Through collaboration between WECT, WHQR, and Port City Daily, the forum was organized ahead of early voting, which starts on Thursday, Feb. 12. Primary election day is on Tuesday, March 3.
Brunswick County Sheriff’s Candidates
The two candidates running for sheriff are incumbent Brian Chism, and Tim Daniels, a captain with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
As a long-time resident of Brunswick County, Chism is confident that the work he’s done so far with the sheriff’s office — a position he was appointed to in 2023 after the retirement of Sheriff John Ingram V.
“I've been at the office for 21 and a half years. I've been Sheriff for two and a half. I come from a long line of military, and I'm very big on service above self,” Chism said.
One of the biggest challenges facing the agency, Chism said, is the rapidly growing population of Brunswick County that he’s concerned will strain existing personnel.
He said he’d work with the county commissioners to ensure room in the budget to hire more staff members and to keep their current programs in place.
“We have got to stay ahead of this growth,” Chism said. “We have got to make sure that we find the educated people that have the heart to be in law enforcement. That's one of the main things.”
Chism said he’d be requesting funding from the county commissioners to fill patrol positions and handle their call volume.
Daniels also addressed the challenge of managing the county’s growth in his platform. He also said he’d work with commissioners, but he envisions aiding the county in implementing a Smart Growth strategy — a community and environmental-based approach to development.
He also said he’d push for merit-based pay to incentivize prospective sworn personnel.
Daniels’ main concern with the growing population is the increased need for resources and trained personnel to help combat the opioid crisis.
“The opioid crisis has a big demand on services. How we plan to address it is with proper staffing, building trust and partnerships within the community, and also leading from the front, being visible,” Daniels said.
“My ability to analyze complex problems, manage large organizations, and make decisions grounded in policy, law, and accountability,” is how Daniels plans to get those things done.
When questioned about House Bill 318 and how they’d collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, both candidates said they’d cooperate with ICE to the fullest extent of their abilities.
“We're sworn to uphold the laws North Carolina passed,” Chism said. “We're going to enforce it. When it comes to ICE and immigration, we're going to work in cooperation with them. And with that, we will continue to build those partnerships, and we will continue to enforce the immigration laws fully.”
“It's an easy answer for me,” Daniels said. “We have been working with immigration over my tenure, and we've been working with them even before that. I think I'm going to take it a step further. We have got to communicate with the legislators to help them make good decisions, because this law is not done, there's going to be more moving forward as the committees meet and make decisions.”
The candidates answered the question about the one quality that voters should consider when casting their ballots. Chism listed out the four core values of the sheriff’s office.
“Loyalty, integrity, dedication, and service,” Chism said. “And I think I've shown that over my two and a half years at the sheriff's office, all they have to do is look at what I've done, which is what I'm going to continue to build upon as your sheriff.”
Daniels said the one quality he’ll bring to the office is his integrity.
“The sheriff's role is a constitutional duty, requiring experience, discipline, and accountability, and following the rule of law. One of the most important qualities is to make sure that you're transparent and you develop public trust,” he said.
Candidates for District Attorney representing Bladen, Brunswick, and Columbus counties
First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Earley and J.K. Somers, a trial attorney who’s been practicing for 13 years, are the two Republican candidates battling it out for the DA’s seat in the 15th prosecutorial district of North Carolina — that includes Brunswick, Bladen, and Columbus counties.
The District 15 DA's office has had significant turnover in the past couple of years, and the candidates stated what they would do to solve that issue.
“There was a period of turnover, which was also a phenomenon that we were seeing across the state,” Earley said. “What we were seeing in that 1-to-3 year mark is a lot more movement out of the DA's offices into private practice than we previously had.”
However, Earley said the office is currently staffed with prosecutors who carry a decade or more of experience, stating, “since the summer of 2024 we have attracted four 10-plus-year career prosecutors to our office.”
Somers agreed that there have been retention issues in other counties, including Wake and Buncombe, but pointed to current staff members' unwillingness to admit a retention problem exists in their district.
"You can't fix a problem until you admit that there's a problem and then you investigate what the problem," Somers said. "Having folks there now, with these ten-year [employees] that have come in, what's going to keep them from leaving? I'm not gonna stick my foot in my mouth to say I know all the cures. I don't know.
I gotta get in there, find out what's going on. And so that's my mission."
The candidates were also pressed on the years-long investigation into former Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene, who resigned in 2023, for the second time, following an investigation into his potential misconduct.
When asked how they will see the investigation through to its completion, Somers said he didn't have enough information on the case to comment on it. Instead, he spoke about the importance of maintaining transparency when cooperating with the State Bureau of Investigation and other law agencies.
"His law career was ended because of this, and he didn't get due process, as far as I know," Somers said. "And that's an epidemic across this whole district and some statewide issues. So yes, there's this case, and many other cases, are bottlenecked because there's not a process in place to help SBI or other law enforcement."
Earley responded that the office turned the case over to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the very reason of maintaining transparency throughout the investigation. But Earley believes her relationships at the federal level will assist her in pushing this case, and the queue of others, through that bottleneck.
"I have spent my career as a prosecutor," Earley said. "I have built very strong relationships with our U.S. Attorney's Office, and I think communication with them is paramount, as it is with the State Bureau of Investigation, which I speak with regarding other cases on a weekly, if not daily, basis, and so it's my established relationships and communication that will allow for all cases to move forward."
The candidates also addressed concerns over bond setting for dangerous criminals and repeat offenders, considering Irayna's Law — a new law that puts more restrictions and oversight on the bond process, along with several other measures — which went into effect on Dec. 1, 2025.
Earley said, when advocating for a set bond, she would rely on the guidelines set by senior Superior and District Court judges, existing laws, and the new provisions on "no-bond" offenses under Iryna's Law — those include Felony Possession of a Firearm, Felony Assault by Strangulation, and Opioid Trafficking.
Somers said he would seek higher-set bonds for these violent crimes, and create a public-safety task force across the tri-county district.
The candidates were asked their stance on the death penalty and how they would approach cases where the death penalty could be warranted — which Somers fully supports.
"I've always been an advocate, for capital murder cases, [of] the death penalty. I know a lot of folks don't think it's humane, but if the aggravating factors against the victim are inhumane, why should they get off easy?" Somers said.
Earley believes in the death penalty as well, and will pursue it as needed under the purview of state law.
"The prosecutor, or the DA's office rather, has the discretion to seek the death penalty in cases in which aggravating factors do exist," Earley said. "It is important to have a fair and across-the-board process in order to ensure that every case is looked at in the same manner.”
“And that's why it is important to convene a panel of senior prosecutors in order to systematically go through each first-degree homicide case to see: one, if it qualifies, and then two, if the office is going to seek it," she said.
To hear the candidates' responses in more detail, watch the full forum here.
