The New Hanover County Democratic Party said it will again hold a straw poll this summer to establish which Democratic candidates it will support in the municipal elections.
The decision was triggered in part by Mayor Bill Saffo’s announcement that he would seek reelection. Saffo, the city’s longest-serving mayor, had prevaricated for months after former New Hanover County Commissioner Jonathan Barfield announced his campaign for mayor in February. Barfield recently lost a close reelection race for his fifth term as a New Hanover County commissioner.
There are also at least four potential Democratic city council candidates running for three seats – incumbent Clifford Barnett Sr.; Chakema Quintana, a community advocate and director of Live Oak Bank’s Channel; Cassidy Santaguida, who ran for county commissioner in 2024; and former city planning commission member J.C. Lyle.
While municipal races in North Carolina aren’t legally partisan, both Republican and Democratic parties invest considerable resources in campaigns – especially for Wilmington’s city council and mayoral races.
In 2023, the New Hanover County Democratic Party (NHCDP) held its first straw poll to whittle the race from four to three city council candidates. While the party’s policy prohibits it from endorsing candidates in partisan races with primary elections – municipal races are nonpartisan and lack primaries. Some in the party felt that having more candidates than seats forced the issue of where to focus resources, thus the straw poll.
The poll was crafted by Jill Hopman, who had then recently been elected as NHCDP chair; it was, at the time, the most aggressive effort the county party had taken to shape the municipal race. Incumbent Kevin Spears and newcomers David Joyner and Salette Andrews were selected, newcomer Marlowe Foster was left out — he stayed in the race without Democratic party support, but didn’t win a seat. Foster was critical of the poll, specifically of the decision by Hopman to include votes from the unincorporated areas outside of the city. Hopman defended the poll, and after Democrats swept the 2023 city council election, said her decision had been vindicated.
In a statement, Hopman laid out her rationale for holding a second straw poll for the 2025 election.
“It is an open election and, of course, anyone has the right to run in it. But my job is to elect Democrats. We have held this position for two decades, we swept the ballot in 2023, and the NHCDP wants to do it again in 2025. We do not support running two Democrats for mayor, particularly without a primary, which we recognize is not strategic and entirely shortsighted,” Hopman said.
Hopman said the straw poll was recently re-approved by NHCDP’s executive committee as part of its broader endorsement process. She also pointed to the importance of including party members from the entire county, as was the case in the 2023 straw poll.
“All CEC members (precinct chairs and vice chairs, state executive committee members, auxiliary presidents, elected officials) get to vote, along with all county convention delegates from the Wilmington-municipal precincts. We are a county party, not a city one, and every volunteer in the NHCDP will be working to elect these candidates, regardless of where they live. This ensures that everyone gets a voice in our poll, while also giving the municipal-voting precincts a greater influence on the results,” Hopman said, adding that Andrews, Joyner, and Spears, “need each others’ volunteers and voters to win.”
Hopman said that Saffo and several others had already agreed to the straw poll, adding the party hopes “that all our candidates will through NHCDP’s endorsement process.”
Pushback from Barfield
However, Barfield said he would not participate. He criticized the 2023 straw poll.
“I saw candidates divided. Two African-American candidates ran for city council,” Barfield said, referring to Spears and Marlowe. “But deciding before the election, that’s not the party’s role, that’s the people’s role.”
Barfiled noted that this year there are also two Black candidates – Quintana and Barnett – and said he felt a poll of the whole county would not support them both.
“It’s a divisive tool and I don’t plan to be a part of it,” he said.
Barfield later added that Hopman had spoken with him last month and asked him not to run. He said that made him doubt the poll could be fair, saying he felt that “the fix is already in.”
Hopman disputed that, saying “I asked him if this is what he wants his legacy to be: handing the mayorship to Republicans after 20 years, when there are numerous open seats on our 2026 ballot, including his own lost seat on the commission.”
She also said she felt the party could “elect two people of color to city council this cycle as long as they do not run against each other.”
Process going forward
According to NHCDP, the process will include candidate questionnaires, which will be conducted through the end of May. That will be followed by a candidate forum in June, moderated by a neutral third party.
Following the forum, the county party will consider appointing a mediator to work with candidates to narrow the field. After that point, according to NHCDP, “if additional candidates choose to run, they will not receive party support on social media, campaign materials, canvasses, phone banks, or blue ballots. The NHCDP, however, will do everything possible to help develop these candidates for the future.”
If there remain more candidates than seats, NHCDP plans to hold its straw poll in July.
