Marikay Abuzuaiter
Marikay Abuzuaiter is an at-large member of the Greensboro City Council in North Carolina. She assumed office in 2011. Her current term ends in 2025.
Abuzuaiter is running for election for Mayor of Greensboro in North Carolina. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. She advanced from the primary on October 7, 2025.
Abuzuaiter completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Marikay Abuzuaiter graduated from Middlesboro High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in music from Greensboro College in 1983.[1] At the time of her 2025 campaign, Abuzuaiter had retired from her position as the owner of Mahi's Restaurant. Her experience includes 13 years of employment at UNC Greensboro, along with leadership roles as chair of the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation, chair of the Municipal Planning Organization/Transportation Advisory Committee, and vice-chair of the Piedmont Triad Regional Council. Abuzuaiter has been affiliated with the Kiwanis Club of Greensboro, Confident Girls Rising, and Casa Azul.[2][3]
Elections
2025
See also: Mayoral election in Greensboro, North Carolina (2025)
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Mayor of Greensboro
Marikay Abuzuaiter and Robbie Perkins are running in the general election for Mayor of Greensboro on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Marikay Abuzuaiter (Nonpartisan)  | |
| Robbie Perkins (Nonpartisan) | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Greensboro
Marikay Abuzuaiter and Robbie Perkins defeated Mark Cummings and Akir Khan in the primary for Mayor of Greensboro on October 7, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Marikay Abuzuaiter (Nonpartisan) | 39.9 | 8,563 |
| ✔ | Robbie Perkins (Nonpartisan) | 32.5 | 6,976 | |
 | Mark Cummings (Nonpartisan) | 17.8 | 3,825 | |
 | Akir Khan (Nonpartisan) | 9.7 | 2,091 | |
| Total votes: 21,455 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2022
See also: City elections in Greensboro, North Carolina (2022)
General election
General election for Greensboro City Council At-large (3 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Greensboro City Council At-large on July 26, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Yvonne Johnson (Nonpartisan) | 25.2 | 19,212 |
| ✔ | | Marikay Abuzuaiter (Nonpartisan) | 20.1 | 15,359 |
| ✔ |  | Hugh Holston (Nonpartisan) | 15.7 | 11,959 |
| Katie Rossabi (Nonpartisan) | 14.9 | 11,406 | ||
| Tracy Furman (Nonpartisan) | 11.9 | 9,104 | ||
 | Linda Wilson (Nonpartisan) | 11.5 | 8,783 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.7 | 536 | ||
| Total votes: 76,359 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Greensboro City Council At-large (3 seats)
The following candidates ran in the primary for Greensboro City Council At-large on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Yvonne Johnson (Nonpartisan) | 25.0 | 23,925 |
| ✔ | | Marikay Abuzuaiter (Nonpartisan) | 16.4 | 15,697 |
| ✔ | Tracy Furman (Nonpartisan) | 10.3 | 9,820 | |
| ✔ | | Hugh Holston (Nonpartisan) | 10.0 | 9,621 |
| ✔ | Katie Rossabi (Nonpartisan) | 9.8 | 9,404 | |
| ✔ | | Linda Wilson (Nonpartisan) | 9.6 | 9,152 |
 | Franca Jalloh (Nonpartisan) | 6.9 | 6,616 | |
 | Melodi Fentress (Nonpartisan) | 5.8 | 5,560 | |
| Dustin Keene (Nonpartisan) | 3.8 | 3,654 | ||
| Taffy L. Buchanan (Nonpartisan) | 2.4 | 2,331 | ||
| Total votes: 95,780 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
2017
Greensboro, North Carolina, held a general election for mayor and all eight seats on the city council on November 7, 2017. A primary election was held on October 10, 2017. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was July 21, 2017.[4][5] The following candidates ran in the general election for the at-large seats on the Greensboro City Council.[6]
| Greensboro City Council At-Large, General Election, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Yvonne Johnson Incumbent |
26.59% | 21,390 |
| Marikay Abuzuaiter Incumbent |
19.56% | 15,733 |
| Michelle Kennedy |
16.45% | 13,236 |
| Mike Barber Incumbent | 16.33% | 13,134 |
| Dave Wils | 10.96% | 8,814 |
| T. Dianne Bellamy-Small | 9.53% | 7,666 |
| Write-in votes | 0.6% | 480 |
| Total Votes | 80,453 | |
| Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "11/07/2017 Official Municipal Election Results - Guilford," accessed November 22, 2017 | ||
The following candidates ran in the primary election for the at-large seats on the Greensboro City Council.[6]
| Greensboro City Council At-Large, Primary Election, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Yvonne Johnson Incumbent |
22.42% | 10,639 |
| Marikay Abuzuaiter Incumbent |
14.65% | 6,952 |
| Mike Barber Incumbent |
11.29% | 5,357 |
| Michelle Kennedy |
11.26% | 5,345 |
| Dave Wils |
7.93% | 3,761 |
| T. Dianne Bellamy-Small |
7.03% | 3,336 |
| Dan Jackson | 5.84% | 2,772 |
| Irving Allen | 4.63% | 2,196 |
| James Ingram | 3.00% | 1,424 |
| Lindy Perry-Garnette | 2.88% | 1,366 |
| M.A. Bakie | 2.79% | 1,325 |
| Tijuana Hayes | 2.57% | 1,219 |
| Jodi Bennett-Bradshaw | 1.41% | 671 |
| Andy Nelson | 1.19% | 563 |
| Sylvine Hill | 1.12% | 530 |
| Total Votes | 47,456 | |
| Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "10/10/2017 Official Primary Election Results - Guilford," accessed October 27, 2017 | ||
Endorsements
Abuzuaiter received endorsements from the following in 2017:
| Click [show] on the right for information about other elections in which this candidate ran. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2015The city of Greensboro, North Carolina, held elections for mayor and city council on November 3, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was August 7, 2015.[9] In the at-large race, incumbents Yvonne Johnson, Mike Barber and Marikay Abuzuaiter won re-election over challengers Marc Ridgill, Sylvine Hill and Brian Hoss in the general election on November 3, 2015.[10][11]
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Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Marikay Abuzuaiter completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Abuzuaiter's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
- Public Safety is a must! If we do not have a safe community, we are not going to receive the economic development that we desire. Companies are not going to come to unsafe communities. The companies we have attracted have already checked out our public safety initiatives, and I am proud to say that our police department is Gold CALEA rated, and our fire department is ISO 1 rated. Our GM 911 receives national and global awards consistently. These ratings may not seem important to some people, but they are huge. Companies look for places to move, begin or start their business. I am proud to say that I have led many initiatives to take care of our public safety personnel – our police, fire, and GM911.
- Infrastructure is a key component of economic development. They actually go hand-in-hand. Without proper infrastructure - water, sewer, roads, sidewalks and many other necessities, it is doubtful that any company would look at our city as a place to move or begin a business. Not many people realize how important logistics are to a company with my work as chair of the MPO/transportation, our group was able to approve the grants and state and city monies that were used to finish our urban loop. The urban loop has opened up amazing pockets of future development and has shown companies how Greensboro is the right place for them to come logistically to move their product from one place to another with safety and efficiency.
- Housing. With all of the companies coming, we are certainly in need of housing. We are not only in need of attainable and affordable housing, we are also in need of all levels of income housing. I know that we need infill development, but we also need single-family home housing along with multifamily. Greensboro has made great strides trying to make the process for developers and builders much easier. While there are many rules and regulations, we cannot change because they are state mandated, we have been trying to make our permit process much more efficient, so developers and builders can move quickly to build the housing that is needed.
Ordinances and policies that ensure our citizens are safe as always been my number one priority.
Of course, elected officials should be of the highest character, integrity, and be able to be honest and fair with their constituents. We have all certainly read and studied ethics and how elected officials must follow certain guidelines.
I pride myself for being able to discuss the needs of Greensboro to our federal government representatives, even if they are of a different political party.
City council had talked about it for over a year. The day that our police chief came and spoke before Council saying that our city was in crisis because we had lost so many officers to other cities, I became angry. We had talked the subject to death and I was tired of hearing that we were over 130 officers short.
I made the motion that evening to raise our officers to a comparable level like our peer cities. My motion passed on a 7-2 vote.
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.
2022
Marikay Abuzuaiter did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2017
Abuzuaiter's campaign website highlighted the following issues:
| “ |
INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLIC SAFETY Marikay is equally supportive of the Fire Department. Its ISO1 rating ensures that the citizens of Greensboro has one of the lowest homeowner insurance rates available. Our Fire Department has outreach initiatives with programs to replace smoke detectors, install smoke detectors and CO2 monitors and has several programs to teach families and children about Fire safety. She supports the critical GM911Public Safety division. Dispatchers are the first to speak with those who are in distress and are trained in National, State and Local Programs. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUALITY OF LIFE |
” |
| —Marikay Abuzuaiter's campaign website, (2017)[13] | ||
See also
2025 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Mayor of Greensboro |
Officeholder Greensboro City Council At-large |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Marikay Abuzuaiter," accessed October 6, 2017
- ↑ City of Greensboro, " Marikay Abuzuaiter," accessed January 13, 2015
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 8, 2025
- ↑ Guilford County, North Carolina, "Offices for 2017 Municipal Elections," accessed July 5, 2017
- ↑ Guilford County, North Carolina, "Elected Officials - Guilford County, North Carolina," June 17, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Guilford County, NC, "Municipal General Candidates 2017," accessed July 21, 2017
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Greensboro News & Record, "Inside Scoop: Groups Make More Endorsements for Greensboro Council Races," September 18, 2017
- ↑ Replacements Ltd PAC, "2017 LGBT Primary Election Voter Guide," accessed October 5, 2017
- ↑ Guilford County Elections, "2014-15 Election Schedule," accessed August 10, 2015
- ↑ Guilford County Elections, "Official candidate list," accessed August 11, 2015
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "NC SBE Election Results", accessed November 3, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Re-Elect Marikay Abuzuaiter - City Council At Large, "Issues," accessed October 6, 2017
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