Overview:
• The top two candidates advance to the November election and will likely win, as there are no Republicans running.
• District 1 includes Spring Lake, Fort Bragg, and parts of western, central and northern Fayetteville, the Murchison Road corridor, downtown Fayetteville, and the Cedar Creek Road area.
CityView interviewed the five candidates in the 2026 Democratic primary for Cumberland County District 1. Below are the questions and answers for Sheila Cuffee.
Interviews with the other candidates:
Candidate: Sheila Cuffee
Elected office experience: None
CityView: If elected, what are three things you would like to do or accomplish or work on?
Sheila Cuffee:
- Economic revitalization, making sure that we have stable jobs. Industry here that pays livable wages. I also support small businesses. …
The education of our workforce, so that [residents] will be ready, ready to work. - Housing stability, making sure that we have accessible housing. We can talk about affordable housing all day, but if people don’t have an income to access those houses, then it doesn’t really matter about affordability.
- Environmental protections. [She cited an effort by the town of Fuquay-Varina to extract water from the Cape Fear River upstream from where Fayetteville and Cumberland County get their drinking water.]
There’s a landfill on the west side that concerns me. … We have a problem with methane leakage and not really capturing that that well. [The state is monitoring methane leaks from an old landfill that is surrounded by homes in western Fayetteville.]
CV: The county is commencing with plans to expand water services countywide in a project estimated to cost $1 billion to $1.4 billion.
Some residents worry that they will have to pay fees for waterlines that pass their property, and that they don’t want to be forced to take the water. Some residents don’t want growth that water service may bring to their communities.
What are your thoughts on the effort to expand water service?
I believe having those grids [areas of public water service] could be important for future growth. Now, mind you, I would consider how those who currently live there feel. I would take in their perspective.
[She said the county is still in the planning stages.] And so once I’m in office, I’m going to look at that, and I’m going to listen to those that it affects directly.
CV: What are your thoughts on plans for the county to build a regional aquatic center?
I think it’s a good idea, … especially if we put it in the [Intestate 95, 295 corridors, where we’re going to have traffic. … If we can have it locally, where people will come here, I think it could be a win for everyone.
It could be jobs for teenagers. Teenagers can learn how to do life saving, be a lifeguard. So there are a lot of things that—positives—that can come out of it. Where they place it is, that’s where I would probably be concerned.
CV: The school system says it needs $610 million for capital projects. How should county commissioners address this request?
How do we come up with the $610 million that is needed? Is that going to be a referendum for bonds? Is there going to be an increase in taxes? So, I would personally have to look at the how. How are we coming up with those funds? What is the effect on the community at large, as far as taxpayer money? …
I believe that the schools need to be funded for the maintenance. There are schools that are in disrepair. I think a lot of the schools should be rebuilt. I believe our students should have state-of-the-art schools. …
I think now is a time to bring our schools up to the 21st century or beyond, and let’s start fresh and make sure that the maintenance is taken care of. … A lot of those schools are in disrepair because they weren’t maintained in the ’50s and the ’60s, especially if they were in black neighborhoods. … Those schools, I know for, especially for the black community, there’s a lot of historical tie to it, some nostalgia. And I think as a community, we have to re-look at: Where do we want our children to be? Do we want to just hold onto a building, or do we maintain the name and rebuild?
CV: Now that the Crown Event Center project is canceled, the county is pursuing renovations at the old Crown Theatre and Arena, and wants to spark development there. Your thoughts and ideas? Do you agree or disagree with the cancellation?
I did not agree with it. I was really looking forward to it coming there.
[But now that the county is trying to renovate the old Crown facilities on U.S. 301,] I want to see that we get the best bang out of our buck, and we need to start making sure that we’re inviting hotels to the table, making sure that that’s a good convention center that is there so the industry will come in. … And so what do we do now for other industries to come in and say, ‘Hey, you know what? That’s a good place to have our convention. There’s restaurants in walking distance. There’s hotels that are right there, gas stations that are right there. Everything we need is contained in a village-style area.’
CV: There’s talk of private or public-private development downtown on the former parking lot in front of the county courthouse, where the Event Center was going to be built. But some people who work in and who patronize the courthouse want it returned to parking. What do you want to see there?
I want to see parking, but I am not so narrow looking that I can’t see something else being there.
However, if something goes there, if they’re deciding that they want to put some type of economic engine there, then it has to have parking. You have to develop somewhere that is free for those who are coming to the courthouse, that is convenient for them to be able to park, run in and pay their taxes, and get out.
And right now we don’t have that.
CV: Some county residents are concerned about the vast amount of electricity that data centers use, plus their use of water, and other issues. What are your thoughts on data centers?
They could bring in all of this, and provide a few jobs. But is it worth it? …
So we start bringing data centers in who are drawing more electricity, more power, more natural gas or even water. What does that do for our bottom line? How much are ours going to increase? … How does that affect our water quality and our water consumption? … They don’t need permission for the government to set up. It’s a ‘nice to have.’ …
There aren’t policies in place, and so the commission has to come up with policies that will govern usage—that will govern how they operate in our county—to protect our citizens.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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