There are five district City Council races in the 2022 Greensboro City Council general election on Tuesday, July 26, but voters will only see one race on their ballots.
At-large City Council candidates have to run citywide elections while the district candidates run in a district that is one fifth of the city. However, when the election is over and the winning candidates are sworn in as councilmembers, the at-large councilmembers and the district councilmembers have the same amount of power.
In District 1, City Councilmember Sharon Hightower – who generally opposes rezoning requests in her district – won the primary with 78 percent of the vote. Felton Foushee finished second in the primary with 13 percent. That is an enormous deficit to overcome in the general election.
District 2 City Councilmember Goldie Wells won the primary with 43 percent, but that is considerably more than Cecile (CC) Crawford with 30 percent. While other city councilmembers often speak in euphemisms, Wells has made a habit of speaking in plain terms. Wells first served as the District 2 councilmember from 2005 to 2009. In 2017 she was appointed to the District 2 seat and then won the 2017 election.
Voters in District 3 don’t have much of an option. Former District 3 Councilmember Zack Matheny is the only candidate on the ballot. Chip Roth, who finished second in the primary, dropped out of the race for health reasons.
There was no primary in District 4, where Thurston Reeder is challenging District 4 City Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann, who has been representing District 4 since 2011.
Hoffmann is known for consistently running a professional and well-funded campaign. Reeder has the support of the Republican Party, which has become more involved than usual in the nonpartisan City Councill election and is running a vigorous grassroots campaign.
The District 5 City Council race appears likely to be the most hotly contested district race. District 5 City Councilmember Tammi Thurm is running against former District 5 City Councilmember Tony Wilkins. In 2017, the roles were reversed with Wilkins as the incumbent and Thurm as the challenger. Thurm won that one by 459 votes and won the May primary by 201 votes. With low voter turnout projected, this race has the potential to be decided by even fewer votes.
Wilkins is a strong conservative while Thurm is one of the more liberal members of a liberal City Council. Like the other Republicans on the ballot, Wilkins is getting some help from the Guilford County Republican Party.
I know Mr. Reeder personally. He has had issues with the city council in he past. Electing Mr. Reeder would have a similar effect that Clint Eastwood had as Mayor of Carmel. I would be fun to see what happens.