A political newcomer defeated the Sanford City Council’s longest-serving member Tuesday in the Democratic primary for the city’s Ward 3 seat.
30-year-old Christopher Petty defeated J.D. Williams by a margin of 60-40 percent. No Republican filed for the seat, so Petty will be unopposed on the general election ballot in November. The 77-year-old Williams has represented Ward 3, which covers most of east Sanford, since the 1990s.
Despite the decisive total in percentage terms, the race was decided by only a handful of votes. Overall, Petty earned 66 votes to Williams’ 44. Just 110 voters cast ballots – out of 2,071 eligible – in the race.
The result was fairly uniform across the board, though. In total votes, Petty led 41-32 after ballots from the early voting period were tabulated, and that margin expanded to 51-37 after results from two of the Ward’s three precincts had been counted.
Partisan primaries in City Council races are relatively new. Before 2013, City Council races in Sanford (and Lee County’s Board of Education) were run on a nonpartisan basis, and primaries of this kind weren’t necessary until a law that year passed by the North Carolina General Assembly in response to a request from then-Representative Mike Stone.
Local voters will have two more choices to make in the 2025 municipal election cycle this November. At-large Councilwoman Linda Rhodes, a Democrat, faces a challenge from Republican Louis Williams, and Broadway’s nonpartisan Town Board race features five candidates vying for three at-large seats.