ROCKINGHAM — Only one candidate filed for the upcoming municipal elections on Tuesday.
According to the Richmond County Board of Elections, Jeremy McKenzie filed to retain his seat on the Ellerbe Town Council.
McKenzie was first elected to the board in 2015 and was reelected in 2019. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Richmond County Board of Education last year.
The only other candidate to file for reelection in Ellerbe is Mayor Brenda Capel. The seat currently held by John Sears Jr. is also up for grabs.
Sears was initially appointed to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Joe Grooms. Because of election rules, he had to run again to continue to fill out the four-year term.
Two candidates, Holly Littlefield Howe and Raymond Mills, filed on Monday: Howe for the Rockingham City Council; Mills for Hamlet City Council.
Mills, owner of Frogget’s Trading Post in Hamlet, told the RO on Tuesday that he’s running to help clean up the city and “make better use of our downtown area.”
“We should be insisting that it is always a clean safe space for all citizens to use and visit,” Mills said.
Frogget’s Trading Post is one of several new businesses to pop up in the downtown area in recent years.
He added that he would “like to bring some transparency to the position” and help everyone understand “what is involved and what roadblocks are in our way.”
“It is my belief that by working together with officials and the good folks of Hamlet that we can bring it back to what it used to be,” Mills said.
Mills will be facing incumbents Abbie Covington, Maurice Stuart and Oscar Sellers.
Covington, who filed on Friday, was appointed to the Hamlet City Council in 2020 to fill the vacancy left following Terry Moore’s resignation. Moore, former Hamlet Police Chief, was elected in November 2019 but resigned the following February.
Covington was first elected to the City Council in the early 1970s and served as mayor for a decade during the late ‘80s and ‘90s. Following her tenure as mayor, she returned to the council until 2013.
Covington ran for a seat on the Richmond County Board of Commissioners in 2022, but despite securing the highest vote percentage of any candidate in the primaries, lost the election in November when voters elected all Republicans.
Like Covington, Stuart was appointed to the council in 2019 to replace David Lindsay, who also resigned.
Lindsay decided to run later that year as a write-in candidate, but Stuart and Moore were elected, along with Sellers, who also filed for reelection on Friday.
Mayor Bill Bayless has also filed to retain his seat.
In Rockingham, Councilmen Gene Willard and Bennett Deane have filed for reelection, as has Mayor John Hutchinson.
When Hutchinson defeated Steve Morris for the mayoral seat in 2021, Morris was appointed to fill out the rest of his term. Morris has not yet filed for reelection.
Last week, Dobbins Heights Mayor Antonio Blue and Councilwoman Ravonna Magee filed for reelection. However, Mary Ann Gibson, who has served several terms, has not.
All seats for Hoffman and Norman are up for reelection, though no one from either municipality has filed.
Filing fees are $10 for races in Rockingham, Hamlet and Ellerbe; and $5 for Dobbins Heights, Hoffman and Norman.
Filing ends at noon July 21.
