton is trailing behind challenger Shanetta Burris, who he’ll face again in November.

“It’s really hard to do my job without him,” Williams says of Middleton.

When asked why some Williams voters didn’t pick Middleton, Williams says that “I think it’s all about communication. The mayor pro tem is going to have to work on being much more accessible. He is a great individual, a great council member. I think he’s going to have to really work on making sure that the Durham community sees what he’s capable of.”

That’s not exactly the message that Middleton delivers a few minutes later as he emphasizes his consistent record on the council:

“I’ve been elected twice in this city, pretty impressively, I haven’t done it by talking differently or changing my message or changing my policy. So I’ll continue to be true to who I am and leave it to the people of Durham. I always say vox populi vox dei—the voice of the people is the voice of God.”

Incumbent city council member Chelsea Cook, who is running for reelection in Ward 3, and candidate Shanetta Burris, who is challenging incumbent mayor pro tem Mark-Anthony Middleton in Ward 2, are gathered with supporters at Hi-Wire Brewing in Golden Belt, refreshing laptops and phones as the results come in.

“I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch,” Burris says. “But overall, feeling really good.” 

At city council candidate Elijah King’s watch party at Spring Rolls, a dozen or so supporters are gathered around tables eating lo mein.

King, who’s captured around 7.5 percent of the vote in the Ward 1 race so far, tells me he’s “hopeful tonight that Durham will win.”

When asked what Durham winning means to him, King cites more housing options, preventing displacement, and creating more opportunities for young people.

Reflecting on the campaign process, King says “endorsements matter.” He also stresses the collaborative nature of the race: during his campaign, he went on a bike ride with Matt Kopac and roller skated with Andrea Cazales—both of whom are his opponents in Ward 1.

“I hope I showed people that we don’t hate each other,” King says.

Early voting and mail-in results are in! 

Anything could happen as primary day ballots are added to the totals, but here’s how results are looking so far. 

Incumbent mayor Leonardo Williams has a big lead (58 percent of votes counted so far), with Anjanée Bell in second place (and 28 percent of the votes). Similarly, incumbent Ward 3 council member Chelsea Cook is leading second-place challenger Diana Medoff by about 25 percentage points.

The Ward 1 and 2 races are closer. Ward 1 incumbent DeDreana Freeman currently leads challenger Matt Kopac by about four percentage points. In Ward 2, challenger Shanetta Burris is, so far, slightly beating out incumbent Mark-Anthony Middleton with about three percentage points between them. (As a reminder, the top two vote-getters in each race will advance to the general election in November.)

Just under 11,500 ballots have been counted so far from early voting and absentee voting by-mail. As of this post, there were no primary election day results reported—so stay tuned for more results as they come in. In the meantime, take closer look at the early voting and mail-in results:

Mayor

City Council Ward 1

City Council Ward 2

City Council Ward 3

Check back for official results (fingers crossed) a little later tonight.

The polls have just closed and incumbent mayor Leo Williams has arrived to his watch party at the Velvet Hippo and is making rounds of the room as the vote tallies begin to trickle in.

In a video he’s recording for his social media channels, he says he feels “pretty good” about his chances tonight. That seems appropriate—it would be a real upset if the sitting mayor didn’t even make it to next month’s general election.

The real news tonight will be in who his competitor is, what the vote ratios are, and, of course, who has distinguished themselves in the three ward elections.

As the sun sets on polling sites across Durham, Floyd McKissick Jr., chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, and his exuberant colleague Jan Stewart Cromartie, stood outside the downtown library to catch any last-minute stragglers who could be persuaded to take up the Committee’s endorsed slate of candidates. As I approached their station with INDY intern Kennedy Thomason (whose first day coincided with primary day), Stewart turned up the tunes on his bluetooth speaker.

McKissick, a lifelong organizer, says the voting line at the library had been steady, but not overcrowded. He reminisced about the time he joined Jesse Jackson at North Carolina Central University in 1984, where Jackson gave a speech and hosted a voter registration drive on campus, bringing out hundreds of students.

“Sometimes, you need a magnet to attract people to the cause.”

A pair of women leaving the polls at Holt Elementary School tell me they were particularly excited to vote for incumbent mayor Leonardo Williams, with one voter, Nikki, describing him as “honest and approachable.” She said that Williams had spoken at her workplace, the tech company NetApp.

The two women also voted for Terry McCann, the sole Republican running in this year’s municipal elections, saying they’d heard him speak and thought he was “decent,” though they wished more information had been available about him and all other candidates.

The women said they only found out about the election when a neighbor told them, and hadn’t seen anything on the news or elsewhere about it. They expressed a desire for more literature about local elections.

At a polling site at Holt Elementary School, the first Pablo Friedmann mayoral campaign sign I’ve seen anywhere in town bears a notable resemblance to the “Vote for Pedro” shirts from the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite.

At George Watts Elementary School, it’s hard to tell whether people are coming to vote or pick up their kids—both groups walk briskly and accept whatever flyers the poll greeters hand them.

The greeters include Michael Breen-McKay, who’s campaigning for his spouse Chelsea Cook, the Ward 3 incumbent. He’s wearing a pin styled like the Cook Out logo that reads “Let’s keep COOK IN.”

After a few parent-voter mix-ups, a group of three approaches and there’s no mistaking they’re here to vote when one of them, a woman in a Biggie Smalls T-shirt, jokes, “They have to stay 50 feet away from the entrance!” nodding toward the poll greeters, who are dutifully stationed behind a pink chalk line. The woman is a poll worker herself, which explains both why she knows the rules and why she declines an interview. But the two people she’s with—Amanda May and her child Finn—are happy to talk.

Asked what issues brought them to the polls today, Amanda, a yoga teacher, cites healthcare, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and sustainable development. Finn, who works at a bakery, says they care about raising the minimum wage and getting rid of potholes—“things that directly affect my day to day”—as well as Gaza and broader national politics.

“Things at a micro level do impact things at a macro level,” Finn says. “If you can build foundations in a city-wide area, then it is easier to maintain those foundations statewide. But at the same time, no matter how good the foundation is, if the person running your state or running your country decides to bulldoze through something, there’s only so much you can do.”

While we wait for election results to roll in tonight, we have some insights on early voting, a popular option in super blue Durham.

Early voter turnout this cycle was consistent with the previous municipal primary: 11,256 Durhamites voted early this year, compared to 11,251 in October 2023 and 9,023 in October 2021. 

Ward 2 voters were the most active during early voting this year, casting about 39 percent of ballots (4,374). In that ward, incumbent Mark-Anthony Middleton is being challenged by Shanetta Burris and Ashley Robbins. Ward 3 saw the second-highest number of ballots cast (3,451), followed by Ward 1 (3,429). (Voters in each of Durham’s wards can make their picks for all seats on the ballot, not just in the ward in which they reside.) 

South Regional Library was by far the busiest voting site. North Carolina Central University, often a popular polling place, saw the fewest voters during the period.

The age of early voters is also similar to the 2023 municipal election. Voters in the 65+ age range had the highest turnout, casting about 47 percent of ballots—same as last time. The 41-65 range follows with about 34 percent of ballots cast, both this year and in 2023. Only about 2,100 voters under 40 cast ballots during early voting this year. 

Female and Black voters made up slightly larger percentages of early ballots this year than in the last municipal primary, at 60 percent and 42 percent, respectively. And—though the elections are nonpartisan—voters registered as unaffiliated made up a slightly larger share this year: About 71.2 percent of early voters were registered as Democrats, about 25.03 percent were unaffiliated, and 3.65 percent were registered as Republicans. That compares to 72.78, 23.48, and 3.63 in 2023, respectively.

Early voting results are expected to roll in after polls close at 7:30 tonight.

It’s Primary Day in Durham.

Today, thousands of Bull City residents will join those who already voted early in casting their ballots for mayor and three city council seats.

Those votes will narrow down the field of candidates vying for mayor and the Ward 1, Ward 2 and Ward 3 city council seats. Residents city-wide can vote in all four races regardless of their ward. The top two vote-getters in each race will advance to the November 4 general election (heads up, early voting for that election starts in nine days). 

The INDY team will be in the field throughout the day, talking with voters and candidates alike. We’ll bring you dispatches from the polls, scenes from election watch parties, and of course, updates on the results as they come in. 

Stay tuned here for updates throughout the day.

Important reminder: Polls are open today from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. If you’re in line before 7:30 tonight, you will have the opportunity to vote. Remember to stay in line until you have had the chance to cast your ballot.

Have an update from your polling place? Let us know what you’re seeing: [email protected]

And before you head to the polls, check out these voting resources:

• Registration and Sample Ballot Look-Up
• Polling Place Locator
• INDY’s Durham Primary Election Preview
• INDY’s Durham Candidate Questionnaires 
• INDY’s Durham Primary Endorsements

Durham’s municipal primary is already underway, with hundreds of ballots cast in the first days of early voting. Bull City voters are making their picks for mayor and city council representatives for wards 1, 2, and 3.

Over the past month, INDY has conducted interviews, collected questionnaires, attended forums, and perused candidate websites to bring you a rundown of the crowded field of 18 candidates across the four races. Here’s a look at the candidates, their experience, and their platforms.

KEEP READING

Durham 2025 Primary Preview

With early voting underway for Durham’s municipal primary, here’s a look at the candidates for mayor and three city council seats, their experience, and their platforms.

by Lena Geller and Justin Laidlaw

Check out our primary candidate questionnaires for Durham mayor and city council wards 1, 2, and 3.

KEEP READING

2025 Primary Candidate Questionnaires: Durham

Durham mayor and city council wards 1, 2, and 3.

by INDY staff

With the start of early voting on Thursday, Durham voters have the option to maintain or make significant changes to the city council, with four of seven seats on the ballot. Whoever is elected will, over the next few years, make consequential decisions about the city’s future, and they’ll do so in an increasingly complex and fraught political climate. Council members will need to be focused on policy and able to work together strategically on the many fronts the city faces.

The choice of who navigates these challenges now rests with Durham voters. We at the INDY have spent the past several weeks thinking about these choices as well, and here you will find our endorsements.

KEEP READING

2025 Endorsements: Durham Municipal Primary

Our recommendations for Durham mayor and the ward 1, 2, and 3 city council seats.

by INDY staff

In the two days since the INDY published its investigation into Yes for Durham—a new 501(c)(4) nonprofit with undisclosed leadership and connections to one of its endorsed candidates—all four of the municipal candidates endorsed by the group have publicly disavowed it on social media.

Statements from Leonardo Williams, Mark-Anthony Middleton, Matt Kopac, and Diana Medoff all assert that the candidates have not coordinated with Yes for Durham and will not accept its money.

KEEP READING

Candidates Distance Themselves from Yes for Durham Following INDY Report

Candidates endorsed by Yes for Durham quickly took to social media, committing to not accept any money from the group, which has yet to disclose its leadership.

by Lena Geller

Durham labor groups looking to improve wages, housing affordability, and workers’ rights have set their sights on Duke University, the city’s largest employer and private landowner. With local elections getting underway, organizers have found willing partners in the menagerie of Durham council candidates, all of whom seem to agree that Duke University should do better by the people of Durham.

Organizers are trying to tap into election season—and anti-corporate, anti-billionaire, and not-infrequent anti-Duke sentiment—to push the university to put its $12 billion endowment towards its workers and the community.

KEEP READING

Durham Rising Pushes Council Candidates to Turn the Heat Up on Duke

This election season, labor groups are pushing Duke to put more money toward addressing big issues in Durham like affordable housing, living wages, and school funding.

by Chase Pellegrini de Paur

Durham County Board of Elections is under new management.

Amid an overhaul of local elections boards across the state this week, Durham’s five-seat board of elections is now majority Republican.

KEEP READING

Durham County Board of Elections Flips to Majority Republican

A Republican power grab of local elections boards this week flipped the balance of the Durham County Board of Elections.

by Justin Laidlaw