By Miles Layton

PLYMOUTH — Roy Surrett, the Democratic candidate for North Carolina Senate District 2,

is scheduled to visit Edenton between 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday for a campaign stop at Kraken Coffeehouse.

Earlier this month, Surrett stood before a room of supporters at the Riverview Cafe in Plymouth and delivered a stark message: Eastern North Carolina is being deliberately starved of investment by Republican leadership in Raleigh, and the only way to change it is for voters to show up in November.

And since I was there at the forum in Plymouth, this story includes a little bit about District Judge candidate Cole Phelps, Washington County Sheriff Arlo Norman and Washington County Commission candidate Melinda Porter.

Surrett, chair of the Carteret County Democratic Party, is challenging Republican Norm Sanderson, who is seeking reelection to the Senate.  

Surrett described Senate District 2 — which stretches across eight counties — as one of the most gerrymandered districts in the country, then pivoted to what he called the defining divide in state politics.

“There are two North Carolinas we live in,” Surrett said. “There is a North Carolina of growth, that’s largely centered in the Triangle and the Mecklenburg Charlotte area, and then there is Eastern North Carolina that’s getting left behind by the Republicans in our General Assembly.”

He pointed to a sobering statistic to make his case. “When you live in Eastern North Carolina, Senate District Two, you have a ten year less life expectancy than you do in other parts of the state,” he said. “That is ridiculous.” He attributed the gap to a lack of investment in healthcare and schools, telling the crowd, “We are not building thriving communities here for our children and our families.”

Much of Surrett’s message centered on voting rights, an issue he said took on new urgency after the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the Voting Rights Act.

“I can’t tell you how important it is that we vote in November, because we’re talking about the direct disenfranchisement of people’s votes,” he said, warning that without retaking the General Assembly, North Carolina could see restrictions similar to those passed quickly in Louisiana and Alabama.

He invoked the state’s history, noting that no African American represented North Carolina in Congress between the disenfranchisement of Black voters in 1899 and the election of Eva Clayton in 1992. “We don’t need to go back to 1899,” he said.

Despite the headwinds, Surrett struck an optimistic note about his own race, which was rated Republican by 15 percentage points five months ago. “Two months ago that went to an R plus eleven, three weeks ago it’s an R plus five,” he said. “If we turn out and vote, we win without question.” He closed by asking for volunteers, yard signs and donations, and urged residents to mark their calendars: early voting begins October 15. 

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Cole Phelps (center), a judicial candidate for District 2 Court, makes his pitch to voters. Sheriff Arlo Norman and Melinda Porter also talked to voters.

Phelps Calls for Courtroom That Puts People First

Cole Phelps, a Creswell native and attorney running for a District 2 District Court judgeship, followed with an appeal built on 13 years of legal practice and frustration with how the courts often leave ordinary people behind.

“District court is where real life happens,” Phelps said. “It’s the people’s court. It’s not just criminal law, it’s not just traffic tickets. It’s child support, it’s child custody, divorce, it’s civil disputes, it’s landlord-tenant issues, it’s alimony and so on.”

Phelps said his years representing clients revealed a pattern of confusion among people leaving the courtroom. “The courtroom should never feel like an assembly line, where we’re just trying to move people through,” he said. “You get outside and you don’t know what just happened.”

That frustration, he said, is what pushed him to run. “I want to take all of my perspectives and everything that I’ve encountered in the positions that I’ve held in the past and slow things down — explain to people what’s happening and why it’s happening.”

Phelps, the first in his family to graduate from college, said he chose to return to Washington County rather than leave for good, as many young people from the region do.

“A lot of young people leave and go off and don’t come back,” he said. “I knew I wanted to come back. I knew that I wanted to build a business and set up shop here.”

He pointed to a record of service that includes two terms as county commissioner from 2012 to 2020, a scholarship foundation that has awarded more than $60,000 to local students, a decade teaching family law and public policy at East Carolina University, and 13 years running a small law practice.

“In each of those roles, I’ve had the opportunity to make decisions that impact people and their families and their jobs,” he said.

Phelps noted that Washington County hasn’t had one of its own on the judicial bench since at least the 1930s or ’40s. “This election, Washington County has a chance to send one of our own to the bench,” he said. “It’s been a long time.”

He closed by framing the race as bigger than himself. “At the end of the day, this election for this judicial race — it’s about more than a seat,” Phelps said. “It’s about what kind of justice and what type of courtroom we want for our community. I am ready to work.”

Norman and Porter Round Out the Slate

Sheriff Arlo Norman, who has served with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office since 2003, told the crowd his rise through the ranks was years in the making, recalling a plan set in motion with his predecessor, Sheriff Johnny Barnes. He closed by laying out the principles guiding his leadership: “My promise to everyone is to always use my slogan: accountability, fairness, integrity. If you concentrate on those things, I really think you can get it all.”

Melinda Porter, running unopposed in the Democratic primary for the at-large county commissioner seat before a November matchup with Republican Jonathan Sawyer, emphasized employee retention as a top priority. “Our county has some of the best employees,” she said, adding that recruitment is an urgent challenge with at least eight county positions currently unfilled. “One of our number one goals is to make it enticing for our employees to stay in Washington County, because they too can very easily go somewhere else,” she said. “But they belong with this community.”