On Tuesday, May 17, several key primaries will take place, potentially shaping the future of Orange County, North Carolina and even the country. Early voting begins Thursday, April 28. Anyone who turns 18 years old BY Election Day, November 8, is eligible to vote in the primaries.
- U.S. Senate
- U.S. House of Representatives District 04
- N.C. State Senate District 23
- N.C. House of Representatives District 50
- N.C. House of Representatives District 56
- Orange County District Attorney
- Orange County Register of Deeds
- How to Vote
U.S. Senate
North Carolina voters will elect one member to the U.S. Senate in the general election on November 8, 2022. The election will fill the Senate seat currently held by Richard Burr (R), who was first elected in 2005, but is not seeking re-election.
Of the Democratic candidates, former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley of Raleigh is a frontrunner. Her campaign focuses on expanding access to healthcare, supporting small agriculture, education, and womens’ rights. Beasley is endorsed by groups including the Sierra Club, National Education Association and Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Other prominent candidates included State Senator Jeff Jackson and progressive Erica Smith, but both dropped out of the race earlier this year in order to better consolidate Democratic support for Beasley.
On the Republican side, former N.C. Governor Pat McCrory and former U.S. House Representative Mark Walker are big names in the running, though Donald Trump-endorsed U.S. House Representative Ted Budd leads polls. McCrory is a self-proclaimed “Ronald Reagan” Republican, while Walker and Budd are both “America-first,” fervent supporters of Trump. However, Budd was the one to come out with both Trump and Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson’s support. His campaign emphasizes defending the second amendment, supporting pro-life legislation, protecting national borders, “stopping socialism” and “eliminating Big Tech corruption.”
From left: McCrory, Walker, Budd.
Of other parties, two of the more prominent candidates are former 2020 presidential candidate Shannon Bray of the Libertarian Party, whose platform includes ending U.S. wars, protecting personal data online and decentralizing healthcare, and former U.S. Marine Matthew Hoh of the Green Party, who supports the Green New Deal, healthcare for all and stopping mass incarceration.
U.S. House of Representatives District 04
Currently, North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives is represented by David Price (D), and will be up for election this November. In 2020, Price won with 67.3 percent of the vote, so the seat is generally safely Democratic.
The big Democratic names in the primaries include State Senator Valerie Foushee of Chapel Hill, Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam and former 2003 “American Idol” contestant Clay Aiken.
Foushee has represented Chatham and Orange Counties in the N.C. General Assembly since 2013. Before becoming a State Senator, she served on the CHCCS Board of Education, as the first Black Orange County Commissioner, and previously as an administrator at the Chapel Hill Police Department and at insurance companies. Her platform emphasizes supporting civil rights, voting rights and criminal justice reform. Recently, Foushee has been in controversy among N.C. progressives for her campaign’s acceptance of funding from a pro-Israel PAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Though other high-ranking N.C. Democrats such as Governor Roy Cooper have also accepted money from the group, among 120 of AIPAC’s endorsees for Congress, 37 include 2020 election-denying Republican candidates. She is endorsed by the Congressional Black Caucus PAC and AFL-CIO.
Allam is a Durham County Commissioner elected in 2020, the first Muslim woman to be elected to public office in the state. She also is chair of the Durham Mayor’s Council for Women and involved in leadership of the N.C. Democratic Party. Her campaign emphasizes high-quality public education, affordable housing, support for the Green New Deal, and protection for reproductive rights, and her endorsements include AAPI Victory Fund, Senator Elizabeth Warren and the Sunrise Movement.
Aiken is a former 2003 “American Idol” contestant from Raleigh (he does not live in the district he is running for). Since then, he has worked as a special education teacher in Wake County and has been involved with UNICEF as a National Ambassador, serving in countries including Uganda and Afghanistan. In 2006, he was also appointed by then President Bush to the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. His campaign highlights stopping climate change, systemic racism, income inequality and gun violence, as well as ensuring voting rights, universal health care, and pro-choice abortion rghts. He is endorsed by Equality PAC.
N.C. State Senate District 23
As current State Senator Valerie Foushee (D) is running for U.S. House, her seat is open. The two candidates are current N.C. House Representative Graig Meyer (D) and Hillsborough chef and small business owner Jamie DeMent Holcomb (D).
Meyer has served in N.C. State House District 50 since 2013, though his background is in social work and education. For 16 years, he coordinated the Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate program to help students become first-generation college attendees. His platform is focused on affordable healthcare, funding education and supporting small businesses and working families. He is endorsed by multiple groups including the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood and Equality N.C.
Holcomb is a North Carolina native who owns several small businesses in Orange County, including a local farm and Bella Bean Organics, an online farmer’s market. Her platform prioritizes supporting local economic development, making healthcare accessible and supporting public schools. She is endorsed by Emily’s List.
N.C. House of Representatives District 50
Seeking Senator Foushee’s State Senate seat, current Representative Graig Meyer (D) will be vacating the N.C. House seat. The candidates in the Democratic primary include Hillsborough Commissioner Matt Hughes and Orange County Board of Commissioners Chair Renee Price.
Hughes is an Orange County native, graduate of Cedar Ridge High School and double graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. His main work connects non-profit organizations to share resources training for civic engagement. He is also Second Vice Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party since 2017 and a member of the Democratic National Committee since 2020. His platform emphasizes protecting democratic elections, and devolving legislature authority to local governments on issues such as affordable housing and public safety. His endorsements include Equality N.C. and former Governor Beverly Perdue.
Price, also from Hillsborough, is the Chair of the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, where she has served since 2012. She is active among multiple other commissions including the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, N.C. Association of Black County Officials and National Association of Counties. Her platform prioritizes strengthening public schools, funding infrastructure, implementing criminal justice reform and advancing climate justice. She is endorsed by groups including the Progressive Democrats of Orange County and Emily’s List.
N.C. House of Representatives District 56
Current N.C. House Representative Verla Insko (D) is retiring this spring, since assuming office 25 years ago in 1997. The seat is safely Democratic; Insko ran unopposed in 2020. The main candidates for the seat are both Chapel Hill natives and attorneys, former Orange County Democratic Party Chair Jonah Garson and former Chapel Hill Town Council Member Allen Buansi. Their stances on issues are similar; the main difference lies in their political experiences.
Buansi is an East alum and attended law school in Chapel Hill. He worked at the UNC Law Center and then was elected to the Town Council in 2017, where he helped create the town’s Criminal Justice Debt Program and the Resolution on Reimagining Community Safety. His platform prioritizes public education, climate justice and expanding healthcare access. Buansi is endorsed by groups including Equality NC, N.C. State AFL-CIO, Progressive Democrats of Orange County and Indy Week.
Garson, a graduate of Chapel Hill High School and UNC-Chapel Hill, highlights his experience in legislative policymaking and grassroots organizing for statewide Democratic candidates since 2010. He was the Chair of the County’s Democratic Party and serves on the Executive Committee of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP. His campaign focuses on climate action, expanding Medicaid and protecting voting rights. He is also endorsed by the Progressive Democrats of Orange County and Indy Week.
District Attorney
The District Attorney is the elected official who represents the U.S. government in criminal case, in efforts such as sentencing recommendations, starting investigations and presenting cases against suspects. The candidates are Jeff Nieman (D) and Kayley Taber (D).
Nieman is a native of Orange County and has worked in the District Attorney’s office for 16 years. His achievements during that time include co-founding the Driver’s License Restoration Project and creating the Orange County Outreach Court, which helps defendants experiencing homelessness to find rehabilitative alternatives to incarceration. His priorities include supporting rehabilitation, racial justice, and ending the criminalization of poverty by engaging community nonprofits and implementing mandatory implicit bias training for staff. Nieman is endorsed by the Progressive Democrats of Orange County.
Taber is a double UNC alum who specializes in Criminal Law and has prosecuted difficult cases including domestic violence and sex trafficking for more than 20 years. Her recent work is in managing the staff for the Chatham branch of the Orange/Chatham District Attorney’s Office. Her platform emphasizes reducing childhood trauma, addressing systemic racism and improving the court experience for victims of sexual assault.
Register of Deeds
Many people might not be aware of what a “Register of Deeds” is—however, it’s an important job. Their main purpose is to manage the county’s public records, including real estate deals, birth and death certificates and marriage licenses. By preserving county records, the Register also preserves local history, from times of slavery to the Civil War to modern day.
The two candidates are incumbent Register of Deeds, former mayor of Carrboro and real estate attorney Mark Chilton (D) and former Chapel Hill Town Councilmember and Orange County Board of Commissioners Chair Penny Rich (D). As they are both Democrats, the winner of the primary will decide the winner of the race.
Chilton was originally elected in 2013 with an unprecedented campaign goal of issuing same-sex marriage licenses to couple in Orange County—prohibited in North Carolina. In office, he has made public records more accessible online, facilitated recordkeeping about enslaved people and generated greater revenue from the Office to the county’s general funds. Chilton’s campaign for re-election includes continuing to shift handwritten document processing to electronic methods. He is supported by the Progressive Democrats of Orange County and former Chapel Hill Town Councilmember Nancy Oates.
Rich has a 20-year long history of public service in Orange County, including on the OWASA board of directors, Chapel Hill Town Council and Orange County Board of Commissioners, where she led the COVID-19 response team in 2020. Her campaign emphasizes strengthening protections for LGBTQ+ couples past license-issuing, raising the age for marriage from 14 to 18, making accessing online records more user-friendly and better preserving county history. She also wants to make the Register of Deeds more timely and accessible to the public by keeping it open for more hours during the day.
How to vote:
The May 17 primaries will be crucial for North Carolina’s future.
- The early voting period is April 28 through May 14—find out where you can vote early here (you can register and vote in the same day during early voting, but not on May 17).
- You can find your polling place for election day, May 17, here.
- You can check your voter registration here.
- You can request an absentee ballot by May 10, and drop off or mail your ballot by May 17.
