Todd Wetherington News-Times
Originally published by the Carteret County News-Times
CARTERET COUNTY — Lee Stiles defeated incumbent Jerry Jones to claim Morehead City’s mayor’s seat in one of the county’s most closely watched contests in Tuesday’s elections.
Stiles, a member of the Morehead City Council, defeated Jones decisively by an unofficial ballot count of 1,869 to 907. Stiles came away with 67.16% of the vote while Jones finished with 32.59%. Write-in candidates drew 0.25%.
Stiles topped Jones in early voting totals by 719 to 339 and won every precinct other than Wildwood, which Jones won by one vote, and Beaufort 1, where the candidates tied.
The outcome was far different than the first race between the two candidates in the November 4, 2025 municipal election, when Jones fell short by one vote. A new election was ordered by the North Carolina State Board of Elections, to run concurrent with Tuesday’s primary, in response to a protest filed by Jones alleging irregularities and potential misconduct by county poll workers.
“I’m excited that the citizens wanted to choose me to be their next Morehead City mayor,” Stiles said after election results came in Tuesday. “And just the number of votes I got, that’s over 1,800 people that believe in me so I’ve got a big task at hand because I don’t want to disappoint those people.”
Stiles said he respected Jones and stated that the outgoing mayor had called earlier in the night to offer his congratulations.
“Jerry has left a legacy and I’m going to follow in his footsteps and carry the baton from here,” he commented.
Stiles attributed his win Tuesday to consistent campaigning as well as the controversy surrounding Morehead’s proposed Project Grander, which saw former city manager Chris Turner resign in January.
“I think that really invigorated the public to go out to the polls and to vote for change,” Stiles said.
In the Carteret County Board of Commissioners District 1 race, Republican incumbent David Quinn fell to Republican Steven Overby by a count 985 (51.79%) to 917 (48.21%).
In the race between Republican candidates for the District 3 Board of Commissioners seat being vacated by Mark Mansfield, Jimmy Paylor bested Bryan Nicklow by a final count of 2,841 (85.50%) to 482 (14.50%).
Board of Commissioners incumbent Chairman Chris Chadwick fended off a primary challenge from fellow Republican Kane Gillikin, bringing in 1,474 (72.29%) votes to Gillikin’s 565 (27.71%).
No Democratic candidates ran to challenge for the three county commissioners seats in the November general elections.
In the race for Carteret County’s Clerk of Superior Court and Register of Deeds seats, Republican incumbents Ken Raper and Karen Hardesty, respectively, ran unopposed and will return for four-year terms.
Retiring Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck fell just short in his bid for the US House of Representatives District 1 seat. In a race that featured five Republican candidates, Buck came out ahead of Bobby Hanig, Eric Rouse and Ashley-Nicole Russell but finished behind Laurie Buckhout with 34.45% of the vote to Buckhout’s 39.52%.
Buckhout will go on to face Democratic incumbent Don Davis in November for the US House District 1 seat.
In state races, incumbent Norm Sanderson, a Republican, and Roy Surrett, a Democrat from Cape Carteret, will represent their parties in the November general election for the NC District 2 Senate seat.
For the House of Representatives District 13 seat, Democrat Jason Moore of Beaufort and Republican incumbent Celeste Cairns will go head-to-head in November to capture two-year terms.
A total of 29.06% of Carteret County’s eligible voters cast ballots in the March 3 primary, an increase from the November municipal election turnout of only 25.51%.
All election numbers are unofficial until the Carteret County Board of Elections meets to certify the results on Friday, Mar. 13 at 11 a.m.
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