How one of Cumberland County’s own plans to make waves in November

Sipping on a cup of tea at Leclair’s General Store in Fayetteville, Sarah Taber doesn’t come off as the typical political candidate. 

She’s not dressed in “Taber for NC” merch (though her campaign website does sell a variety of shirts, stickers and signs). She lights up when asked about her favorite crop (figs, by the way) and spends more time talking about her anecdotes from farm consulting than dissing her opponent. And she’ll be the first to tell you that running to become North Carolina’s commissioner of agriculture wasn’t originally part of the plan when she received her doctorate of plant medicine from the University of Florida in 2011.

Should Taber, 41, beat five-time Republican incumbent Steve Troxler, 72, in November, she’ll become the first Democrat to hold the seat since 2005, when Troxler took office after a tight and controversial race. She appears to have gained more momentum than previous Democratic candidates, having raised almost $234,000 to Troxler’s roughly $335,000 thus far. 

But in a country where farmers are often assumed to be conservative, does Taber have a chance?

An early start

Taber told CityView her love for farming began at a young age. The daughter of a Navy man, she grew up gardening with her family and got her first job at 14 detasseling corn — a process that involves manually removing the tassel at the top of a corn plant so it won’t pollinate.

“So I tell people, I’ve been in ag for 27 years,” she said, laughing. “I know it doesn’t look like it. The reason for that is child labor.” 

These early exposures to agriculture bloomed into a lifelong passion. Taber worked her way through school to become a crop scientist, taking jobs on the side to pay for her tuition. She started a business, Boto Waterworks, in 2013 to help farms and food businesses grow. According to Taber, every client she’s had is still in business today, including Indiana’s Falling Waters Farm and Amish Aquaponics, and claims the cumulative value of her clients is $4 billion.

Her consulting ranged from encouraging an Amish family farm to pursue greenhouse crops to diversifying a Michigan apple grower’s labor practices. Along the way, Taber said, she found she was skilled at hand-holding people through the often-fearsome process of innovation.

“In every case, you’re working with clients and walking them through a process of learning how to do a new thing that they don’t necessarily know how to do,” Taber said. “And that’s a scary process. So you’re teaching them how to do the thing, but a lot of it is also like, ‘OK, breathe.’” 

Because Taber’s business already required her to travel all over the country, moving to Fayetteville in 2016 for her husband, Rob’s, new job as a professor of history at Fayetteville State University was an easy transition. She kept working and grew vegetables, berries, fruits and nuts on the grounds of their Haymount home. She got involved in the community, meeting future leaders like Fayetteville Council Member Mario Benavente at events like local theater performances and campaigns for Cheri Beasley and Patricia Timmons-Goodson. And she started the “Farm to Taber” podcast, chatting with guests about anything from poultry farming to international grain shortages.

As time went by, Taber kept a close eye on the state of North Carolina agriculture — and she grew concerned by what she saw. North Carolina is “the second-most threatened state” in the country for farmland loss, Spectrum News reported in December. According to the N.C. Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services, the most recent Census of Agriculture in the state found a nearly 8% decrease in the number of North Carolina farms from 2017. And Successful Farming Magazine reported in June the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s rating of 49% of corn crops in the Tar Heel State as “very poor/poor for the week ending June 23.” 

In Taber’s eyes, the problems kept piling up, and not enough people were stepping to the plate to solve them. So when she discovered last year that no Democratic candidates had registered for the Commissioner of Agriculture race, she felt the call to run.

“I was at a point in my career as well where I was like, ‘Look, man, I’ve done everything I can one-on-one,’” Taber recalled. “‘I’ve done everything I can on making information available publicly for free on how people can help themselves. And that’s been really good, but it’s also time to actually try and put some of this stuff to work.’” 

And thus, never having served in an elected office, Taber began her first political campaign. 

“Other than just talking to people, a lot of this is very new to me,” she said. 

‘We’re kind of making it up as we go’

Taking on a statewide race as her first foray into politics posed a special challenge. Taber, though, got into the swing of things quickly, using the adaptability she’d honed in her consulting business to learn how to talk to donors and educate those not involved in agriculture on the industry’s problems.

“We’re kind of making it up as we go,” Taber said. “It seems to be working out.” 

Her campaign finance reports agree: for the most recent reporting period, which spanned Feb. 18 to June 30, Taber raised $165,180 to Troxler’s $140,970, the reports show. That’s an accomplishment Taber said she is particularly proud of.

“He’s been doing this 20 years, and we caught up,” she said.

Still, she faces an uphill battle as she looks to the election on Nov. 5. Past election records show Troxler has won reelections comfortably, with his campaign materials focusing on his policies and achievements, like “preserving working farms” and “protecting the state’s food supply.” He’s kept mum on Taber as an opponent, stating in a July interview with Fayetteville radio station WIDU, “I’m one that doesn’t do negative advertising. I’ve never done a negative ad in my life. It’s all about my qualifications and the support that I have around me in the department.” 

As the New York Times reported, nationwide, Republicans hold all 12 agriculture commissioner seats in the states where they are elected, including in states where Democrats have won other statewide races. And Troxler’s supporters include power brokers like the North Carolina Pork Council, the American Farm Bureau and Mountaire Farms, one of the top chicken companies in the country.

But Taber is ready to fight, noting an internal campaign poll in June projected she would lead with 50% of votes come November, when she’ll face Troxler and Libertarian candidate Sean Haugh.

“We found that if everybody in the state hears what I’ve got to offer and what my opponent’s been up to, I could win by 9 points, which is a lot for anybody,” she said. “… We knew that we had a winning message, but the challenge is getting that message out there.” 

And that’s why in the months ahead, Taber’s biggest plan is to just keep talking — talking to farmers who worry about their business’s future; talking to urban voters who may not see how agricultural struggles raise their grocery prices; and talking to young people who fear they’ll never achieve their dream of owning a farm.

“This is a job that actually matters quite a bit for urban residents. It’s for everybody in the state,” she said. “ … The people have a chance to really have a powerful vote on how their own life actually turns out here.”

Reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com.

This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.