When the county commissioners convene their first meeting in December (Monday morning, December 7), it will represent the first time in 16 years in which a majority of its members will be Democrats.
Indeed, Tuesday’s election was the first time any Democrat has been elected to the board since 2014.
The Democrats last controlled the board between 2008 to 2010.
Ann Vaughan had broken a 14-year drought of any Democrat being elected to the board when she was first elected in 2006, also becoming the first woman commissioner. Two years later, when Barack Obama was securing the national election for president, she was joined by two other Democrats, Linda Massey and Eddie Boswell.
But Vaughan was defeated in 2010, leaving a 3-2 Republican majority. She was unsuccessful in a comeback attempt in 2012; meanwhile Boswell lost his seat that year, as well, leaving a 4-1 Republican majority. Boswell would later win a partial term on the board in 2014 as a Republican and a full, four-year term in 2016, also as a Republican. He did not seek reelection in 2020.
Bob Byrd was the next Democrat to gain a toehold on the board in 2014, serving with Massey in a 3-2 minority.
But Byrd lost his bid for reelection in 2018 (and a comeback bid in 2020).
Meanwhile, Massey became disgruntled with her party after her 2012 reelection, and decided to become unaffiliated until she officially joined the Republicans in the closing months of 2015. But her political conversion came too late for her to file as a candidate in the GOP’s primary in February – which effectively ended her plans to seek a third term in office.
So no Democrat had been elected to the board of commissioners for the past 12 years (since 2014) until this week’s election.
The county had traditionally elected Democrats to the board of commissioners until 1972, when Republican Leonard Alcon became the first Republican in the modern era to win a seat on the board. Earl Danieley became the second Republican elected in 1974.
The new Democrats will also represent the largest black representation on the board, with Ramona Allen and Kourtney J. Royster both to be sworn in December 7.
Allen will be the first black woman on the board, Royster the third black man.
Jack O’Kelley, Jr. was the first black man elected to the board of commissioners, as a Democrat in 1974 for a partial, two-year term. He was reelected in 1976 and 1980, ultimately becoming the board’s chairman. Chairman O’Kelley died in office in 1983 and was succeeded by John A. Freeman, appointed by the county Democratic Party to complete O’Kelley’s term, was the second black Democrat to serve on the board. Freeman lost his own bid for election in 1984.
No other blacks have been elected to the board of commissioners until this year.
