Orange County Board of Commissioner Jamezetta Bedford announced that she will be running for re-election in 2022. She currently represents District 1 on the county board, covering Chapel Hill and Carrboro, after having first been elected in 2018.

“My goals as your county commissioner are to ensure a safe, healthy, thriving Orange County as we focus on pandemic recovery and to create a new normal that’s inclusive and sustainable,” Bedford said in a press release announcing her run for re-election Tuesday. “During the last three years, I have also worked to promote health and safety, public education, senior and disability services, affordable housing and economic development.”

During her term, Bedford supported the new Homestead Gardens affordable housing partnership and EmPOWERment Inc’s PEACH apartments, fought to provide additional school capital funding to repair aging school buildings, and served on a task force advocating for a behavioral health/crisis diversion facility in the area.

“As a new commissioner I also became involved with the criminal justice department, DSS and the broader social safety net,” Bedford said. “A gaps analysis revealed the need for a behavioral health/crisis diversion facility. I’ve served on that task force since its inception, and I look forward to bringing that goal to a ribbon-cutting opening.”

Prior to her work on the Orange County Board of Commissioners, Bedford was elected to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board in 2003, 2007 and 2011, serving three times as Vice Chair and three times as Chair. She also served as President of the Democratic Women of Orange County from 2016 to 2018.

Concluding her press release, Bedford said, “As a former Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board member, as the mother of an adult daughter with autism and intellectual developmental disability, and as a grandmother of two young children who live in Carrboro, I know how important all these issues are today, and to our future.”

Earlier this month, Orange County Commissioner Sally Greene also announced she will be seeking re-election. Greene currently serves as the at-large seat on the board.

Two other commissioners’ terms are set to expire this spring. In District 1, Anna Richards’ seat will be up for grabs alongside Commissioner Earl McKee’s in District 2.

The filing period for 2022 elections opens Monday, December 6.

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