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William Craig Turner Jr., 46 will be the newest member of the Alamance County Board of Commissioners after a recent vote by the Executive Committee of the Alamance County Republican Party.
“I am humbled and grateful and will give it my all,” Turner said after the vote, “and thank you to the other candidates.”
Turner, who goes by his middle name, will take the place of Amy Galey, who was elected to the District 24 seat in the North Carolina Senate in November with a year left in her term as a county commissioner. Because Galey is a Republican, state law allows the county GOP to choose her successor. Galey’s husband, Fred, nominated Turner.
The committee met Thursday evening on Zoom. Three other candidates were also nominated: Ace Speedway co-owner Robert Turner; Alamance County EMT and Eli Whitney volunteer firefighter Paul Williams; and Green Level Town Council Member Michael Trollinger.
Thirty-nine committee members attended the meeting, so the winner needed to get at least 20 votes to win on the first vote. Craig Turner won decisively with 22 votes, while Robert Turner had 11, Trollinger had five and Williams one.
The candidates each had three minutes to make their appeal. Turner talked about growing up in Alamance County, his education at the U.S. Naval Academy, serving more than eight years as an aviator in the “back seat” of an F-14 Tom Cat, graduating from the Elon University School of Law’s second class in 2010 and working in the Alamance County District Attorney’s Office between stretches in corporate law. He now works at Fox Rothschild in Greensboro. And he talked about being both a fighter and a listener who would run to keep the seat in 2022.
“There’s an element of fight that’s going to be required,” he said. “I will seek your counsel and seek your opinions.”
Robert Turner, who famously challenged the governor’s COVID-19 orders by opening Ace Speedway until ordered to close by a Superior Court Judge, said the commissioners needed a strong voice to reopen the local economy.
“With all the challenges we’ve been through and all the failures we’ve been through, we need a strong voice to get Alamance County back open – we need our jobs back; we need kids back in school,” he said. “And most importantly, we need our lives back.”
Trollinger talked about coming back to Green Level after years away from Alamance County, his conservative stance on taxes and small government, and years of public service. And, as a Black man, said the board needed more diversity to counter what he called false accusations of racism leveled at the sheriff, commissioners and county.
“It hurts me to my heart that this county had garnered this reputation,” Trollinger said.
Williams talked about his 30 years with EMS and service as a firefighter, the problem of having talented public servants recruited to better-paying neighboring counties and his personal dedication to Alamance County.
“I have dedicated over half my life to Alamance County; my heart and soul is Alamance County,” Williams said. “If I don’t get it tonight, I’m going to run in 2022 myself.”
