Political newcomers Wes McMahon and Louie Rivers III will join incumbents Camille Berry and Paris Miller-Foushee on the Chapel Hill Town Council following the results of Tuesday’s otherwise largely uncompetitive municipal elections in Orange County.
With five candidates vying for four seats, the Chapel Hill Town Council race had been the only truly competitive race among Orange County’s local elections this year.
Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson was unopposed in securing her second term as the college town’s top elected official. Anderson ran on a platform that emphasized ensuring fiscal responsibility, protecting the environment, and promoting “complete communities” with affordable housing, recreation, and connectivity. She previously served two terms on the town council.
Rivers and McMahon were the top vote-getters in the council race, with 5,177 and 5,101 votes, respectively. Berry and Miller-Foushee, who both earned second terms, came in third and fourth place, with 5,057 and 4,736 votes respectively. A fifth candidate, Erik Valera, a nonprofit consultant, was about 800 votes short of securing a seat, with 3,987.
McMahon and Rivers have both served on the town’s planning commission. McMahon is an ESL instructor who previously worked in refugee resettlement. Rivers is a professor and former social scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Both candidates indicated they were ready to hit the ground running.
“People are feeling so drained, frustrated, and fed up with our state and federal governments right now,” McMahon told INDY after results were finalized. “Voters are looking for leaders who will work together and see us through our challenges, and that effort begins at the local level.”
“It was a pretty positive campaign season, I think people like that.” Rivers told INDY. “We got a chance to really dig into issues.”
All the town council candidates had relatively similar platforms centering on housing affordability, climate resilience, and community engagement.
Property taxes have been a top issue in the Chapel Hill Town Council race. Over the summer, the council split over approving a budget that raised taxes for the fifth consecutive year. Anderson, in an unusual vote against approving a budget, split with the majority of council. Miller-Foushee and Berry both voted for the budget, while McMahon and Rivers (and Valera) told the INDY they would have voted against it as written.
With the winners declared, it seems unlikely the town council will move to fill the seat vacated by Karen Stegman for the final month remaining on that term before new council members are sworn in on December 3. Since Stegman stepped down in June (she moved to Carrboro), the council received 10 applications for her seat and discussed the process, but did not take action to fill it.
Notably, it was the first Chapel Hill election year in 2015 that Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town (CHALT) didn’t back any candidates, with Triangle Blog Blog reporting the political group has officially disbanded its PAC.
In other Orange County electoral news, Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee coasted to reelection with 96 percent of the vote, beating out Joe Lloyd Jr., a Republican candidate whose campaign appears to have been largely silent. Foushee made climate action and storm recovery central to her campaign. (Parts of Carrboro saw destructive flooding, including the town’s public works complex.) Foushee has also led the town in its pioneering lawsuit against Duke Energy.
And the three open seats on the Carrboro Town Council will be filled by the three candidates who ran for them. The council will have one new face and no major shake-ups to its progressive politics.
Incumbent Danny Nowell won a second term and Cristóbal Palmer won his first full term after being appointed last year when Foushee vacated her council seat to take the helm as mayor. The third spot, vacated by longtime incumbent Randee-Haven O’Donnell, who didn’t seek reelection, goes to former Carrboro poet laureate and self-proclaimed “IT guy” Fred Joiner. Joiner’s platform similarly centers on sustainability and “livability,” adding he would bring an artist’s creative and empathetic sensibility to finding solutions for the town.
Palmer earned the most votes (2,573), followed by Nowell (2,482) and Joiner (2,369). Nowell is a writer and musician with a background in organizing around mutual aid and racial equity. Palmer is a systems administrator at UNC’s School of Information and Library Science. Both have campaigned on promoting equitable transit access, adding more housing options, and ensuring a safe and welcoming community for queer people, immigrants, and people of color.
It’s a similar picture for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board with three candidates and three open seats. Incumbents George Griffin and Riza Jenkins won reelection and newcomer Melinda Manning will fill the seat that had been held by Michael Sharp.
In that race, Manning came out on top with 9,146 votes, followed by 8,903 for Jenkins and 8,735 for Griffin.
First elected in 2021, Griffin is the current board chair. Griffin’s education bona fides date back to the 1970s; he’s served as an administrator at county and state levels. Jenkins was also elected to the board in 2021. Jenkins’s resume includes political and community experience with the local Democratic Party and schools. Manning has a background as a teacher and assistant dean.
Over in Hillsborough, incumbents with no challengers were reelected. Mayor Mark Bell won his second term as mayor, while commissioner Robb English won his first full term and Kathleen Ferguson secured her fourth.
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