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Incumbent Hertford County Commissioner John D. Horton easily outdistanced his challenger in Tuesday’s Primary and will advance to November’s General Election.

The unofficial tally from the Primary showed Horton with 2,426 votes compared to 1,568 for challenger Tim Wadsworth. Both men were seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination to move on to the General Election.

Horton topped the voting in 10 of the county’s 13 precincts, to include wide margins of victory in Ahoskie 3 (188-39), Bryantville Park (68-27), and St. John (122-73).

Wadsworth, a local State Wildlife Officer, had a good showing in the Millennium (80-18), Como (57-46), and Ahoskie 2 (153-149) precincts.

Horton tallied nearly one-third of his vote total prior to Tuesday. He was named on 774 ballots combined between the county’s two One-Stop early voting sites located in Ahoskie and Murfreesboro. Wadsworth collected 407 votes in the early balloting.

Incumbent county commissioners Ronald Gatling and Bill Mitchell were not challenged in the Primary. They automatically advance to November’s General Election.

As far as the premier federal and state races on Tuesday, Hertford County voters joined with the rest of the state in favoring certain candidates.

Presidential hopeful Joe Biden, a Democrat, carried the state as well as Hertford County where he received 2,373 votes. Biden easily outdistanced Mike Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders, who respectively received 534 and 432 votes in Hertford County.

Of the 620 Hertford County Republicans to cast ballots in the Primary, 604 favored President Donald Trump.

Hertford County voters also favored the two candidates who will face-off in November for North Carolina Governor. Roy Cooper, the incumbent Democrat, received 3,185 votes in the county. Current Lt. Governor Dan Forest earned the Republican nomination for Governor with the help of 548 votes in Hertford County.

For Lt. Governor, Hertford County voters favored Allen Thomas, a Democrat who received over 50 percent of the votes (1,683), and Mark Robinson, a Republican that was named on 212 ballots. Robinson was the top choice statewide while Yvonne Lewis Holley, who finished second in Hertford County among six candidates, led the way on the Democrat’s balloting across the state.

The 2020 Primary saw 4,747 (32.6%) Hertford County voters cast ballots. The county has 14,560 registered voters.