Alamance County voters fired their sheriff of 24 years on Tuesday, handing the job to a local pastor and former detention officer who promised to pull back the county's role in federal immigration enforcement. Shannon L. Long, running as an unaffiliated candidate, defeated six-term Republican Sheriff Terry Johnson with 52.4% of the vote, becoming the county's first Black sheriff-elect.
With all 39 precincts reporting, Long collected 34,633 votes to Johnson's 31,452, according to The Times-News. Long had no prior elected office and reached the ballot by collecting 5,011 valid petition signatures as an unaffiliated candidate, Elon News Network reported.
A Pastor With Detention Experience Takes the Helm
Long, who was born in Chapel Hill and lives in Mebane, spent eight years as a detention officer with the Orange County Sheriff's Office, from 2002 to 2010, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. He later launched Beyond Measure Ministries in Haw River in 2013, where he serves as pastor, and opened a barber shop and the Beyond Measure Barbering Institute in Mebane. The newspaper describes him as a pastor, business owner and unaffiliated candidate who had never previously held elected office.
Long campaigned on what the News & Observer's report characterizes as a promise of stronger leadership, transparency and change inside the sheriff's office. He said he would increase deputy training on racial profiling and de-escalation, along with physical and mental-health support, per the same report from Elon News Network. He also said he would not hold people for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement beyond what state law requires.
Johnson's Long Tenure and the 287(g) Fight
Johnson was first elected sheriff in 2002 after working for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and he had sought a seventh term this year, the News & Observer reported. Throughout his tenure he supported the federal 287(g) program, which involved cooperating with federal immigration officials to detain people living in the country illegally. He also sought federal funding for jail upgrades tied to immigration detention, the outlet noted.
Alamance County's federal immigration partnership ended last year, according to the News & Observer, after Johnson failed to secure more money for detainees in the county jail and additional funds to renovate a former state prison in Graham that officials had planned to use to hold them. From fall 2023 until that partnership ended, the county's average daily ICE detainee population typically ran above 20 people, according to The Assembly.
Legal Disputes Shadowed Johnson's Years in Office
Johnson's tenure was marked by repeated legal fights. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the Alamance County Sheriff's Office in 2012 over allegations of racially profiling Latinos; Johnson won in district court but later settled with federal officials after they appealed, per the News & Observer's reporting. A separate Justice Department complaint filed in 2025 alleged that the sheriff's office routinely discriminated against and targeted Latinos for enforcement action, according to the U.S. Department of Justice — an allegation contained in that complaint, not a finding established by the evidence reviewed here.
Separately, after deputies arrested numerous protesters once Black Lives Matter demonstrations began in 2020, some charges were later dropped and a lawsuit alleged violations of protesters' First Amendment rights, the News & Observer reported. A subsequent settlement required the sheriff's office and county commissioners to add training on implicit bias and racial equity and to acknowledge a First Amendment right to protest on public grounds. Johnson, for his part, dismissed allegations of racism and civil rights violations and said he had no preference except following the law, according to the same report.
A Broader Shift Across Alamance County
Long's victory came alongside a wider swing toward Democratic candidates in Alamance County. Voters also elected Democrat Richard Ojeda II over incumbent Republican Richard Hudson in the U.S. House District 9 race, replaced the Republican chair and vice chair of the county's board of commissioners, and elected a slate of Democratic state lawmakers, the News & Observer reported.
Johnson told WFMY News2 that the people of Alamance County meant a lot to him and that serving as sheriff had been an honor, according to the News & Observer's account. Long, in a letter posted to Facebook, thanked his supporters and said the election was about bringing people together, restoring hope, building trust and creating a brighter future, the outlet reported.
