By Staff
Cayton, Langley are the top Democratic vote-getters
By DAN PARSONS
Staff Writer
Four made it; one didn’t.
Stewart Rumley and Sonya Shamseldin, along with incumbent commissioners Robert Cayton and Jerry Langley, have each earned a spot on the Democratic ticket for the four seats up for grabs on the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners.
Langley received 2,525 votes, making him the highest vote-getter of the five Democratic candidates on the ballot. Cayton came in second with 1,919 votes. Rumley placed third with 1,868. Shamseldin received 1,810 — good enough for the fourth and final bid to continue on to the November general election. Steve Steiner placed a distant fifth with 400 votes.
All vote totals are unofficial until canvassed May 13.
Those top four vote-getters will move on to challenge four Republican candidates for the four open seats on the Board of Commissioners in the November general election. The Republican candidates are Bertie Arnhols, Del Stutzman, incumbent Chairman Jay McRoy and incumbent Commissioner Hood Richardson.
Langley said county Democrats sent a message that he was “doing a good job.” As the senior Democrat on the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners, he said he was confident of the outcome of Tuesday’s primary.
Rumley, a possible newcomer to the county board, said he is “proud to come in third behind two strong incumbents.”
Shamseldin said making the cut with the two incumbents and Rumley, a former mayor of Washington, makes her a viable candidate for a seat on the board.
Cayton was appreciative to the voters who gave him a shot at a second full term as commissioner.
With the Democrat ticket for the November election solidified, Langley said it may be a possibility for his party to swing the majority on the board.
A total 11,748 of 30,463 registered Beaufort County voters cast their ballots in Tuesday’s primary, including 2,266 absentee ballots and one-stop voters. That works out to a voter turnout rate of 38.5 percent — up from an average of about 20 percent, according to board of elections Director Kellie Harris Hopkins.