Carrboro Town Council member Barbara Foushee announces her bid for reelection

Barbara Foushee, Carrboro Town Council member and mayor pro tem, announced on June 12 she is running for reelection.

Foushee began her term in November 2017, making her the only Black member serving on the council at the time. She spent the first two years in office as the board liaison to the Human Services Advisory Board, the Affordable Housing Advisory Commission, the Planning Board and the Intergovernmental Parks Work Group.

She also received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP the same year she was elected.

Foushee said her goal for reelection is to keep her seat on the board so she can introduce the ideas of the community into more conversations.

“I truly am a believer in community engagement," she said. "In my first term, that is really what I have been laser-focused on.”

She said that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she initiated and led crucial conversations on the virus's disproportionate effects on people of color. She said it was eye-opening to see how many people didn’t know what resources were offered locally or how to access them.

She said these conversations were applicable to more than just COVID-19, because they let people know they have advocates and resources at their disposal.

Andrea Tanner, Foushee's current campaign manager, said she is honored to aid in Foushee's reelection efforts.

Tanner said she has worked with Foushee for several years on the Human Services Advisory Board, where she serves as the chairperson.

"(Foushee) is a committed community leader who is focused on the issues of affordable housing, racial justice and climate change," Tanner said.

Foushee's former campaign manager, Quinton Harper, described Foushee as a person who serves those around her and elevates and amplifies voices within her community.

Harper said Foushee works to make sure that those from the Black, Latinx, immigrant and refugee communities can attend Town Council meetings to voice their stories and make their concerns heard.

"We want those advisory boards to be reflective of the community that we serve," Foushee said. "I've really been pushing to get more brown and Black representation to the table.”

She said her goal is to not only hear these groups in the boardroom, but also build them into the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community.

Harper said Foushee is running to make sure that the voices of those who are most impacted, those who are marginalized, those who are often excluded from policymaking decisions, are represented at the table.

"She is an elected official who has her community at the forefront of the policy decisions that she is making,” Harper said. 

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