The 2024 elections start Monday with candidate filings for more than two dozen seats

The 2024 election cycle kicks off Monday when candidates begin filling their campaign paperwork to run for office.

While the presidential race gets most of the attention, it’s local and state government officials who have the most influence on your life. They impose state and local taxes, set policy, and decide how much money is spent on things like roads, education and other public services.

The state legislature, for example, in 2023 legalized sports betting, considered whether to legalize medical marijuana and considered whether to allow four more casinos to open in the state, including one south of Fayetteville in Robeson County.

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners plans to spend $131 million on a new, 3,000-seat Crown Event Center in downtown Fayetteville plus another $33 million for a parking deck for it and the Cumberland County Courthouse. A special extra 1% sales tax on restaurant meals and other prepared foods in Cumberland County underwrites the county’s Crown entertainment venues on U.S. 301 — including the Crown Coliseum — and is expected to pay for the new venue downtown.

Don’t like the plan for the Event Center? Run for the county commission to try to change or stop it. Do like the Event Center plan? A seat on the commission provides the opportunity to make decisions about it in the upcoming years.

Contact the Cumberland County Board of Elections or North Carolina State Board of Elections for details on how to file for office.

The filing period starts at noon on Dec. 4 and ends at noon on Friday, Dec. 15. 

Early voting for the primaries, which are partisan, starts with mail-in voting in January and early in-person voting in February. Election Day falls on March 5. The results will decide who appears on the general election ballots in the November election.

Voters will face about two dozen choices, plus the presidential race.

Here are the local and North Carolina offices with seats open for this election filing period, and other details.

Cumberland County Board of Commissioners

The County Board of Commissioners oversees the county government. The board has seven members and three districts. Commissioners serve four-year terms.

Three of the seven seats are up for election in 2024, and all are in Dist. 2. Dist. 2 covers southwest, southeast and northeast Cumberland County.

The three seats up for election are the ones held by Democrat Toni Stewart and Republicans Michael Boose and Jimmy Keefe.

Register of Deeds

The seat held by Cumberland County Register of Deeds Lee Warren, a Democrat, is on the 2024 ballot. The register of deeds serves a four-year term.

The Register of Deeds Office maintains property records (such as deeds), birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage licensing. Business owners may also record the names of their businesses there.

Four lawmakers in the state House of Representatives

Cumberland County has four lawmakers in the state House of Representatives on the 2024 ballot. They serve two-year terms.

Here are Cumberland County’s House districts:

• House Dist. 42, served by Democratic Rep. Marvin Lucas of Spring Lake. The district includes northwest Cumberland County, Spring Lake, Fort Liberty, parts of western Fayetteville and parts of northeastern Fayetteville.
• House Dist. 43, with Republican state Rep. Diane Wheatley of northern Cumberland County. Dist. 43 covers northeast Fayetteville and parts of northern Cumberland County, all of Cumberland County east of the Cape Fear River, southeast Fayetteville and southwest Cumberland County.
• House Dist. 44, with Democratic Rep. Charles Smith of Fayetteville. Dist. 44 includes downtown Fayetteville and runs through the middle of the city toward Fort Liberty.
• House Dist. 45, represented by Democratic Rep. Frances Jackson of Hope Mills.

Challengers for the Lucas seat

The Dist. 42 race has generated conversation with rumors that Lucas won’t run for reelection. Lucas in October told The Fayetteville Observer he was undecided.

Others are lining up for the seat.

Fayetteville City Councilwoman Courtney Banks-McLaughlin told CityView Today on Thursday she plans to seek ther Dist. 42 seat.

Spring Lake resident Naveed Aziz said on Friday she is running.

Former state House Rep. Elmer Floyd, who previously served in the state House, launched a campaign in the summer for a return to the legislature. He said on Friday he might change his mind.

Banks-McLaughlin, Aziz and Floyd are Democrats.

Cumberland County has two lawmakers in the state Senate

Both of Cumberland County’s seats in the state Senate are up for election in 2024. The senators serve two-year terms.

The seats on the ballot:

• Dist. 19, with Democratic Sen. Val Applewhite of Fayetteville. The district has most of Fayetteville and part of Hope Mills.
• Dist. 21, represented by Republican Sen. Tom McInnis of Pinehurst. Dist. 21 has all of Moore County. In Cumberland County, the district curls around Fayetteville, taking in Spring Lake, Fort Liberty, all of eastern Cumberland County, plus southern Cumberland County and most of Hope Mills.

District Court judges

District Court judges adjudicate misdemeanor charges, traffic offenses, child custody matters, divorces and some lawsuits. District Court judges are elected in North Carolina and serve four-year terms.

Three of Cumberland County’s 10 District Court judge seats are on the 2024 ballot. All are elected county-wide.

The judges whose seats are on the ballot:

• Cull Jordan III, a Democrat. He was appointed to the seat in 2021 after Judge Ed Pone retired.
• Lou Olivera, a Democrat.
• Tiffany Whitfield, a Democrat.

Two seats in Congress

Two lawmakers serve Cumberland County in the U.S. House of Representatives.

These are:

• 7th District Republican U.S. Rep. David Rouzer of Wilmington. The 7th District runs from Wilmington to Fayetteville. It covers the northeast, east, southern and southwest corners of Cumberland County, including Hope Mills. It has much of the east side of Fayetteville and part of the southwest side.
• 9th District Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson of Southern Pines. The 9th District has much of Fayetteville on the western half of the city, plus Spring Lake and most of Fort Liberty. The district runs from Fayetteville to the north side of Greensboro.

10 executives — the governor and nine others

North Carolina elects 10 people to the Council of State. These are the elected officials who run the executive branch of the government. All seats are on the 2024 ballots and all have four-year terms.

The positions: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor, state commissioner of labor, state commissioner of insurance, commissioner of agriculture and superintendent of public instruction.

Three Fayetteville-area residents, and one former Fayetteville resident, are running for Council of State seats:

• Former state Sen. Ben Clark, a Democrat, for lieutenant governor. Clark lives in the Vander community just east of Fayetteville.
• Democrat Sarah Taber of Fayetteville for commissioner of agriculture.
• Democrat Tim Dunn of Fayetteville for attorney general.
• Republican David Boliek, who recently moved to Durham from Fayetteville, for state auditor.

More judges: The Supreme Court and Court of Appeals

The state elects seven justices to the North Carolina Supreme Court. The seat held by Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs is on the ballot. Supreme Court justices serve eight-year terms.

There are 15 judges on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. The judges serve eight-year terms.

In 2024, the seats held by Republican Valerie Zachary, Republican Hunter Murphy and Democrat Carolyn Thompson are on the ballot.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

The CityView News Fund is a nonprofit organization that supports CityView’s newsgathering operation. Will you help us with a tax-deductible donation?