Nick Tennyson has voted in every Durham general election since 1986.
That makes him one of Durham’s most consistent voters and a decisive voice in the public debate. Just 1,934 Durhamites have voted consistently in every Durham election for the past 20 years, according to The 9th Street Journal’s analysis of Durham County voter rolls. Since 2015, during off-year election cycles, just 10-20% of voters have cast a ballot in Durham’s local elections for City Council, mayor, county commissioners, and school board.
It’s not surprising Tennyson has been so civically engaged: he was mayor of Durham from 1997-2001, and secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation from 2015-2016. Before entering public life, he was an active duty Naval officer, then a small business owner, executive vice president of the Homebuilders Association of Durham, Orange, & Chatham Counties, and vice president of government relations for the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce.
Tennyson, 74, comes from a line of highly engaged citizens. His father was the mayor of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and his mother served as the chair of a school board.
“My parents thought voting was a neat deal,” he said. “If you got to vote, why wouldn’t you?”
He doesn’t think of civic engagement as just voting, either. Tennyson’s mother used to always say: “If you’re going to propose an idea, be ready to be the chair of the committee.”
He began to consider politics after policy touched his life directly. In 1957, his father was deployed by the federal government as part of the National Guard to support the integration of Little Rock High School.
“Suddenly my dad wasn’t home anymore,” Tennyson said. “The thought that the federal government has an impact on your life was brought home to me. That makes you consider what we should be doing as a group.”
For the upcoming November mayoral and City Council elections, he’s concerned about the same three issues that prompted him to run in 1997: crime, urban revitalization, and professionalism in government.
However, Tennyson admitted that he’s no longer as attuned to local issues as he was 28 years ago. “When I was in office, the News & Observer and the Herald-Sun both had Durham local government reporters. Now, I don’t even know if there’s one full-time person. I try to stay informed, but it’s harder.”
Even if his choice at the ballot box is more difficult, his engagement with the community is still going strong. He chairs an Adopt-A-Highway committee for his neighborhood and often spends his Sunday mornings picking up trash on the side of Highway 54.
He joked that it is the perfect example of public service. “Nobody sees what the problem is,” he said, describing how unmowed grass hid the seven bagfuls of trash he and other volunteers eventually picked up. “Nobody sees how hard you work for the solution. And to the people driving by, there’s no change.”
He thinks that the limited visibility of government’s role in people’s lives is partly why turnout remains stubbornly low for local elections.
“People who are the most impacted tend to be the most engaged,” he said. “If somebody goes through a particularly onerous rezoning fight, or they’re involved with the parks, they’re engaged. Otherwise, it’s hard and people are busy.”
In recent years, Tennyson has felt more disillusioned about politics.
He lost his second bid for reelection as Durham mayor in 2001, where the intervention of national Democratic figures like President Bill Clinton caused a slew of North Carolinian Republican mayoral losses. Since then, he says polarization has only worsened, becoming the “dust that gets into everything.” Tennyson, originally a registered Republican, became unaffiliated with a political party around late 2018 or 2019.
“I would quote Ronald Reagan, who said ‘I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The party left me,’” Tennyson said. “That’s precisely the circumstance in which I find myself.”
But, frustration with politics isn’t stopping him from engaging. He and his wife plan to be at the polls on Election Day in November.
For those that don’t think voting is a “neat deal,” he thinks they should consider joining local fraternal organizations, churches, or clubs.
“There’s so much positive productive energy out there in the community,” he said. “The good done in communities by clubs and organizations is indescribable.”
Above photo, Nick Tennyson by Jack Regan – The 9th Street Journal
