Gwen Frisbie-Fulton: From firehouses to schools, North Carolina’s small towns run on local elections

My neighbor Tamara is tired of politics; she tells me this all the time. She says she doesn’t watch the news except for the weather, and would rather read a good book instead. I get it, I tell her, as I drop off a paperback I just finished. But Tamara is also pretty fed up with the traffic flying by in front of her house—a problem that could be solved by our town’s new traffic study program that’s sorting out where to put new stop lights. That’s politics, too.

I’m not here to scold Tamara; I’m here to pass on a book. Southernmost by Silas House is an excellent read and I think Tamara—and all of us—deserve and need an escape from the headache and heartbreak of the nationalized political stories that consume our media.

But I also think that local politics could potentially give Tamara some comfort in these untethered times. Not only might she be able to find some agency in engaging with issues closer to home, she might also be able to do something to slow the traffic down so she could enjoy her porch again. 

Millions of Americans turn out to vote in presidential elections, but most of us don’t engage in the smaller races that have an outsized impact on our everyday lives. In Tamara’s and my hometown, only a little over 10% of registered voters came out for the municipal primaries the other week, despite some hotly contested seats and huge decisions around housing looming on the town’s horizon. 

Curious about how other people and towns are feeling about upcoming local elections, I reached out to folks I have met across the country. I asked them about why they are voting in local elections this fall and felt relieved about what I heard. Despite the difficulty getting information on local races and the distractions of national drama, people were thoughtful, committed and locally engaged. 

“I get that there are very important things happening in the federal government,” says Thomas Wilson of Houston, Texas, when I call him on the phone. “I care about those things, but my street keeps flooding here in Houston and I’m focused on electing local representatives who will actually prioritize storm drains and infrastructure so I don’t lose my car or home.” 

Heidi Borland, the mother of a sweet and rambunctious preschooler in Idaho Falls, Idaho, told me her vote is all about support for local families, businesses, and schools. With kindergarten coming up for little Lillyth, she wants to make sure she’s electing local leaders who will prioritize funding education so her daughter has the best teachers and classrooms possible for the next 12 years. 

Katy Dicks, who lives outside Madison, Wisconsin, says her vote is simple: “Childcare, childcare, childcare!” Katy and her husband have spent a huge percentage of their earnings on childcare for their two children just so they can work. She’s looking to vote in candidates who understand this major stressor for Wisconsin families and who are actively exploring solutions to ease the burden for local families. 

A few hours away in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Nancy Roppe says a contentious issue in her town’s local election is homelessness. “The unhoused have congregated in downtown and the businesses are struggling with people sleeping in doorways, littering, and giving shoppers a feeling of being intimidated,” says Nancy. She added that the city provided lockers downtown but haven’t seriously addressed the bigger issue of housing. She’s looking to elect people with real solutions for that. 

For Rhonda Solis of Greeley, Colorado, a controversial development being built with taxpayer money is top of mind. Rhonda’s frustrated about the current city council’s lack of transparency around the issue. She’s asking the candidates for their position on the development and how they plan to engage more residents in local decision-making. 

Joyce Stephens-Johnson is deciding who to vote for in Butner, North Carolina. “My concern,” she says, “is about the growth explosion they talk about and what is the plan to handle it?” Butner is still a small town, but it sits outside a major city that is bursting at its seams. “I want to know what their plans are to build another firehouse and where will kids go to school?” Three area public schools have closed recently due to budget issues and Joyce wants to make sure the candidates she votes for are ready to address these problems and plan for the town’s future.

Roads and infrastructure, schools, childcare, firestations, housing, development. Practical? Yes. Maybe even a bit boring. But all of these are issues that impact our daily lives and can be addressed through local government—so who we elect to those seats matter. Amber Gustafson, a mom who lives in Polk County outside Des Moines, makes another relevant point: Local government is “where the rubber meets the road.”

In Iowa, she explains, “they can make high-minded policies in the gilded halls of Des Moines, but we need like-minded people on the local level because they are the ones who decide how these policies are carried out.” 

In other words, if you live in a state—or a country—making bad or ugly policies at the top, you can think of local elections as not just a way to get practical community needs met, but also a way of building your defensive line. 

Federal elections have big consequences—that is painstakingly clear. But how much money your local school has and if private equity firms are allowed to buy up your neighbors’ homes matters, too. Even as oligarchs consolidate power at the top of our government, local elections can shift power back towards working people, giving us more agency and control in our own lives.

Perhaps, as we start to feel out the places where we can take the reins, local politics can even make the churn of the evening news less stressful.