Alamance County took a direct hit from the “blue tsunami” that swept the nation on Tuesday, as the Democratic Party regained control of most local state and county-level offices that had been firmly in the grip of the Republican Party.
From the county’s board of commissioners, to the state house, and the local D.A.’s office, Democratic challengers have managed to wrest power away from Republican incumbents, whose reelections might’ve been dubbed a sure thing a year or two earlier.
In recent decades, Alamance County voters have generally supported Republican candidates, but this year, they voted, uniformly, for the Democratic slate. The only survivors were three Republican candidates (two judges and the clerk of court) who were unopposed and state senator Amy Scott Galey whose vote totals from the Randolph County precincts in her district salvaged her deficit among Alamance County voters.
Perhaps the biggest jolt came in the race for Alamance County’s sheriff, where Shannon Long, an unaffiliated contender who had the Democratic Party’s full backing, was able to dislodge Republican Terry S. Johnson from the seat he had held for 24 years, since 2002; in some of his six previous elections, he faced no opposition. .
A Mebane resident who once served as a sheriff’s deputy in Orange County, Long has clinched the sheriff’s office with 34,633 votes, or 52.41 percent of the Election Night tally – as compared to Johnson’s 31,452 votes, or 47.59 percent. The unaffiliated challenger is consequently on track to become the first black sheriff in Alamance County’s history as well as the first non-Republican to hold the position since Johnson’s immediate predecessor, Democrat Gary Massey.
Johnson, meanwhile, has been quick to extend his congratulations to the new sheriff-elect. In a formal concession statement on Wednesday, the incumbent office holder accepted the local electorate’s apparent desire that he hang up his gun belt after 24 years on the job.
“While the outcome was not what I had hoped for, I fully respect the decision of the voters and am grateful to everyone who supported me, stood beside me, and placed their confidence in my leadership throughout this journey,” he said. “I wish Shannon Long success as he prepares to take on this responsibility. The safety and well-being of Alamance County must always come first, and I hope the Sheriff’s Office continues to build upon the relationships and progress made over the years.”
The showdown for sheriff isn’t the only countywide contest where people of color have broken an ostensible race barrier. Black Democrats were also able to secure two of the three seats that were up for grabs on the county’s board of commissioners as well as the legislative position that represents North Carolina’s 64th house district.
Republican district attorney also defeated
The Democratic Party’s ascendancy continued in the race for Alamance County’s district attorney, which Democratic challenger Scott Wells Drorbaugh has won over the Republican incumbent Sean Boone, who was first elected in 2018; Boone had not faced a Democratic challenger in either of his previous races, in 2018 or 2022.
According to the Election Night tally, Drorbaugh has sewn up the race with 34,737 votes, or 51.70 percent of the total, versus Boone’s 32,447 votes, or 48.30 percent.
Democratic sweep of three county commissioner seats
In the case of the board of commissioners, there were effectively two separate races on the ballot this year – one for a pair of regular four-year terms on the board and a second to fill out the two remaining years left in the term of the late Republican John Paisly Jr, who passed away in February.
In the first of these contests, Democrats Ramona Allen and Sean Ewing were able to beat out incumbent Republicans Steve Carter and Kelly Allen. Ramona Allen, a Burlington property manager and the only black candidate in this four-way struggle, led the field with 33,064 votes, or 26.62 percent of the Election Night tally. Ewing, a Mebane engineer and current city council member, placed second with 32,731 votes, or 26.36 percent of the total ballots processed on Tuesday. Ewing secured his second-place total even after losing the local Democratic Party’s endorsement over an issue concerning his access to the party’s headquarters in the town of Haw River.
Carter and Kelly Allen, who currently serve as the vice chairman and chairman of Alamance commissioners, respectively, placed third and fourth in the race for the board’s two four-year terms. The pair ended the night with 29,231 and 29,161 votes respectively (or 23.54 and 23.48 percent of the total).
Another black candidate Democrat, Kourtney J. Royster, won the race for the board’s two-year term with 35,563 vote, or 52.99 percent of the tally. His success comes at the expense of Republican Sam Powell, a white Burlington businessman who had been appointed by the GOP’s leadership as a temporary successor to John P. Paisley, Jr., who died in February.
Powell’s own Election Night total amounted to 31,554 votes, or 47.01 percent of the total cast in that race.
State house races: Democrats also prevail
In a rematch in the contest for North Carolina’s 64th state house district, Democrat LeVon Barnes has brought a sudden end to the tenure of the district’s Republican incumbent Dennis Riddell. Barnes, who is black, won this theoretically “safe” Republican seat with 18,261 votes, or 52.73 percent of the Election Night total, while Riddell secured 16,373 votes, or 47.27 percent. Riddell had held the seat for 12 years.
Two years ago, Riddell bested Barnes by over 4,000 votes – 24,381 (54.95%) to 19,990 (45.05%). This time Barnes defeated Riddell by 1,888 votes.
A much tighter margin emerged in the race for North Carolina’s 63rd house district, whose Republican incumbent Steve Ross had decided to forgo another bid for reelection. As of Tuesday night, this contest looked like a win for Democrat Ian Baltutis, a Burlington entrepreneur who currently serves on his hometown’s city council. Baltutis finished the night with 16,479 votes, or 50.36 percent, while his Republican rival, Burlington attorney Ryan Moffitt, wound up with 16,243 votes, or 49.64 percent.
With 236 votes separating the two candidates, the race for the 63rd house district is currently within the margin for a recount, which state law permits when the runner-up is behind by less than 1 percent of total votes cast in a race. This difference may nevertheless change as the local board of election adds in late-coming absentee votes and any provisional ballots cast on Election Day that are deemed eligible for inclusion.
Republican state senator wins, thanks to Randolph County
Voters in Alamance County also favored Southey Blanton, the Democratic contender for North Carolina’s 25th senate district, over the district’s Republican incumbent state senator Amy Scott Galey. Yet, this seat, which also represents Randolph County, will nevertheless remain under Galey’s control thanks to a strong showing (winning by about 2½ to 1) among Randolph County voters. After pooling the votes from both counties, Galey has managed to keep her seat by 2,597 votes – 42,643 votes, or 51.57 percent of the total for Galey, to Blanton’s 40,046 votes, or 48.43 percent. In Alamance County, Blanton outpolled Galey 35,827 (53.06%) to 31,691 (46.94%).
Alamance County’s voters also contributed to the electoral success of several other Democratic contenders in cross-county races. These victorious Democrats include former governor and incoming U.S. Senator Roy Cooper and Richard N. Ojeda II, who has ousted incumbent U.S. Representative Richard Hudson from his seat in the state’s 9th Congressional District.
As for races that were confined strictly to Alamance County, the GOP’s only victories came in contests where the Republican incumbent had no general election opponent. These default winners include district court judge Craig Turner who was seeking a superior court judgeship, district court judge Bryan Ray, and Kristie Miller Culler, the county’s clerk of superior court. Also running unopposed this year was Democratic superior court judge Doug Green.
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School board: Democrats sweep two of three nonpartisan seats
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s winning streak has largely continued in the putatively nonpartisan race for three available seats on the Alamance-Burlington school board. The top two vote-getters in this seven-way scramble were Stephanie Enoch Long and Samira Khan – both of whom were endorsed by the local Democratic Party. According to Tuesday’s preliminary results, Enoch led the field in this race with 29,281 votes, or 18.28 percent, while Khan placed second with 25,756 votes, or 16.08 percent. As of Tuesday, the third seat in this race appeared to have gone to Kyle Ward, an unaffiliated candidate who finished with 24,238 votes, or 15.14 percent of the total. Ward ended the night a mere 55 votes ahead of Brandy Whittaker, whose own Democratically-endorsed campaign picked up 24,183 votes, or 15.10 percent.
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The next two slots in this race have gone to candidates endorsed by the local Republican Party. According to the Election Night tally, GOP-backed Katharine Frazier wound up in fifth place with 21,809 votes, or 13.62 percent, while incumbent school board member Charles Parker, first elected in 2022, received 20,414 votes, or 12.75 percent. Rounding out the field with 13,884 votes, or 8.67 percent, was fellow incumbent Eric C. Hall, who was appointed to a vacancy on the school board in 2025.
Republican-endorsed candidates won two seats in the nonpartisan election for the soil and water conversation board inasmuch as they were the only candidates to have filed for the posts. Elected were Ricky N. Reid and Willie Holliday.
