Chapel Hill election heating up. Council incumbent says he won’t seek another term.

Tammy Grubb

The Chapel Hill Town Council will get at least one new face in December after two-term member Michael Parker said Wednesday he will not seek re-election.

Parker, who was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019, is considered the most business-friendly member of the council, having spent most of his career working in health care and consulting with pharmaceutical and biotech startup companies.

He is one of four council members whose seats are up this fall and has come under some criticism during his time in office for supporting some larger, more controversial projects, and for campaign donations he received in 2019 from the N.C. Home Builders Association political action committee and local real estate and development officials.

Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger and Council members Amy Ryan, Jessica Anderson and Tai Huynh have not said whether they will seek re-election. Candidate filing for the 2023 municipal and school board races begins at noon on July 7 and ends at noon on July 21.

Early voting in the Nov. 7 election begins Oct. 19.

Michael Parker
Michael Parker

‘Incredibly grateful’

This was “not a decision that was easy for me to make,” Parker said, citing the work that the council has done to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, plan for the town’s future, and address transit, economic development, climate action and affordable housing goals.

“It has been an honor and privilege to be able to serve the residents of Chapel Hill on the Town Council over these past seven and one-half years and I am incredibly grateful to our residents for putting their trust in me,” Parker said. “I hope that I have not let them down. Meeting so many of our residents, learning about them, and experiencing their remarkable generosity of spirit firsthand has been more rewarding than I could ever have imagined.”

Potential block of candidates

Early candidates for Chapel Hill council and mayor have already started to generate support and donations.

Council member Adam Searing announced over a week ago that he will run for Hemminger’s seat in November. Searing’s term on the council doesn’t end until 2025.

Adam, who is supported by the Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town, among others, was joined this week by a potential block of council candidates who share some of his views, according to emails sent to the town.

The group so far includes

  • Renuka Soll, a member of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence who ran unsuccessfully in 2019 for a council seat

  • David Adams, a Duke University adjunct associate professor of medicine and CHALT member.

  • Elizabeth Sharpe, who co-owns the Hawthorne & Wood and Bluebird restaurants

  • Breckany Eckhardt, who spoke out this year in support of a park on Legion Road and against development in the town’s Blue Hill District.

Others who have signaled their intent to run in Chapel Hill’s elections include:

▪ Melissa McCullough: A former senior sustainability advisor and assistant director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program. McCullough is affiliated with the Sierra Club and the NEXT Chapel Hill-Carrboro group, which formed in opposition to CHALT.

▪ Michael Beauregard: A UNC-Chapel Hill graduate student in public administration and city and regional planning, and local relations director for the UNC Graduate and Professional Student Government.

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