The night of November 7, a trio of Carrboro Town Council candidates celebrated winning the election.
Jason Merrill, Catherine Fray, and Eliazar Posada held an election night party at the Orange County Social Club where partygoers danced, drank and celebrated the end of the local election cycle for 2023. During the event, dozens of community members mingled, ate tacos made by Posada’s mother, and waited in anticipation for the election results. Later in the night, the crowd cheerfully watched a drag queen performance.
Once all of the voting sites had reported their vote totals, Posada announced to the crowd that the “Carrboro Better Together” candidates had won after a long campaign.
“It is official,” he said into the microphone, “with all precincts reported: we have elected Catherine Fray, Jason Merrill, and myself to the Carrboro Town Council.”
Afterward, Posada told 97.9 The Hill he could not have “teamed up” to campaign with anyone better.
“I joined with two folks who have shown that they care about the town by being on government boards, by serving for more than a decade on the planning board for six years in transportation advisory,” Posada said. “These are folks that understand how government works, how local government impacts their day-to-day life. So I’m very proud that I was able to join forces with them.”
Eliazar Posada at the election party.
As Posada’s friends, family, and supporters gather to celebrate the end of his campaign and start of his new role as a town council member he takes a moment to share his gratitude.
“In elections you can never take anything for granted,” Posada said. “You have to talk to every voter, knock on every door, take every single vote as sacred as it is, right? We’re asking folks to give us one of the most important civic duties and responsibilities. And for me, someone’s vote is nothing less than sacred, right. So we’re asking someone to put their trust in their vote for us.”
Posada has lived in and served the Carrboro community since 2016. He said he plans on using his knowledge of the community to address problems people face everyday.
“My vision is to really implement that comprehensive plan, right? We need to bring affordable housing,” Posada stated. “We need to bring equitable transportation. We need to bring language access. We need to bring ways that folks interact with our ecosystem in a way that protects our communities, right? We know that climate change is real. We know that there’s a lot of issues that are coming before town that can impact getting people off of cars and onto bikes. By having the ability first to be able to walk into town, giving some greenway for folks to travel safely and enjoy nature.”
“Better Together” candidate Jason Merrill has similar goals for Carrboro. The former bicycle shop owner said he envisions a town that is equitable, sustainable, and affordable.
Jason Merrill at the election party.
“There is a strong interest in increasing our stock of affordable housing, there’s a strong interest in improving our multimodal transportation, fulfilling our community values of sustainability and equity,” said Merrill, “which is exactly the values that I’ve put out there and the work that I’ve been doing.”
Catherine Fray, the third member of the trio, has served on the Carrboro planning board since 2012 and was elected to serve as the chair twice. Fray recalls what they learned from the campaign and what they are looking forward to as an elected official.
Catherine Fray at the election party.
“Over the campaign, I’d say one of the most important things I’ve learned from talking to folks and knocking on a ton of doors is there’s so much passion in Carrboro for local politics,” Fray said. “People are so willing to engage with the issues and get nerdy about things, and that really delights me. I’ve had so many good conversations with people, sometimes about things they care about, sometimes about things they’re upset about.
“I’m just so looking forward to being able to go back around and talk to people and say, ‘Well, here’s what we’re going do about all those issues that are so close to your heart,'” they concluded.
Hours later, the election party came to a close with good music, food, and high hopes for the future of Carrboro. On December 5, the trio of candidates will be officially sworn in during the Carrboro Town Council meeting.
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