3 winners dominate contentious race for Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board
It appears even a hefty fundraising effort couldn’t put a Republican on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board this year.
Newcomers George Griffin, Riza Jenkins and Mike Sharp came out strong Tuesday night, with all 24 precincts reporting.
The winners will replace outgoing board members Lisa Kaylie, Mary Ann Wolf and Joal Broun, who did not seek re-election.
Other candidates trailed by thousands of votes, including Meredith Pruitt, whose fundraising in the nonpartisan election had drawn attention because of contributions from top Republican Party donors.
In almost any other county, that might not have been an issue at all. But in heavily Democratic southern Orange County, a Republican running for any office is rare.
Campaign reports filed before the election showed Pruitt far outpaced her competitors, with $18,929 in donations and $17,923 in expenses as of Oct. 25. Jenkins raised $4,872, while Griffin self-funded most of his $6,018 in donations.
Two additional candidates, Ryan Jackson and Sharp, did not file campaign reports, indicating they had raised less than $1,000.
The election also was marked to a lesser extent by concerns about where some candidates stood on race in education, and by rumors that Tim Sookram had dropped out.
Orange County voters cast 6,863 ballots in early voting, according to the Board of Elections.
Here are the final but unofficial results, as of 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, with 24 of 24 precincts reporting. The bold denotes winners.
▪ Riza Jenkins: 29.60%
▪ George Griffin: 29.36%
▪ Mike Sharp: 27.45%
▪ Meredith Pruitt: 6.80%
▪ Ryan Jackson: 3.41%
▪ Tim Sookram: 3.18%
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 9:05 PM with the headline "3 winners dominate contentious race for Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board."
