Women of Color Win Big In Durham’s Municipal Primary Election

DURHAM, NC – Yesterday (Oct. 5), a coterie of Durham officials and activists gathered to watch the Municipal primary election results trickle in.

It’s a balmy, breezy October night in the Bull City. The curiously named Ponysaurus Brewery became an ad hoc war room for allies of mayoral aspirant Judge Elaine O’Neal. This picnic table power summit was a veritable who’s who of Durham’s politics. A lucky citizen invitee could hobnob with Councilman Mark-Anthony Middleton, rub shoulders with Councilwoman DeDreana Freeman, or tête-à-tête with County Commissioner Brenda Howerton. Neither Judge O’Neal nor Councilwoman Javiera Caballero was in attendance.

Regardless of which candidate sashays away with the mayoral sash on November 2,  Durham is poised to have its first woman of color (WoC) chief executive.

Team O’Neal preferred not to comment on outgoing Mayor Steve Schewel’s decision to endorse Councilwoman Caballero as his heir presumptive.

If, as Justice Louis Brandeis once opined, states are the laboratories of democracy, then municipalities are the proverbial nuclear proving grounds. Here, authorities make exceedingly impactful, life-altering, earth-altering decisions – yet many locals don’t notice or care until the fallout reaches them. Most of this year’s candidates cite similar key issues – public safety, housing, poverty, etc. Gun violence was the topic du jour at Ponysaurus’s beer-blotched, A-frame bully pulpit.

Last November, gunfire claimed the life of Judge O’Neal’s 22-year-old cousin. This tragedy both undergirds and encapsulates the judge’s holistic policy agenda. Similarly, Councilwoman Caballero’s experience as a Chilean immigrant has informed her politics.

With all 56 precincts reporting, Judge O’Neal won the mayoral primary with 67.96 percent of the vote. Councilwoman Caballero was a distant second with 24.63 percent. Judge O’Neal secured every precinct except for two – Precincts 03 and 04 on the west side (see here). Councilman Middleton and Councilwoman Freeman won resounding victories in their respective wards.

County Commissioner Nimasheena Burns said it best: “The voters have spoken” – and spoken they have, indeed. Unfortunately, voter turnout in local elections (never mind local election primaries) remains abysmally low. Yesterday’s turnout came out to 10.02 percent, a smidgeon higher than the 8.96 percent of the October 2019 primary, but lower than the 13.47 percent turnout of October 2017. According to Durham County election data, precincts with large numbers of Black and brown voters tend to have lower levels of turnout. In the 2014 primary, precincts encompassing North Carolina Central University and the postbellum freedmen’s community of Crest Street/Hickstown had the lowest turnout rates in the county – 0.98 and 1.62 percent, respectively. In that same election, more affluent precincts like 04 and 09 had a turnout of 30.93 and 22.01 percent, respectively. The turnout disparity not only persists in other Durham elections, and indeed, nationwide.

Antonio Jones, Chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, issued a direct exhortation to the readers of Spectacular Magazine: “We still have an election. Come out November 2.”

The general election will be held Tuesday, November 2. On that date, polling places (find yours here) will remain open from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm. The deadline to register to vote on November 2 is Friday, October 8. Verify your registration status here. Early voting (click here) lasts from October 14 to October 30. Request an absentee ballot here. Visit dcovotes.com for additional information.

Durham Municipal Primary Election Results Watch Party at Ponysaurus (Photos: Bibi Miller):

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