The Orange County Board of County Commissioners and the Orange County Schools Board of Education will each see at least one new member elected this year.
Three seats are up for grabs on the Orange County Commission. The commission’s seven members are elected in a district system. This year, voters will make selections for District 1 (the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area), District 2 (the more rural northern area), and at-large. Four seats are up for reelection on the school board.
All four school board seats, as well as one seat on the county commission will be decided by the March 3 election. All eligible voters in Orange County can cast ballots for any of the county commission seats and residents of the Orange County school district can make their picks for school board members.
You can check which races you can vote in through the state’s voter search.
Board of County Commissioners
The county commission sets the county-wide tax rate and oversees services. The board also has the duty of funding the county’s two public school districts. In recent budgets (as in debates going back to at least the early 2000’s), commissioners have grappled over the equity implications of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro special tax for schools, which the county commission is responsible for levying. In the 2025-26 budget, commissioners declined to raise that tax as high as the school board requested due to a property revaluation that left many residents paying significantly higher taxes already.
In the coming years, the commission will continue to deal with the impact of inflation, a general assembly with little interest in funding public schools, and the constant question—is it worth raising taxes, which will impact the county’s poorest residents, in order to pay for public school services that also serve the county’s poorest residents?
At-Large (Democratic Primary)
With two-term commissioner Sally Greene declining to seek reelection, her at-large seat will be up for grabs.
Democrat Karen Stegman announced her intention to run even before filing opened. Stegman was elected to two terms on the Chapel Hill Town Council, though she left the last few months of her second term vacant when she moved to Carrboro this summer. Stegman is campaigning on her town council successes, including strides in increasing affordable housing, strengthening transit systems, and mitigating the impacts of climate change. With solid name recognition in the vote-rich center of Chapel Hill, Stegman is a clear frontrunner to succeed Greene.
Democrat Adam Beeman is the owner of an electrical contracting business, and has served on the county’s planning board and board of adjustments. He ran two years ago for the District 2 seat currently held by Phyllis Portie-Ascott, coming in third place behind Portie-Ascott and Horace Johnson Jr. On his website, Beeman describes working towards the construction of a new vocational high school in Orange County to ensure that “every student has a real path to a good career.” Beeman, who lives in the northern part of the county, also makes a case for converting one of the commission’s District 1 (Chapel Hill-Carrboro area) seats into an at-large seat in order to better represent all of Orange County rather than favoring the population-heavy core.
Jeffrey Hoagland is a perennial Republican candidate who recently ran unsuccessfully for N.C. House and Chapel Hill Town Council. In his 2024 bid for the house seat, he described plans to convert the UNC coal plant to a nuclear plant and committed to not accepting money for his campaign. He did not appear to have a website and will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the general election.
District 1 (Democratic primary)
Jamezetta Bedford is running for a third term on the board. Bedford is an accountant who previously served on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board. In a press release, she pointed to the successful passage of the $300 million education bond, which the commission put before voters in 2024. She also described pushing the county to adopt a climate action plan and is hoping to build a behavior health diversion facility. As the chair of the board during the most recent budget cycle, Bedford oversaw a difficult process as the commission increased taxes but still fell slightly short of the stated continuation needs of the county’s two K-12 public school districts. Bedford has also urged the CHCCS board to look at closing an elementary school to save money due to falling enrollment
Maria Palmer is an advocate, educator, faith leader, and former Chapel Hill town council member. On her website, she writes that “I am running for County Commissioner because Orange County is facing tremendous challenges caused by raising costs, elimination of State and Federal support for needed projects, and threats to our future sustainability and quality of life.” She has previously received the NAACP’s Trailblazer award. Her son currently serves on the Carrboro town council.
With no Republican candidate in the race, the March primary for District 1 will decide the seat.
District 2 (Democratic Primary)
Earl McKee is a retired farmer who has served on the commission since 2010. In the most recent budget process, McKee was one of two commissioners who voted against raising the CHCCS special tax. “In one respect, I commend the folks in Chapel Hill for doing the tax,” he said in June. “But I cannot support it because it does create an inequitable situation between the funding of the two systems in Orange County.” In a recent statement on Facebook, McKee said that his next term would focus on “completion of the broadband project with fiber running past every property possible, continued support for increased proficiency of all students in our dual school systems, and support for our great emergency services and law enforcement personnel.”
Beth Bronson is the current vice chair of the board of adjustment and at-large representative on the planning board. She did not appear to have a campaign website as of publishing.
Republican candidate Louis Capitanio will face off with the winner of the Democratic primary in November. He did not appear to have a campaign website as of publishing.
Orange County School Board
For the school board, which oversees the county’s more rural k-12 school district, all candidates are pooled together, and voters can make four picks for four seats. The election in March is not a primary; it will decide who wins seats on the board. Incumbents Anne Purcell, Will Atherton, and Sarah Smylie are defending their seats. Andre Richmond is not seeking a second term, leaving an opening for a new face on the board.
Purcell is a retired school administrator who spent much of her career in Orange County Schools. She was first elected in 2022 with the backing of the moderate-to-conservative Friends of Orange County Schools PAC. She does not appear to have a website yet.
Atherton is the current board chair and is seeking a third term. In his 2022 campaign, he emphasized improving student achievement and improving teacher retention. He did not appear to have a 2026 campaign site as of publishing.
Smylie is seeking her third term on the board. Smylie is a former public school teacher who, in the board’s previous iterations, consistently worked to pass some of the most progressive school policies in the state. In her 2022 election, she pitched herself as someone to help make sure that OCS is a place where “every single student feels a sense of belonging and graduates [are] prepared to succeed in life.”
Brian Edwards is a former detention officer who is highlighting mental health support in his bid for the board. Edwards, per reporting by WCHL, was recently fired from the sheriff’s department due to Twitter posts about having right wing “traitors” thrown in prison. “It may even be time to bring back the guillotine,” he apparently wrote in now-deleted posts. On his campaign Facebook page, he also discusses the need for a “Teacher’s Bill of Rights” to ensure that educators receive proper respect and pay.
Lori Russell is running for a first term on a platform of ethical governance. She practiced as a lawyer “working at the intersection of ethics, accountability, and social responsibility,” per her Facebook announcement. She wrote that she would focus on “thoughtful, ethical governance: actively listening to diverse communities across the county; grounding decisions in both data and experience; communicating clearly and transparently; and holding ourselves accountable for outcomes, not just intentions.”
Saru Salvi is a retired member of the county board of equalization and review. As of the time of publishing, Salvi did not appear to have a website.
Early voting ahead of the March 3 primary begins February 12.