QUESTION: Has the Alamance County Democratic Party pulled its support from Sean C. Ewing’s campaign for Alamance County’s board of commissioners?
ANSWER: It appears that Sean Ewing really is persona non grata with Alamance County’s Democrats – so much so that the party’s attorney has issued a trespassing notice to make sure the candidate gives a wide berth to the local Democratic headquarters in the town of Haw River.
Candidate told: ‘no trespassing’ at party headquarters
According to Haw River’s police chief, who has received a copy of the document from the party’s attorney, this notice doesn’t delve into whatever incident or alleged breach prompted this unprecedented action against the Mebane councilmember and aspiring county commissioner.
Yet, this notice does mark a significant shift in the party’s relationship with Ewing, who had once been one of the most enthusiastic office seekers to hoist the Democrats’ standard.
An Air Force veteran and current member of Mebane’s city council, Ewing had been an active member of the local Democratic Party even before he became a candidate for the board of commissioners – serving for several years as the group’s second vice president.
Ewing made an early debut in the race for the county’s governing board with a candidate announcement that appeared in The Alamance News during October of 2025. Six weeks later, Ewing was among the first to file his paperwork when candidate registration opened across North Carolina on December 1. He went on to nab the second of his party’s two slots on the ballot when the Democratic Party held its primary for the board of commissioners in March.
Since his success in the primary, the Mebane councilman has been a ubiquitous presence at county commissioner meetings, where he has routinely taken to the podium during public comment periods to promote public education and other causes near and dear to the hearts of most Democrats.
He won March Democratic primary, but not listed on Democratic “slate card”
Yet, for one reason or another, Ewing appears to lost favor with the party’s top brass since he made the cut to appear in the general election.
One indication of this fall from grace is Ewing’s conspicuous absence from the party’s “slate cards.” These post card-sized handouts feature every other Democratic contender in each down ballot race that will come to a head in November. These cards even include plugs for Shannon Long, an unaffiliated candidate for Alamance County’s sheriff, and three of the seven candidates for the putatively nonpartisan Alamance-Burlington school board.
Ewing is also nowhere to be found on the even more comprehensive list of approved candidates that appears on the website of the Alamance County Democratic Party. Entitled “Our 2026 General Election Candidates,” this roster includes every Democratic hopeful from former Governor Roy Cooper, who’s currently pursuing a seat in the U.S. Senate, to the fellow commissioner candidates Ramona Allen and Kourtney Royster.
So, it would seem a safe bet that there’s something more than a simple mistake behind Ewing’s non-appearance in either of these two candidate lists. As to what that something may be, the candidate himself merely deferred to the party’s leadership when he was contacted about his rapport with the party.
“I would consult with the chair of the Democratic Party,” Ewing suggested in a brief phone call on Monday.
Democrats’ lawyer: Ewing not an endorsed candidate
A message to the party’s chairman Ron Osborne ultimately elicited a phone call from Hunt Johnson, a Graham-based attorney who also serves as the legal counsel for Alamance County’s Democrats. Johnson went on to confirm that “it’s correct [Ewing] is not an endorsed candidate” before he passed along a brief statement, which hints at something other than the candidate’s political positions or the results of some ideological purity test.
Why isn’t Ewing on “Democratic slate”?
“The Alamance County Democratic Party determines candidate endorsements through a formal ‘candidate support process.’ This process strives to objectively evaluate each candidate based upon a number of criteria, which includes a minimum standard of integrity and conduct.”
– Hunt Johnson, attorney for Alamance County Democratic Party
“The Alamance County Democratic Party determines candidate endorsements through a formal ‘candidate support process,’” the statement explained. “This process strives to objectively evaluate each candidate based upon a number of criteria, which includes a minimum standard of integrity and conduct.”
Johnson didn’t go into any particular lapse in integrity or instance of misconduct that Ewing may have committed. There is, nevertheless, a clue as to the nature of the party’s grievance in the aforementioned trespassing notice, which the party’s legal counsel reportedly sent Ewing in mid September.
This notice coincided with an email that Johnson dispatched to Haw River’s chief of police Brian Phillips on September 15. According to Phillips, this email included a copy of the same document that the attorney had passed along to the candidate to advise him of where he now stands with the party.
“It’s a trespassing notice for Mr. Ewing,” Phillips recalled in a conversation on Wednesday, “and this notice is signed by several members of the Democratic Party.”
The notice reportedly forbids Ewing to visit the party’s local office, which is situated at 1003 North Main Street in the town of Haw River. Phillips added that there’s nothing in the text to reveal what specific incident or chain of events had prompted this move.
“We assumed that this was something internal, which had nothing to do with law enforcement,” he went on to explain. “But if Ewing or anyone else is caught trespassing on the premises, we will take enforcement action.”
Whatever the party’s underlying problem with Ewing, it appears that the bad blood hasn’t trickled down to every card-carrying Democrat.
In fact, the candidate’s Facebook page is chock-full of announcements about campaign endorsements from prominent party members. Among the latest to give Ewing their nods are former state senator Tony Foriest, who reportedly did so on September 25; Green Level’s erstwhile mayor Carissa Graves on September 21; and former state house candidate Robin Wintringham on September 14.
