{"id":11699,"date":"2024-03-06T16:46:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T16:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=11699"},"modified":"2024-03-06T21:45:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T21:45:00","slug":"voters-tap-newcomers-for-durham-county-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/03\/06\/voters-tap-newcomers-for-durham-county-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters tap newcomers for Durham county commission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On Tuesday, voters expressed that they were ready for fresh faces on the Durham County Board of Commissioners. Three newcomers, Michelle Burton, Mike Lee and Stephen Valentine, will join the five-member board. Meanwhile, just two incumbents, Wendy Jacobs and Nida Allam, retained their seats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One incumbent, Heidi Carter, did not seek reelection. Two other incumbents, Nimasheena Burns and Brenda Howerton, fell short in their reelection bids. Burns finished seventh while Howerton, who has served on the board since 2008, finished sixth, about 1,000 votes behind Valentine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The incoming commissioners secured critical local endorsements. The Durham Association of Educators and the People\u2019s Alliance PAC, a progressive organization, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peoplesalliancepac.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">threw their support<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> behind<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Allam, Burton, Jacobs, and Lee, while INDY Week endorsed all five victorious candidates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of the candidates\u2019 platforms stressed education reform, a key issue for voters in light of recent pay disputes at the Durham Public Schools. One member of the current school board, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jovonia Lewis, was among the commissioner candidates but did not succeed in her bid for higher office.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The incoming commissioners will serve four-year terms. Among other <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dconc.gov\/county-departments\/departments-a-e\/board-of-commissioners\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">duties<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the commissioners set the annual county property tax rate and provide a significant portion of the local public schools budget.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jacobs, who polled first with 15.23% of the vote, has served on the board since 2012. A former educator, she hopes to continue to fund and expand Durham\u2019s pre-K programs and create a county-wide literacy initiative. Jacobs also lists affordable housing, public transit, and community health as top priorities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Endorsed by the People\u2019s Alliance, she expressed support for the group\u2019s other picks at a watch party at Viceroy Tuesday night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThis is a team effort,\u201d Jacobs said, gesturing around the room. \u201cThis is a room full of everyone who has been instrumental and a part of this process. Because as an elected official, you cannot achieve anything on your own.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Polling in second place was Nida Allam, the current chair of the board who has served since 2020. During her historic first term as the first-ever Muslim woman to hold office in North Carolina, Allam helped to raise Durham\u2019s minimum wage and secure tax relief for low-income residents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like Jacobs, newcomer and third-place winner Michelle Burton has a strong background in education. A school librarian and former teacher\u2019s union president, she began her foray into labor organizing in 2013. She <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/michellefordurham.com\/platform#economy\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">advocates<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for affordable housing, raising pay for public school teachers, remodeling outdated school properties and investing in educational technologies. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI know my daddy is so excited right now,\u201d she said as she took the stage at the Viceroy watch party. \u201cI just wish my mother was alive to see this\u2014 that little girl that she raised on the South Side of Chicago. I never would\u2019ve imagined I would be here today.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another newcomer, Mike Lee, brings a combination of business expertise and public service experience to the table. Lee, who holds a doctorate in business administration, currently works as a customer service executive at a tax and compliance software company. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lee is also a DPS parent and served for 8 years on the school board, in addition to participating in mentorship and athletics coaching.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finally, Stephen Valentine took fifth place with 9.55% of the vote, narrowly defeating incumbent Brenda Howerton. Valentine, who served in Iraq, has a passion for gun reform, social work and securing justice for fellow veterans. He <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">currently works as the director and supervising attorney of the NCCU Veterans Law Clinic. Valentine serves on the Durham City-County Planning Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gabrielle Lazor and Esme Fox contributed reporting to this story. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, voters expressed that they were ready for fresh faces on the Durham County Board of Commissioners. Three newcomers, Michelle Burton, Mike Lee and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":11712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[392,12],"tags":[112],"class_list":["post-11699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elections-2024","category-local-government","tag-durham-election","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Voters tap newcomers for Durham county commission - 9th Street Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/03\/06\/voters-tap-newcomers-for-durham-county-commission\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voters tap newcomers for Durham county commission - 9th Street Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Tuesday, voters expressed that they were ready for fresh faces on the Durham County Board of Commissioners. 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