For Guilford County voters, there was something for everyone in the 2022 midterm elections.

Or at least something for supporters of both major political parties.

The Democrats won big in Guilford County.  They maintained their majorities on both the Guilford County Board of Education and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.  In the school board races, an attempt by the four Republican candidates to run as a team didn’t produce any better results than running separately.  The Republicans held on to the two Republican seats and the Democrats held on to the three Democratic seats.

It was the same in the races for the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, where Democrats held on to all the Democratic seats and maintained a six-to-three Democratic majority.

Sixth District Congresswoman Kathy Manning won Guilford County by enough votes to push her well over the top in her reelection bid.

Democrats can also be pleased that nationwide the red wave became a red ripple or, at this point, it appears the best Republicans can hope for is a red ripple

While Republicans didn’t make any gains in local races, statewide Republicans won big.  Thirteenth District Congressman Ted Budd will soon be Senator-elect Ted Budd, having defeated Cheri Beasley by a comfortable margin.

Republicans won both of what political insiders termed the two most important races on the ballot – those for the NC Supreme Court justices.  The NC Supreme Court will now flip from a 4-to-3 Democratic majority to a 5-to-2 Republican majority.  Since the NC Supreme Court votes right down the party line on just about all political decisions, this represents a major win for Republicans.

The congressional districts for the 2022 election drawn by the courts were only for that one election.  It is more than likely that the Republican majority on the NC Supreme Court will allow the Republican majority in the NC Legislature to draw the districts for the 2024 elections, which should be in place until 2032.

The big question in the NC legislative races was whether the Republicans would be able to win super majorities, enough to override the governor’s veto, in both the state House and the state Senate.  The Republicans appear to have won a super majority in the state Senate but fell one vote short in the House.

So, both parties can claim a partial victory.

But perhaps the best news for Guilford County voters is that the Guilford County Board of Elections office counted all the votes on election night and it appears that, with the usual minor corrections, those counts will stand.

 

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