The 2025 City Council election may not be at the top of most people’s minds right now.
However, Mayor Nancy Vaughan is thinking about it and said that she plans to run for reelection. One of the reasons Vaughan gave for making her decision to run was that the city needed “continuity.”
On the current City Council everyone who ran for reelection won. Former District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling, ran for mayor in the 2021 election, which was held in 2022, and lost a close election to Vaughan. So out of nine members of the City Council, eight were reelecte,d and even if Vaughan had lost, the City Council would still have only had one new face after the 2022 election. That is a lot of continuity.
However, it appears that the 2025 election is going to be vastly different.
In 2025, three of the current city councilmembers will be in their early 80s. At-large City Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson, District 2 City Councilmember Goldie Wells and District 4 City Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann.
Johnson was first elected as an at-large city councilmember in 1993 and has served on the City Council for all but two years since then. Johnson was elected as Greensboro’s first black mayor in 2007 but lost her bid for reelection in 2009. In 2011, Johnson once again ran for an at-large seat. Johnson has finished first in that three-way at-large race each election and has served as mayor pro tem.
Although Johnson often receives accolades for being Greensboro’s first black mayor, she was also the first black candidate to win an at-large seat and the first black mayor pro tem.
Wells was first elected to the City Council in 2005 and served until 2009. In July 2017, Wells was appointed to the District 2 seat by a unanimous vote of the city to replace Jamal Fox, who resigned to move to Portland, Oregon.
Wells was elected to the District 2 seat in 2017 and won reelection in a surprisingly close race in 2022.
District 4 City Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann was first elected in 2011 and has easily won each of her reelection bids.
It is assumed that Johnson, Wells and Hoffmann will not be running for reelection in 2025, which would mean at a minimum the City Council would have three new members and lose decades of experience.
However, for at least the past decade, Johnson has been saying that she would run for one more term and that would be it. So, it is certainly possible that all three octogenarians on the City Council will run for reelection in 2025, and if they run the odds are they will all win.
CONTINUITY? “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome “
Time for Nancy to get out of the way and let new council members redirect city efforts so as to represent the voters; YES, we do vote
One can only hope and pray they do not run or get defeated. It appears to me the majority of Greensboro voters like the socialist east greensboro council members and all their high taxes and waste plus assigning tax money to their personal pet projects. I guess we shall soon find out.
It cannot happen fast enough for me.
Turn them all out. They are a disgrace to the hard working people of Greensboro. The only people that benefit from this group of idiots are the ones who get hand out after hand out and the special interest non profit pets of this bunch of jokesters.
Diane Feinstein is 89 and did not know her office had announced her retirement. These ladies won’t be any different.
Vaughn “ city needed “continuity.” This would be a continuation of Tax and Spend and wasting tax payer money. One day MAYBE the voters of Greensboro will wake up and send this bunch packing. Maybe we need a referendum on term limits, we can only take so much of this socialist bunch. BTW – Hoffman lives in a high end retirement community that pays no city or county taxes and thus she pays no city or county taxes except vehicle taxes… should she really be voting on how tax dollars are allocated?
I don’t know who will be elected to replace them, but I guarantee we will miss then when they are gone because what’s coming will be worse.
Time to say Adios to these three. Democrats think they own a spot on any board or position and sometimes they die in order to get them off . We have had Democrats forever, how about a chance to vote in Republicans for a change. A Republican mayor would be great as well.
Lol
Please Nancy Vaughan Please take a vacation. Continuity of your leadership is NOT what we need. If you want to be a career politician run for legislature. You’ve definitely done enough to our once great city. Go get a life