Guilford County Commissioner Alan Perdue has been working to keep his District 2 commissioners seat – and now he’ll get a chance to do that in the November election.

In the Republican Primary District 2 race, Perdue defeated opponent Steve Arnold, a former Guilford County commissioner who popped up after more than a decade of radio silence and decided to run in 2022.

Perdue, who won 56 percent of the vote to Arnold’s 44 percent, will now face Democratic challenger Paul Meinhart, who ran unopposed in the District 2 primary on the other side of the ticket.

Perdue has a strong network of supporters throughout the county from the people he currently represents to the firefighters and law enforcement officers who respect him for his standout career as the director of Guilford County Emergency Services before retiring from that post and winning a seat on the Board of Commissioners.

A lot of candidates watched the results come in at watch parties, however, Perdue was at home quietly watching the returns.

Perdue said on election night, May 17, that he’d spent the day at the polls trying to wrangle up some last minute votes.  He said some polling places in his district had a steady stream of voters, but others only got 40 or so all day long.

“There were some where I thought, is that poll open?” he said.

Perdue said that, during the campaign, he tried to focus on the things he brings to the table rather than attempt to attack his opponent.

He also noted one interesting characteristic nature of county commissioners District 2.

“The biggest thing is how far it spans,” he said.

He pointed out that the district covers a wide swath of the county and has everything from very rural precincts to well-populated city and town precincts.

Arnold, who didn’t appear to campaign much, still has name recognition from his long tenure on the board in the 1990s and the early 2000s, but Perdue won nevertheless with votes to spare.

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