Municipal election results from across the Piedmont

On Tuesday, Municipal Election Day, North Carolina voters in 465 municipalities across 86 counties headed to the polls. Here are the unofficial results for some of the races we’ve been following at WFDD.

Rural Hall 

In the Rural Hall mayoral race, Town Councilmember Terry Bennet won the election with 52% of the vote over council colleague Susan Gordon who received 47%. The new mayor will face challenges there following the release of an audit earlier this year indicating that officials violated state law by allowing the Town Council to appoint a new clerk, and by not releasing public records — among other infractions.

Thomasville

In Thomasville, embattled school board candidate Ja’Quez Taylor was projected to win his bid for one of the five seats being contested with all precincts reporting. Taylor was facing legal trouble for depositing a bogus check. 

Meanwhile, also in Thomasville, city council candidate JacQuez Johnson claimed that their name similarities had damaged his campaign. But ultimately, with 100% of precincts reporting, it appears Johnson has won his bid for one of the three open city council seats.

Burlington

In Burlington, Democrat Beth Kennett was attempting to oust longtime councilmember Jim Butler, who won the mayor’s seat comfortably in 2021. With all precincts reporting, Butler remained in the lead of a tightly contested race there with 51% of the vote to Kennett’s 48%.

Lexington

And in Lexington, fiscal conservative Burr Sullivan challenged incumbent Mayor Jason Hayes who just completed his first term. Hayes took over for Newell Clark who decided not to run again after serving five terms as mayor. Hayes has unofficially won re-election comfortably with 67% of the vote.

*Correction: A previously broadcast version of this story incorrectly identified incumbent Lexington Mayor Jason Hayes as John Hayes.