Filing kicks off with crowd
Dec. 4—Filing for the 2024 general election began Monday, with county commissioners and school board seats coming vacant along with other key posts at the local and state level — and the Sampson County Board of Elections was crowded as soon as the filing window opened at noon.
There are already contested races for both vacating seats on the Sampson County Board of Commissioners, with incumbents Jerol Kivett, the current board chairman, and Lethia Lee filing to seek reelection to District 2 and District 4, respectively, and challengers already stepping up in an attempt to oust them from their posts.
Challenging Kivett for the District 2 seat will be Sheriff's Capt. Eric Pope, who previously announced his intent to file for District 2 and carried through with that promise on Monday. District 4 will similarly be a contested race between Lee and Raymond Hayes.
Republican Kivett was elected to the county board in 2016. He is the president and CEO of a furniture business Kivett's Inc., which bears his name. He's a Clinton High School graduate and is a lifelong resident of Sampson County.
Pope has been part of Sampson's public safety community in one way or another since he was 16 years old. He started out as a volunteer member of Clinton-Sampson Rescue before his first law enforcement job with the Clinton Police Department. He ultimately moved over to the Sampson County Sheriff's Office and has ascended the ranks, currently holding the rank of captain with the agency.
Lee, who became the county's first Black female to be elected to the board in 2020, is seeking reelection. She was a family service worker for the Head Start program for more than a decade, served for 15 years as an income maintenance caseworker for the Sampson County Department of Social Services and spent seven years at the Sampson County Center for the Expanded Food Nutrition Education Program, through the Cooperative Extension.
Also on Monday, Jennifer Naylor filed as candidate for Sampson County Board of Education, which, along with the Clinton City Board of Education, has three seats vacating in 2024.
The three seats vacating on the Sampson County Board of Education include those currently occupied by Sandra Carroll, current vice-chair, Eleanor Bradshaw and Glenn Faison. On the Clinton City Board of Education, the seats currently held by Linda Brunson, the current chair, as well as Oscar Rodriguez and Jeremy Edgerton are expiring in 2024.
Another local key post opening in 2024 is the Sampson County Register of Deeds, with Anita Lane officially signing the dotted line to seek her second term.
Lane spent 13 years working in the Register of Deeds office prior to taking over as the register. Under former leaders Paulette King and Eleanor Bradshaw, she spent 12 years working as assistant register. Before coming to the office, she worked with the Farm Service Agency for seven years. In 2018, she was hired as the senior planner for Sampson County prior to her election to Register of Deeds.
In state contests. N.C. Senator Brent Jackson (R-Sampson) joined the bevy of local candidates in filing for election. He has represented Sampson County in the state senate since Jan. 1, 2011. He is seeking his eighth term office. He represented District 10 for more than a decade, encompassing Sampson, Duplin and Bladen. Starting with the current term, redistricting changed that number to District 9, which includes Sampson, Duplin, Bladen, Jones and Pender.
N.C. House of Representatives District 22 Rep. William Brisson (R-Bladen), whose district includes Sampson, is serving his ninth term in the office and his term also expired in 2024. Sampson native Joshua Harrell, a Democrat, is expected to file for District 22 N.C. House next Monday.
Filing ends at noon Friday, Dec. 15. Primaries will happen in March leading up to November's election. The Independent will update filings throughout the entire period. Filings listed in today's story are those that occurred until press time Monday afternoon.
Editor Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 2587.
