Chapel Hill native and former town council member Karen Stegman plans to run in the primary election for the Board of Orange County Commissioners next year.
Stegman joined 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck” to make her announcement, alongside sharing a campaign kick-off event slated for Dec. 8, which is during the 2026 election filing period.
“I feel like this is a time where we’re all kind of looking around, feeling pretty uncomfortable and thinking, ‘What can I do? What’s the best use of my skills and my experience,'” she said. “And I thought, ‘This is something I can do.’ This is a way for me to serve the community, to bring my experience, to bring my values I brought to the town council for eight years to the [board of commissioners], if the voters will have me.”
Stegman — a registered Democrat — served on the Chapel Hill Town Council for nearly eight years, having first been elected in 2017. She earned the second-most votes out of seven candidates that year before earning the most out of ten candidates in 2021 and announcing this May she would not be running again. In June, she departed the council before her term fully finished amid her family’s move to Carrboro, with state law preventing her from continuing to serve in Chapel Hill. At the time, Stegman described feeling “both sad and proud as my service on the Council comes to a slightly premature end.”
The news of her imminent campaign comes after two-term Orange County Commissioner Sally Greene announced Monday she would not be seeking election to another term, leaving an at-large seat on the board open. Stegman said she knew the likelihood Greene might step away from public office — and revealed the pair had discussed Stegman’s interest in making the leap from town government to a new level.
“It’s something I have been thinking about and talking about with folks in the community, including Sally, for a couple of years really,” said Stegman. “And I really wanted a break from my time on the town council. But when I found out that Sally was considering perhaps not running and stepping back after her incredible years of public service to our community, I realized because there is a primary for the county commission, this role would not start for another year. And so, that really worked out for me as far as timing and having a little break from [elected office].”
Among the biggest policy achievements of her time on town council, Stegman described her pride of Chapel Hill’s affordable housing efforts as being at the top of her list. During her time in office, the town voted to help fund 1,400 new units of public- or nonprofit-owned housing, saw two bonds passed by the public to contribute $25 million to affordable housing efforts, and approved a five-year strategy for building and preserving affordable homes. An openly gay woman, Stegman’s advocacy and leadership helped play a part in Chapel Hill being among the first local governments to pass a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance to protect LGBTQ+ community members after the North Carolina law preventing such measures expired in 2020.
On Wednesday, Stegman also mentioned her excitement and support of Chapel Hill’s Complete Community framework and ongoing land use ordinance updates as ways to better address land use in the community. She pointed to similar efforts in Carrboro and Hillsborough as reason for the county to be focused on how its rural buffer and urban service boundaries , and said doing such would be a priority if elected to the board of commissioners.
“I think land use is critical right now,” Stegman said. “It’s so important that we are working together on that as a county, and not just as individual governments. And I think that’s where my experience from the town perspective will be really valuable to those conversations that the county is having now.”
In her interview with 97.9 The Hill, Stegman said addressing affordability at the local level is also a key priority through efforts like reviewing and updating Orange County’s revaluation processes — which saw an increase countywide of property valuations, but specific spikes within historically Black neighborhoods — and expanding housing choices in transit-accessible places. Her platform also includes supporting the county’s two public school districts, providing a reliable safety net of social services for residents, and seeking economic development that creates the best opportunities for the community.
“I am very excited about the idea of representing the entire county,” Stegman concluded. “I take that very seriously. I’ve been spending time in Hillsborough, Efland, Cedar Grove. I really look forward to residents across the county — please reach out. I’d love to talk with you, to visit you, to meet with you.”
In addition to Greene’s at-large seat, Jamezetta Bedford’s District 1 seat (Chapel Hill and Carrboro) and Earl McKee’s District 2 seat (the remainder of Orange County) will be on the ballot in the 2026 cycle. The county, state and federal elections will take place with primaries in March and the general election in November. The filing period for the primaries begins on Monday, Dec. 1 at 12 p.m. and runs through Friday, Dec. 19 at 12 p.m.
Featured photo via Stegman for Orange.
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