With the election of Cristóbal Palmer with about 80 percent of the vote with most precincts reporting, Carrboro has chosen another progressive Democrat to fill Barbara Foushee’s former town council seat, which she vacated earlier this year after assuming the mayorship. Palmer will serve for only one year but, as an incumbent, would be in a prime position to pursue a full term if he chooses to run again in the 2025 election.
Palmer defeated Isaac Woolsey, whose campaign drew on his own experience as an autistic and disabled person to emphasize the need for increased public transit hours and access across the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area. Carrboro’s progressive voters, though, were likely put off by Woolsey’s voter registration history (he said he was a registered Republican only to vote against Trump in primaries) and the chronically online may have noted his dustup with the grassroots media outlet Triangle Blog Blog.
As just one more vote on an already ultra-progressive council, Palmer’s greatest potential impact is likely to be through collaboration, rather than any radical adjustments to the council’s current course. During his campaign, he promised to advocate for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements, to center equity in the town’s climate agenda, and to take a hard look at the town’s current zoning laws in order to better incentivize the creation of affordable housing.
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