Incumbent Republican county commissioners were given the nod to represent their party in the fall elections Tuesday by Alamance County’s GOP voters in the May 17 primary.
Vice chairman Steve Carter, first elected in 2018, led the voting with 6,431 votes; Craig Turner, a former party vice chairman who was appointed to the board in 2021, was a close second with 6,321. First-time candidates Robert Turner was third with 4,044 votes and Rudy Cartassi received 2,183 votes.
Carter and Craig Turner will face Anthony Pierce, the only Democrat to file for one of two seats on the Alamance County board of commissioners.
Pierce was a candidate in 2020, as well, but did not make it past the March primary that year, when Democrats chose three other candidates to carry their banner: Kristen Powers, Bob Byrd, and Dreama Caldwell. All three were defeated by their Republican opponents in November.
Pierce, now 43, was the fourth-place finisher in the March primary that year among five candidates in the Democratic primary.
The current board of county commissioners appointed Pierce to the county’s planning board last year.
State House race close, but Ross leads
In the 63rd state house district, which covers the eastern and northern parts of the county, former state representative Steve Ross eked out the Republican nomination by 152 votes over second-place finisher and first-time contender Ed Priola, 2,171 to 2,019; Peter Boykin was well back with 170 votes. Ross will have a re-match against Democratic state representative Ricky Hurtado who defeated Ross in 2020.
Ross, who had represented the 63rd district for six years (3 terms) since he was first elected in 2014 was defeated in 2020 by Democrat Hurtado, who prevailed by 477 votes, 20,584 (50.59%) to 20,107 (49.41%) for Ross.
Only Republicans had local primaries in which to select their candidates.
All voting totals are from complete but unofficial returns from Election Day. They do not yet include provisional or absentee ballots, but none of the local races appeared close enough that those ballots could affect any of the races.
