BURLINGTON, North Carolina — Voters in Alamance County have ousted six-term Sheriff Terry Johnson, a Republican first elected 24 years ago who partnered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from 2007 and faced a federal investigation over accusations of racial profiling, electing instead Shannon Long, a Black pastor and former school resource officer who ran as an unaffiliated candidate on a pledge to keep the sheriff's office out of ICE's 287(g) program and rebuild trust with Latino residents. Long defeated Johnson in Tuesday's November 3 midterm elections by nearly 5 percentage points — more than 3,100 votes — with one count putting Long at 52.41 percent of the vote, according to Bolts magazine's reporting and final unofficial county returns reported by the Alamance News.
Source: Bolts
The result reached well beyond the sheriff's race in a county that had been a reliable Republican stronghold. Alamance County also saw its board of commissioners and its district attorney's office flip to Democrats on the same night, part of the wider Democratic wave in North Carolina and nationally. Johnson, who had been sheriff for more than 20 years and was first elected in 2002, congratulated Long in a statement provided to local media and said he respected the election results, FOX8 WGHP reported. He did not respond to a request for comment sent through a sheriff's office spokesperson, Bolts reported.
Source: Bolts
The record Long ran against: a 2012 Justice Department investigation and the 287(g) partnership
For years, Johnson faced accusations — allegations he has long denied — of targeting Latino residents in traffic stops and referring to them with racist epithets such as “taco eaters.” In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated Johnson and accused him of fostering “a culture of discrimination against Latinos.” He also faced complaints of excessive force, including when his office countered Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020. Asked about the profiling accusations in May, Johnson told Bolts: “Yeah, we profile — we profile criminals. I don't care if you're Black, white, short, tall, fat, small, Democrat, Republican, independent. If you're a criminal, we coming after you.”
Source: Bolts
On immigration, Johnson was an early participant in ICE's 287(g) program, which empowered his deputies to interrogate people about immigration status while out on patrols, and he also leased jail space to ICE to hold immigrant detainees. Johnson ended that ICE detention agreement last year, citing an overcrowded detention centre and the strain of the federal mass-deportation plan on county resources, and he previously told Bolts the sheriff's office no longer participates in 287(g) — though Alamance County remains on ICE's database of counties with an active 287(g) contract.
Source: Bolts
The racial-profiling and epithet claims against Johnson are accusations made by residents, advocates and, in 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice. Johnson has long denied that he racially profiled residents and said earlier this year that he is “the furthest thing you can see from a racist.” No finding in this report should be read as a court verdict against him; what voters decided on November 3 was an election, not a trial.
Why the community turned: “a fearsome figure” and a “stop the bleeding” moment
Maria Mejia, who immigrated to the United States from Colombia in 2001 and moved to Alamance County three years ago, told Bolts that Johnson's actions in office — from partnering with ICE in 2007 to setting up checkpoints outside Latino neighbourhoods — made the sheriff a “fearsome figure” in the community. Mejia, an assistant professor of philosophy at Elon University near Burlington, the county's most populous city, has worked with the immigrant-rights group Siembra NC to provide ICE-verification training to community members. “These very valid feelings of anger and distrust have been present for so long in the community, and yet Johnson continued to get reelected over and over again,” she said. His ouster, she added, will “give people a sense that they have a voice.” During Johnson's tenure, Latinos more than doubled their share of the county population, from roughly 7 percent to 16 percent.
Source: Bolts
Long campaigned against Johnson's hardline tactics, against racial profiling and against what he called the “good ol' boy system” of policing, gathering more than 4,700 signatures to get on the November ballot as an unaffiliated candidate. On Thursday, he called his win a “stop the bleeding” moment for the county. “It's an opportunity to create change, to increase, to expand, to advance the public safety here in the county,” Long said. He pledged not to “do what has been done in the past with ICE,” said he would not participate in the 287(g) program — “I don't see fit to have my officers serve on that side of the law” — and said he would not hold people for ICE in the county detention centre beyond what state law mandates. To ease residents' fears, he wants deputies more visible in the community, “actually getting out of the car and meeting with the residents of the county.”
Source: Bolts
Background: why a county sheriff race matters to immigration enforcement nationally
Federal immigration authorities routinely contract with local law-enforcement agencies to grow their reach, which makes sheriffs and police departments crucial allies — or crucial obstacles — for ICE. Alamance was not the only such office voters changed on Tuesday: in Frederick County, Maryland, voters also ousted Chuck Jenkins, a sheriff in office for two decades whose county joined 287(g) in 2008, electing Democrat Karl Bickel by 56 percent to 44 percent. The Trump administration signalled it was undeterred by the results, saying on Wednesday that “deportations will continue.” For immigrant communities — including Punjabi and other South Asian families in North Carolina who deal with the sheriff's office over traffic stops, jail visits and business licences — who holds the sheriff's office decides how closely local deputies work with federal immigration agents day to day.
Source: Bolts
What happens next: an overcrowded jail, an entrenched office — and a promise advocates say will be hard to keep
Long acknowledged the sheriff does not need to be the face of public safety, but said he needs a seat at the table: “I do not have to be the spokesman. I think that's important, and that's a part of giving everybody their voice back.” Advocates caution that a new sheriff alone may not undo years of fear and distrust. He also inherits an overcrowded county detention centre whose population surged after a new state law imposed harsher pretrial detention rules — the same crowding Johnson cited when he ended the ICE detention agreement — and longstanding concerns about jail conditions and medical care raised by local nonprofits. Burlington city council member and former three-term mayor Ian Baltutis said Long will also have to contend with the sheriff's office internal power structure, which Johnson cultivated for more than two decades. “Of anyone who's run for this race, he most clearly understands that challenge, and is already working to address it,” Baltutis said. County results remain unofficial until the canvass and state certification are complete.
Source: Bolts