Jenna Wadsworth
Jenna Wadsworth is a member of the Wake Soil and Water Conservation District in North Carolina. She assumed office in 2010. Her current term ends on December 7, 2026.
Wadsworth ran for re-election to the Wake Soil and Water Conservation District in North Carolina. She won in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Wadsworth completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Jenna Wadsworth was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Wadsworth earned a bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University in 2011.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Municipal elections in Wake County, North Carolina (2022)
General election
General election for Wake Soil and Water Conservation District (2 seats)
Incumbent Jenna Wadsworth and Beth Pugh Farrell defeated Stephen Xavier, Alex Baldwin, and Brian Lewis in the general election for Wake Soil and Water Conservation District on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jenna Wadsworth (Nonpartisan)  | 34.9 | 200,088 |
| ✔ |  | Beth Pugh Farrell (Nonpartisan) | 25.5 | 146,245 |
 | Stephen Xavier (Nonpartisan) | 15.1 | 86,846 | |
 | Alex Baldwin (Nonpartisan) | 14.5 | 83,212 | |
 | Brian Lewis (Nonpartisan) | 9.1 | 52,322 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.8 | 4,657 | ||
| Total votes: 573,370 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
To view Wadsworth's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
2020
See also: North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner election, 2020
General election
General election for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture
Incumbent Steve Troxler defeated Jenna Wadsworth in the general election for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Steve Troxler (R) | 53.9 | 2,901,849 |
| Jenna Wadsworth (D) | 46.1 | 2,485,722 | |
| Total votes: 5,387,571 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture
Jenna Wadsworth defeated Walter Smith and Donovan Alexander Watson in the Democratic primary for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jenna Wadsworth | 54.0 | 609,910 |
 | Walter Smith | 30.5 | 344,111 | |
 | Donovan Alexander Watson | 15.5 | 175,207 | |
| Total votes: 1,129,228 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Steve Troxler advanced from the Republican primary for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture.
Campaign finance
2018
General election
General election for Wake Soil and Water Conservation District (2 seats)
Incumbent Jenna Wadsworth and Nervahna Crew defeated Ian McMillan, Jonathan Garza, and David Adams in the general election for Wake Soil and Water Conservation District on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jenna Wadsworth (Nonpartisan) | 34.6 | 195,733 |
| ✔ | Nervahna Crew (Nonpartisan) | 20.0 | 113,471 | |
| Ian McMillan (Nonpartisan) | 15.6 | 88,620 | ||
| Jonathan Garza (Nonpartisan) | 14.9 | 84,547 | ||
| David Adams (Nonpartisan) | 14.0 | 79,158 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.8 | 4,801 | ||
| Total votes: 566,330 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jenna Wadsworth completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wadsworth's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Wadsworth made history in 2010—at the age of 21—by becoming the youngest woman ever elected to political office in North Carolina. For over a decade, she has served the more than 1.1 million people of Wake County as a Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor and has been Vice-Chair of the Board since 2015.
Wadsworth was the 2020 Democratic Nominee for NC Commissioner of Agriculture. She ran on a progressive platform of supporting small, family farmers; legalizing cannabis; combating climate change; advocating for farmworkers; addressing childhood hunger; and expanding both broadband access and healthcare options in rural communities. If elected, she would have made history once again as the first out LGBTQ+ member of the Council of State and the youngest out LGBTQ+ statewide elected official ever in the country. Her transformative campaign worked to build a movement for a new North Carolina with a broad coalition of support. She received nearly 2.5 million votes in her statewide race against a sixteen-year incumbent.
She is a graduate of both the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and NC State University. She is the Co-Founder of the progressive nonprofit New Leaders Council-North Carolina.
Learn more here: https://tinyurl.com/meetJenna
- Supporting Farmers: Farmland loss is another problem we're facing. Wake still has roughly 600 farms situated on over 77,000 acres. Hailing from a family farm, I’ve tirelessly advocated for agriculture and farmland preservation. I have been an outspoken supporter of the District’s Keeping the Farm Workshop, which provides hundreds of farmers yearly with the resources necessary to keep their farms in their families for generations to come. We've also worked with County Commissioners to establish protections for farms enrolled in our Voluntary Agricultural District program and have been at the decision making table to craft recommendations to protect farmland as the county drafts its new Unified Development Ordinance.
- Environmental Education: With the help of the Wake SWCD’s excellent environmental education coordinator, I have planned lessons, designed worksheets, and created soil centers where students could see how healthy soil helps create products used in their everyday lives. The District also has a yearly 4th and 5th grade conservation poster contest, provides free environmental education materials to teachers, and sponsors scholarships for a weeklong workshop at NC State for high schoolers interested in pursuing conservation careers. The environmental education of our citizenry—and most especially of our youth—is of paramount importance to me because I believe through the fostering of future stewards of conservation we can build a greener world.
- Water Quality: Folks want to know that when they go home at night, cut on the tap, and use water to cook food for their families that what they are drinking is safe. The Wake SWCD has worked diligently to help clean-up both Falls Lake and Jordan Lake, while also placing a priority on improving water quality in other waterways. We have been at the forefront of conservation, and my voice has often led the charge to ensure we are always moving forward in how we address our changing landscape. We also lead the Big Sweep program which recruits hundreds of volunteers a year to clean tons of trash out of your drinking water. This Spring alone, 618 volunteers removed 26,000 lbs of trash and recyclables out of watersheds in Wake County.
As a Supervisor, I have voted to provide educational and financial assistance to land owners and users who qualify for crucial technical assistance necessary to protect water quality, properly manage agricultural resources, and conserve the county’s natural resources and wildlife.
I have also worked to tackle climate change by building resiliency and sustainability into our conservation work. I am committed to meaningfully addressing the climate crisis and have once again signed the No Toxic Money Pledge, which states: “I will take no money or gifts from Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, or their affiliates, including from their Political Action Committees (PAC), lobbyists, and executives. In addition, I support a moratorium on all of their new fossil fuel infrastructure projects.”
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2020
Jenna Wadsworth did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate Wake Soil and Water Conservation District |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 3, 2022
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State of North Carolina Raleigh (capital) |
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