Election night in Sampson: Overhaul in Garland, three new mayors and Strickland retains

Nov. 7—There were hotly-contested board races in Clinton, Garland, Harrells, Salemburg and Turkey in Tuesday's municipal election in Sampson, with plenty of new faces coming to boards and mayoral posts across the county.

There will be three new mayors, including in Turkey, which saw the lone contested race for a mayoral post. In the biggest shake-up, all three Garland commissioners up for election were voted out in favor of newcomers. Harrells will see a similar overhaul and a couple new faces are coming to Salemburg, while in some towns it will ultimately be business as usual, including in Clinton, after longtime Councilman Neal Strickland retained his seat after a sizable challenge from newcomer Jess Bashlor.

Just 152 people cast early ballots in the weeks leading up to Election Day, out of 7,458 people eligible to vote in the municipal election, a turnout of just 2%. In the end, 859 ballots were cast across the county, a turnout of about 11.5%.

In Clinton, longtime Mayor Lew Starling was elected to his 12th term in office. He has been unopposed since winning election nearly 22 years ago.

District 2 saw incumbent Strickland facing off against Bashlor, while Holden DuBose had no challengers in District 4. Strickland held a slight 34-25 lead over Bashlor after the early vote tally, and kept that lead, ultimately amassing 100 votes to Bashlor's 87, according to unofficial returns from the Sampson County Board of Elections.

Strickland has represented Clinton's District 2 for more than 20 years, since 2002, taking over as an appointee to fill the post that was held by Albert Kaleel before later being elected.

He was unopposed in the last two elections, in 2015 and 2019, and now earns his sixth elected term on the board.

"We've still got a lot of work; we're not perfect, but we're close," Strickland told The Independent after filing in July, with wife Jonelle by his side. "We all love the city and we all want the city to grow. We want new industry to come to town. We all want a better place for our children. Luckily for us, our daughter after college, was able to come back home and work and we'd love for all young people to feel comfortable that they can come back to Clinton and have a job and be successful. We also want to try to find some stuff for our young people to do in town."

Born and raised in Sampson County, Strickland has been a resident of Clinton for more than 30 years.

"We have a great community," Strickland attested. "Downtown is lovely; we spend a lot of energy and efforts downtown. My wife has friends that come several times a year from Raleigh just to shop in downtown (Clinton). We've tried to promote it and visit downtown as much as we can. There's no agendas on the Council. We all strive to make it a better place for our community."

In Autryville, Mayor Grayson B. Spell and board members Mickie Spell, Kim Baker and Tommy Honeycutt all retained their seats with no opposition presenting itself.

In Garland, Mayor Austin Brown retained his seat, with no opposition.

On the town board, however, there will be a complete overhaul.

Incumbents Carolyn Robinson Melvin and Barbara A. Peterson were both unseated, with challengers Timothy Blackburn and Anthony Norris winning election. Blackburn and Norris earned 71 and 69 votes, respectively. Peterson garnered 54 votes and Melvin tallied 51.

In a separate town board race in Garland, current commissioner Haywood C. Johnson was seeking to fill an unexpired term — Johnson was appointed in March 2023 — while Lee Carberry was running against him, Carberry earned 71 votes to Johnson's 59.

There will be plenty of new faces in Harrells, with longtime mayor James C. Moore declining to seek reelection, and town board incumbents Katie Greer and Ray Powell similarly bowing out. In their stead, four people, including Tony Arce, Brandon Creech, Charles D. Moore and Debra Ellerby, were vying for three open alderman seats.

Ellerby amassed 30 votes, while Moore earned 28 and Arce received 27. Creech was the odd man out, with 17 votes.

Moore has been the mayor for decades. With his choice to not seek reelection, his successor is yet to be determined. In Harrells, the mayor is chosen from the existing town board, which will now include the newly-elected members.

In Newton Grove, Craig Warren was elected to the mayoral post. He was the only one on the ballot for mayor after sitting mayor Gerald Darden announced his desire to step away after serving as the town's leader for 18 of the past 22 years. On the board, Cody Smith and Bartley Warren, who was appointed, retained their seats with no others filing against them.

In Roseboro, the leadership will stay intact, with Mayor Alice Butler and commissioners Richard Barefoot, Ray Clark Fisher and Mark Gupton keeping their seats to no opposition.

In Salemburg, unopposed Mayor Joe Warren earned reelection.

There were three board seats open, with at least one of those seats set to be a new board member, as incumbent Michelle Hill did not file.

In the race for the three seats were incumbents Juanita Faircloth and Grady Collier, along with Joe A. Royal and Scott G. McLamb. In the end, the challengers again won out, with McLamb and Royal the top vote-getters with 65 and 59, respectively. Collier edged out Faircloth 43-42 for the last remaining spot. There were 21 write-ins.

Turkey saw contested races for both mayor and commissioner, with Mayor Max Pope pitted against current commissioner Rudy Blackburn for the top spot.

Pope received just seven votes to Blackburn's 41, according to the unofficial results from the Sampson County Board of Elections.

On the Turkey board, incumbents Tracie Pryor and Mike Smith sought to retain their seats against challenger David Krch, and ultimately did. Krch was not listed in the Sampson County Board of Elections returns. Incumbents Smith and Pryor garnered 39 and 27 votes, respectively, while there were 13 write-in votes.