Filing deadline is Friday at noon
There were no new filings on Monday or Tuesday, but on Wednesday, Henry Vines filed for one of the two open seats on Alamance County’s board of commissioners.
Also filing Wednesday was a Democratic candidate for Alamance County district attorney, Scott Wells Drorbaugh of Liberty, who will face two-term incumbent D.A. Sean Boone, a Republican who filed earlier this month.
Friday, on the last day of the second full week of candidate registration, brought a Democratic challenger for the state house district 63. Republican Ryan Moffitt had filed shortly after state rep. Steve Ross announced on Dec. 3 his intention not to seek reelection. On Friday, Democrat Whitney Olive of Burlington filed for the seat.
With the exception of that race, which has attracted two newcomers, most of the filings so far, have attracted a mere smattering of new office seekers to last week’s early-bird entries, most of whom are incumbents.
These additional competitors have nevertheless set the stage for party primaries in the race for Alamance County’s sheriff as well as the county’s board of commissioners.
In the race for sheriff, political newcomer Billy Clayton triggered an automatic GOP primary when he filed for the position now held by the Republican incumbent Terry S. Johnson. A retired state trooper who once served as the N.C. Highway Patrol’s second in command, Clayton filed on Monday for a seat that has been Johnson’s preserve since 2002, when he became the county’s first Republican sheriff in living memory.
The race for Alamance County’s board of commissioners also became more competitive on Monday when Warren L. Parks, Jr. joined fellow Democrats Ramona Allen and Sean C. Ewing in their pursuit of the board’s two available seats. With three Democrats in the running for these two positions, the party will have to hold a primary on March 3 to select its two nominees for the county’s governing board.
The GOP had previously reached this same threshold on Thursday when local homebuilder Jeff Throneburg and incumbent commissioner Steve Carter added their registrations to that of Kelly Allen, an appointee to the board of commissioners who currently serves as its chairman.
There aren’t any provisions for a primary in the race for the nonpartisan Alamance-Burlington school board, which will have three seats on the ballot in next year’s general election. On Thursday, Stephanie Long Enoch became the third candidate to file for these three positions following the entries of incumbent school board members Charles Parker and Eric Hall. Parker, for his part, is seeking his second four-year term on the school board, while Hall is pursuing his first full, four-year term, having been appointed to the school board earlier this year to replace former school board member Chuck Marsh.
Friday also brought two more entries to the school board race: Dan Ingle filing for a second term and Samira Khan of Burlington.
Previous entries for partisan offices include Republican state senator Amy Scott Galey and Republican state representative Dennis Riddell, who is seeking reelection to North Carolina’s 64th house district. Riddell and Galey both filed their paperwork last Wednesday, alongside Republican newcomer Ryan Moffitt, a Burlington attorney who hopes to succeed Republican Steve Ross as the legislator for the state’s 63rd house district.
Ross publicly announced his plans to retire from his position last Wednesday morning during a breakfast gathering at Alamance Community College. In the meantime, Riddell’s prospective reelection has already attracted a challenge from Democrat LeVon Barnes, who made a failed bid to unseat the 64th district’s incumbent in 2024. This initial showdown ended with Riddell clinching 55 percent of the vote to Barnes’ 45 percent.
Another registrant from the first week of filing is Republican district court judge Craig Turner, who has filed for a superior court judgeship now held by Democrat Andy Hanford. Hanford has previously announced his intention to step down from the bench at the end of 2026 when his current eight-year term comes to a close.
Meanwhile, Democratic superior court judge Doug Green is running for election to the county’s other superior court judgeship, which he originally obtained last year when then governor Roy Cooper appointed him to a vacancy on the superior court bench. The 60-year-old judge is seeking a full eight-year term in his current position.
Filing for election to a full, four-year term on the district court bench is Republican Bryan Ray, who was elected to a partial (two-year) term in 2024.
Another appointed incumbent who hopes to win her position outright is clerk of superior court Kristie Miller Culler. A Republican, Culler was appointed to fill the two years remaining in the unexpired term of the previous clerk, Meredith Edwards, who was elected to a district court judgeship in 2024. Culler is now running for a full four-year term as Alamance County’s clerk of superior court.
Other incumbents who’ve added their names to the reelection roster include Republican district attorney Sean Boone, who has held this position since 2018.
