The Durham City Council voted unanimously to elect Chelsea Cook, an attorney for Legal Aid, to the vacant Ward Three seat during a special session on Tuesday morning.

Out of an initial pool of 14 candidates, Cook was selected from a group of four remaining finalists. The other three were Amanda Borer, a director at Duke Health; Chastan Swain, a law and policy advisor for the state of North Carolina; and Shelia Huggins, an attorney and former city employee. 

The process to fill the Ward Three seat began on December 4 when Leonardo Williams vacated the position to become mayor. Last week, the council interviewed the four finalists and gave their friends and members of their community the opportunity to speak on their behalf during two special sessions held at City Hall.

“These are four incredibly impressive people,” said Councilor Mark-Anthony Middleton during his opening remarks. “The reason why I voted for them to advance to the interview process is because they showed up incredible on paper.”

Council members were effusive in their praise of the candidates, highlighting the array of impressive skills each person brought to the table. One by one, council members laid out their criteria for making the final vote.

“I’m especially proud,” Mayor Leonardo Williams said. “Of course, there are professionals all across this city but seeing the talent that comes out of Ward Three, that’s special to me. You all are my most-immediate neighbors.”

Williams said that while many of the candidates shared admirable traits, he ultimately decided to support Huggins. Middleton also supported Huggins, adding that after he revisited the interviews and applications, “there was a clear standout candidate.” A main consideration for his vote was each candidate’s response to how they would handle zoning cases, an agenda item that routinely comes before the city council. Middleton said two of the candidates, Cook and Huggins, demonstrated a strong grasp of the work but that Huggins “knocked the question out of the park.”

Councilor Nate Baker initially offered his support for Huggins as well but said he was impressed enough with Cook to leave his vote up for reconsideration should the discussion reach a stalemate.

Council members Carl Rist, Javiera Caballero, and DeDreana Freeman voted for Chelsea Cook, citing her expertise on housing as a valuable addition to the city council. During her interview, Cook said housing was her number one priority.

“I see this everyday; when people don’t have safe and affordable housing, it’s hard to have much else,” she said.

Following the first round of discussion, the vote was tied 3-3. Baker opted to move his support from Huggins to Cook in an effort to avoid initiating a special election.

Coming into the Tuesday morning session, Huggins was the presumptive favorite. She ran for one of the at-large city council seats this past fall, finishing fifth in the primary. Huggins dropped out of the race before the general election, but said she would like to be considered for the vacant seat should Williams be elected mayor. Huggins also has years of experience working for the City of Durham in a number of departments and ran for the council once before, in 2017, losing to now-state Rep. Vernetta Alston.

“No matter what happens, I hope I see the three remaining candidates’ names on the ballot in the future,” Middleton said.

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