District 8 Guilford County Board of Commissioners candidate Fahiym Hanna was hoping the second time would be a charm when he ran against incumbent Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston, but that was not to be.
In the Tuesday, March 3 primary, Alston pulled in a very comfortable 67 percent of the vote to Hanna’s 33 percent.
Hanna tried to unseat the longtime county commissioner once before – in the 2018 Democratic primary – and Hanna did do a little better this time around. Two years ago, Alston got 70 percent of the vote to Hanna’s 30 percent.
On Tuesday night, after the votes were in, Alston said he never takes anything for granted and he was happy to be able to continue representing District 8.
“I want to thank my constituents for allowing me to serve them for another four years,” Alston said.
Alston, who works in real estate and runs several businesses, said he appreciated Hanna’s interest in serving the community as well.
“I hope he stays involved,” Alston said.
Hanna, who owns a shop that sells essential oils and other items, ran on a platform of sweeping change that called for Guilford County government to get much more involved in helping the needy – even to the extent of offering part-time work to thousands of residents in exchange for meeting their basic needs.
Alston said that, on Tuesday, he was working the polls all day long and he went to each polling place in the district twice.
Alston has served as a Guilford County commissioner since 1992 with the exception of a two-year hiatus in which Alston voluntarily stepped down. During that hiatus, the District 8 seat was held by former Guilford County Commissioner Ray Trapp. Trapp stepped down from the seat when he got a job at NC A&T University that would have been a direct conflict of interest with serving as a commissioner. When that happened, the Guilford County Democratic Party handed the seat back to Alston.
