Independent pastor qualifies to challenge Alamance Sheriff Terry Johnson

An unaffiliated pastor has cleared the last hurdle to challenge Terry Johnson in a sheriff’s race that could test how far Alamance County’s long-standing law-and-order politics still reach. Shannon Lemar Long submitted 5,011 petition signatures, well above the 4,741 needed to qualify for the November ballot and beyond the county’s 4 percent threshold for unaffiliated candidates.

Johnson, who has held the Alamance County sheriff’s office since 2002, won the Republican primary on March 3 and is seeking a seventh term in 2026. Long’s qualification means voters will have a rare direct choice over a sheriff whose tenure has shaped county politics for more than two decades, especially on immigration enforcement and relations with Latino residents.

That debate is shadowed by Johnson’s legal history. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil-rights lawsuit against him on Dec. 20, 2012, alleging that from at least January 2007 forward, Johnson and deputies under his control engaged in discriminatory law enforcement directed at Latinos in Alamance County. The complaint said the sheriff’s office used checkpoints, traffic stops, arrests and jail referrals in a discriminatory way, and fostered a culture of bias with anti-Latino slurs. The federal government terminated Alamance County’s 287(g) immigration-enforcement agreement that same year.

Long, a former Orange County sheriff’s deputy and jailer who also serves as a pastor, is trying to frame the race around trust as much as enforcement. That message could matter in a county of more than 183,000 people, where more than 16% of residents are Hispanic or Latino and where the politics of the sheriff’s office have long been tied to how immigrant families view local law enforcement in Graham, Burlington and surrounding communities.

Johnson has since reentered an ICE partnership, but he abruptly ended a long-standing agreement in November 2025 to house and transport federal immigration detainees. That contract had brought in about $2 million annually, and its loss came as the county budget was already under strain. The move also came just before the Trump administration launched a sweeping enforcement operation in North Carolina, adding another layer to the politics around Johnson’s record.

For years, Johnson faced little credible opposition at the ballot box. Long’s independent candidacy gives voters a chance to decide whether that old consensus still holds, or whether the sheriff’s record on immigration enforcement and community trust has finally opened a real crack in Alamance County’s political armor.