In November 2020, then-freshman politician Toni Stewart campaigned hard for the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners. She would come in first place among six candidates running for District 2.
But four years later, Stewart by her own reckoning wasn’t as competitive in her campaign for reelection.
“I didn’t have that fire, that push” to win that she had before, Stewart said.
According to unofficial results posted late on election night, Stewart, who serves as the current vice chair of the board, came in last place among six candidates in the 2024 county commissioner race. The top three vote-getters clinched the three District 2 seats up for reelection. Stewart received 36,115 votes, or 15.9% of ballots counted so far.
Late on Tuesday night, while waiting for the results of her reelection effort, Stewart recalled falling asleep.
“And I woke up and I thought I was dreaming,” Stewart told CityView on Wednesday about seeing the results. “Because I’m like, ‘Come on now.’ Because I’m so competitive.”
She cited her grief following the deaths of her children’s father in March and her mother in May as factors in her lack of campaigning zeal this year.
The loss is disappointing, Stewart said, but when she looks back over the last four years, she feels as though she’s “completed the assignment.”
“I ran on homelessness, and we’re building a shelter, and I wanted to bring water out in Gray’s Creek, and we have a memorandum of understanding with PWC, and we should have that soon. So I did what I came to do,” she added.
The county had a ceremonial groundbreaking in February for its future homeless shelter. In April, the county and the Fayetteville Public Works Commission announced a plan to extend public water to Gray’s Creek to serve residents, schools and businesses whose drinking water wells were contaminated by PFAS chemicals from the nearby Fayetteville Works chemical plant.
The new and not-so-new faces on the board
Democrat Kirk deViere and Republicans Pavan Patel and Henry Tyson each waited into the early morning hours on Wednesday for the unofficial county election results that showed them taking the board’s three open seats.
As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, deViere earned 41,097, Patel took home 38,379 and Tyson received 37,524 votes each. These vote counts are unofficial until the county canvass on Nov. 15. Tyson told CityView on Wednesday that the trio’s unofficial win exemplifies the voters’ need for a change on the board of commissioners.
The board will be Tyson’s first time holding elected office once sworn in in December. He believes his experience in construction will be instrumental in projects like the Crown Event Center. He also sees his real estate experience as a big plus in unifying the board.
“I’m used to dealing with parties on each side of a transaction,” Tyson said. “If I don’t make that transaction happen, I don’t get paid. So finding a path forward so that both parties come out and they’re satisfied, I do that every day.”
Patel is also a new political face in Cumberland County. In an interview with CityView on Wednesday, the CEO & owner of Willow Group Investments said he plans to dissect the county’s finances to make spending as efficient as possible once on the board.
“We have a lot of projects on the table and we just need to make sure that we’re holding everyone accountable,” Patel said.
Patel acknowledged that there is a learning curve to elected office, just like there was running his campaign. He said he is ready to meet with county departments to hit the ground running on day one.
DeViere, however, is returning to being in an elected office. He was elected to the Fayetteville City Council in 2015 and was in the N.C. State Senate for two terms after being elected in 2018 and 2020. In an interview with CityView on Wednesday, deViere said he is excited to serve the people of Cumberland County once again.
“It feels great that the people in Cumberland County trusted me again to serve them and to represent them on the county commissioners just like I have when I served in the state Senate,” deViere said.
Together, the three plan to tackle a similar list of issues, including clean water and school funding, they say they heard from voters while on the campaign trail.
“It didn’t matter whether you were a ‘D’ or an ‘R,’ we’re all kind of talking about the same things,” deViere said.
Pappas’ plans to contest
Republican candidate for the board and owner of two Baldinos restaurants in Fayetteville Peter Pappas woke up to the unofficial results of his loss at 8 a.m. on Wednesday. He said he called it a night a little after midnight.
“‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’m going home,’” Pappas recalled telling the remaining guests at his election night watch party. “I had enough. I’m going home, gonna get a good night’s sleep. I’m waking up a commissioner or a sandwich maker. Either way, I got a job. Good night.’”
Unofficial election results on Wednesday show only a 215 vote margin between Tyson and Pappas, the latter of whom finished in fourth place. The Fayetteville Observer first reported Wednesday that Pappas plans to contest the results.
In an interview with CityView on Wednesday, Pappas confirmed that he will contest the race. He explained that he isn’t questioning the integrity of the Cumberland County Board of Elections by doing so. He also isn’t doing it out of spite or malice over losing. He says he’s doing it for the people who contributed to his campaign.
“We kind of owe it to the voters that did cast their vote to double-check that they were counted,” Pappas said.
Once the votes are recounted, Pappas said he’ll accept whatever results they show.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.
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