The Wake County Board of Commissioners sets policy, levies taxes, funds public education, and oversees the operation of parks, libraries, and emergency services for the approximately 1.2 million residents of North Carolina’s most populous county.
This election cycle, the commission is growing to nine members, adding two new at-large members this year in addition to its current seven district seats. Commissioners serve staggered four-year terms.
Because of a state law passed in 2023, Wake County voters can now only vote for commissioner candidates in the at-large race and in the district where they live. You can check your county commission district here.
Here’s who’s running in 2026 and what to know about the candidates ahead of the March 3 primary.
At-Large (2 seats, all residents may vote for two candidates)
There are seven Democrats running in the March primary for this seat. The two who advance to the general election in November have a good chance of both being elected based on past county commission election results.
According to her social media, Marguerite Creel runs a tutoring business and is a former professor. She unsuccessfully primaried Joe John, the former Democratic representative in North Carolina House District 40, in 2022. Her campaign website doesn’t have any content yet.
Three-term Raleigh city council member at-large Jonathan Lambert-Melton has experience making decisions about affordable housing, transit, parks, and public safety, and the budget in Wake County’s biggest (and only) city. Other components of a county commissioner’s workload, like funding the public school system and overseeing Wake’s health and human services departments, would be less familiar for him. On his campaign website, Lambert-Melton lists public school investment and affordable housing among his top priorities. He also notes he’d be Wake County’s first LGBTQ commissioner if elected.
Kimberly McGhee is a Raleigh-based entrepreneur and community advocate. Her website lists housing and health care access among her top priorities.
Robert Mitchener Jr. is a retired former deputy sheriff from Raleigh and the founder of Our Youth Matters, a youth mentorship program. He doesn’t appear to have a campaign website.
Former Wake County school board member of 11 years Christine Kushner serves on the Wake County Health and Human Services Board and the Southern Regional Education Board. Earlier in her career she was a health care policy analyst and nonprofit administrator. She says she’ll champion public education and health care access if elected. Her website lists a long slate of endorsers including former school board colleagues, would-be county commission colleagues, local council members, and a big chunk of Wake County’s state legislative delegation.
Fifteen-year Morrisville town council member Steve Rao wants to expand affordable housing, attract new businesses to the county and increase public school funding if elected to the commission. He is endorsed by a long list of state and local Democratic political figures.
Mona Singh is a technology consultant and community volunteer who lives in Cary. She’s been organizing with her local Democratic Party for years and helped elect three Democrats to the Cary Town Council in 2024. On her website, she writes that she wants to invest in public education and use her tech expertise to advise the county on responsible AI use.
There are two Republicans running for the at-large seats, so they’ll both advance to the general election without a primary. They both appear to be first-time candidates.
Gary Dale Hartong is president of The Wooten Company, an engineering firm headquartered in Raleigh, and lives near Wake Forest according to his campaign website. He writes there that he believes Wake County should be investing in infrastructure, public schools, and supporting the business community.
Kyle Stogoski doesn’t appear to have a campaign website or public social media presence. According to Linkedin, he works for a massage business in Cary. According to the North State Journal, he organized a memorial for Charlie Kirk in Raleigh this year.
To get the new at-large seats on track with the commission’s staggered, four-year terms, the highest vote-getter will serve a four-year term, and the second place candidate will serve a two-year term.
District 1 (No primary)
In December, incumbent Don Mial’s colleagues unanimously elected him chair of the board of commissioners. He’s a Democrat, U.S. Army veteran, and community college instructor who used to work for the N.C. Department of Public Safety’s juvenile justice division. He was elected in 2022. Here’s his campaign website.
Mial—whose district covers eastern Wake County including Rolesville, Wendell, and Zebulon—is running unopposed and will not appear on the March primary ballot.
District 2 (District 2 residents may vote for one candidate)
This district spans southern Wake County including the fast-growing towns of Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina. This has historically been Wake’s reddest district, meaning the new rule restricting voters to only voting in their home districts puts incumbent Democrat Safiyah Jackson at a disadvantage compared to previous years. On the other hand, Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina both elected Democratic mayors in 2025 and their demographics are changing as their populations grow.
After a fairly close run against state representative Erin Paré in 2024, Jackson was appointed to the board of commissioners in early 2025 to fill Matt Calabria’s vacant seat. Earlier this month she was named vice chair of the board. Jackson has a background in early childhood psychology and business and has focused on affordable housing and economic development in her first year as a commissioner.
Her Republican opponent John Adcock is a real estate and land use attorney in Fuquay-Varina with an as-yet-unsuccessful electoral history. He ran for a Wake County Commission seat in 2016 but was disqualified because the district was ruled unconstitutional before the election. He was appointed to fill a short vacancy in N.C. House District 37 in 2018, but lost his bid to serve a full term. In a November Facebook post, he wrote that he wants to curb tax increases and enforce financial responsibility in county government. He does not appear to have a campaign website.
Since Jackson and Adcock are the only two candidates in this race, they will automatically advance to the November general election without a primary.
District 3 (No primary)
Incumbent Cheryl Stallings is a psychologist and former Apex town council member. She took office in 2022 and is running unopposed for a second term. Her district covers Cary and Morrisville. Stallings, a Democrat, chairs the commission’s Health and Human Services Committee and is a member of its Education Committee. She will not appear on the March primary ballot.
District 7 (No primary)
Three-term incumbent Democrat Vickie Adamson is running unopposed in this district, which spans a wedge of western Wake County from northwest Raleigh to Morrisville. A retired accountant and business analyst, Adamson has been a big proponent of education and affordable housing funding on the county commission. Her campaign website outlines her priorities in more detail. Adamson will not appear on the March primary ballot.
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