It was a festive atmosphere Tuesday night at the Chatham County Democrats headquarters in Pittsboro. The evening began with early vote totals being published shortly after polls closed, putting most Chatham County Democrats ahead by more than 25%. By the time the election day precincts began reporting, the phrase “blue wave in Chatham” was being tossed around the room. At one point, First Vice Chair of the Chatham County Democrats Bill Delano was sharing results when he declared, “It’s a good night to be a Democrat in Chatham County.”
The closest races of the night were for School Board District 3 and North Carolina House District 54.
School Board District 3 had incumbent Del Turner facing off against challenger Jessica Winger. Though the seats are officially non-partisan, Turner identifies as a Democrat and Winger as a Republican. Turner was specifically targeted by Republicans in a race that often got negative, garnered statewide attention, and some major campaign spending. In the end Turner won by just 462 votes. After all the results were in, she said, “A win is a win. It’s a victory for the children. I feel that Chatham County parents came through for their children.”
The race for North Carolina House District 54 had incumbent Democrat Robert Reives facing off against Republican challenger and former Chatham County Commissioner Walter Petty. Reives ultimately won by 11 percentage points, but redistricting prior to this election cycle made Reives seat seem very much like a toss-up going into election day. Even with a sizable lead Tuesday night, Reives was reluctant to declare victory until all the votes from Randolph County were counted.
During his victory speech, Reives said, “Once everybody realized it was a competitive district, everybody [in Chatham] just stepped up and understood we’ve got to over-perform here. Because I’m going to serve Randolph County hard, but we all knew there was a chance I might not win Randolph County.”
Two other school board positions were up for election in Chatham County, with Jane Allen Wilson running unopposed in District 4. District 5 had Gary Leonard who favors Democrats against Tim Moore who favors Republicans. Leonard won the seat 57%-42%.
The Chatham County Board of Commissioners had three spots up for election. District 3 had Democrat David Delaney against Republican Tom Glendenning. District 4 had Joe Godfrey representing the GOP and Katie Kenlan from the Democratic Party. And District 5 matched democratic incumbent to Franklin Gomez Flores against Republican Challenger Peyton Moody. All three Democratic candidates won by approximately 5,000 votes, 56%-43%.
The largest margin of victory for the night was in the high-profile race for Sheriff. Incumbent democrat Mike Roberson was running against Republican challenger Marcus Globuschutz. Globushutz ran an aggressive and negative campaign on social media. Voters ultimately rejected that tactic, as Roberson won the race 62%-37%.
Roberson said, “We started this campaign on a positive path, and we ended on a positive path. And I’m happy about that. I will be honest, I wrote some responses that I deleted. But I do think it’s important—if we are going to make government something that can be trusted, then we have to be trustworthy.
“And in doing that,” the sheriff added, “we have to be mindful of how we treat other even when we are not being treated well.”
For more results in local 2022 elections, visit Chapelboro’s Results page.
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