Mark-Anthony Middleton
2017 - Present
2025
8
Mark-Anthony Middleton is a member of the Durham City Council in North Carolina, representing Ward 2. He assumed office in 2017. His current term ends in 2025.
Middleton ran for re-election to the Durham City Council to represent Ward 2 in North Carolina. He lost in the general election on November 4, 2025.
Biography
Mark-Anthony Middleton attended North Carolina A&T State University and Duke University Divinity School.[1]
At the time of his 2017 run for city council, Middleton was the CEO and senior pastor of the Abundant Hope Christian Church and the host of the talk radio show At the Table. His experience also includes service as a member of the board of directors of Excelsior Classical Academy.[1][2]
Elections
2025
See also: City elections in Durham, North Carolina (2025)
General election
General election for Durham City Council Ward 2
Shanetta Burris defeated incumbent Mark-Anthony Middleton in the general election for Durham City Council Ward 2 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Shanetta Burris (Nonpartisan) | 68.7 | 30,692 |
 | Mark-Anthony Middleton (Nonpartisan) | 31.3 | 13,966 | |
| Total votes: 44,658 | |||
 = 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 Durham City Council Ward 2
Shanetta Burris and incumbent Mark-Anthony Middleton defeated Ashley Robbins in the primary for Durham City Council Ward 2 on October 7, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Shanetta Burris (Nonpartisan) | 49.3 | 11,738 |
| ✔ | | Mark-Anthony Middleton (Nonpartisan) | 39.5 | 9,416 |
| Ashley Robbins (Nonpartisan) | 11.2 | 2,655 | ||
| Total votes: 23,809 | |||
| = 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
2021
See also: City elections in Durham, North Carolina (2021)
General election
General election for Durham City Council Ward 2
Incumbent Mark-Anthony Middleton defeated Sylvester Williams in the general election for Durham City Council Ward 2 on November 2, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mark-Anthony Middleton (Nonpartisan) | 87.5 | 25,993 |
 | Sylvester Williams (Nonpartisan) | 12.0 | 3,555 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.5 | 158 | ||
| Total votes: 29,706 | |||
| = 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 Durham City Council Ward 2
Incumbent Mark-Anthony Middleton and Sylvester Williams defeated Robert Curtis, Jr. in the primary for Durham City Council Ward 2 on October 5, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mark-Anthony Middleton (Nonpartisan) | 85.9 | 16,510 |
| ✔ | | Sylvester Williams (Nonpartisan) | 9.1 | 1,748 |
| Robert Curtis, Jr. (Nonpartisan) | 5.0 | 966 | ||
| Total votes: 19,224 | |||
| = 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
Durham, North Carolina, held a general election for mayor and the Ward 1, Ward 2, and Ward 3 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.[3] Mark-Anthony Middleton defeated John Rooks Jr. in the general election for the Ward 2 seat on the Durham City Council.[4]
| Durham City Council, Ward 2 General Election, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Mark-Anthony Middleton |
57.11% | 19,284 |
| John Rooks Jr. | 42.65% | 14,402 |
| Write-in votes | 0.23% | 79 |
| Total Votes | 33,765 | |
| Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "11/07/2017 Official Municipal Election Results - Durham," accessed November 22, 2017 | ||
The following candidates ran in the primary election for the Ward 2 seat on the Durham City Council.[4]
| Durham City Council, Ward 2 Primary Election, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Mark-Anthony Middleton |
41.87% | 9,940 |
| John Rooks Jr. |
31.32% | 7,434 |
| Deanna Hall | 11.91% | 2,827 |
| LeVon Barnes | 10.25% | 2,432 |
| Robert Fluet | 2.59% | 615 |
| Dolly Reaves | 2.06% | 490 |
| Total Votes | 23,738 | |
| Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections, "10/10/2017 Official Primary Election Results - Durham," accessed October 27, 2017 | ||
Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Mark-Anthony Middleton did not complete Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey.
2021
Mark-Anthony Middleton did not complete Ballotpedia's 2021 Candidate Connection survey.
2017
Middleton's campaign website highlighted the following issues. Click "show" on the boxes below for more information about his positions.[2]
| OUR BADGE |
|---|
| "Mark-Anthony has been a strong voice in Durham’s activist community calling for police reform and improved community relations. 'The badge that our police wear is our badge. The authority it represents is not exotic or otherworldly, nor is it inherent. The authority is conferred by we the people. We grant it by our collective permission. Our officers wield our authority not their own. It is our badge and we must not be apologetic in insisting that those that are privileged to wear it are of the highest caliber among us'.
The Our Voice Our Durham platform calls for the adoption of ordinances that:
|
| OUR HOUSING |
|---|
| "It is no secret that Durham is growing. As a result, many of our citizens are struggling to remain in their homes. Gentrification is a market driven reality that shows no signs of slowing. The Our Voice Our Durham platform calls for a long-term, citywide stabilization program aimed at preventing economically challenged and elderly citizens from losing their homes to increasing property tax rates and deferred maintenance.
Mark-Anthony worked alongside community leaders and Durham CAN for two-years and got the ball rolling to an over 4-million-dollar commitment on our city’s part to regain control of the Fayette place property. This 20-acre site has the potential to provide affordable housing a heartbeat away from downtown and to restore some of the past glory of the historic Hayti community. Our platform calls for the aggressive use of tax incentives for affordable housing comparable to their use for corporate development in the downtown corridor. Additionally, the discussion of housing must include our thousands of fellow citizens that reside in our low-income housing developments that are greatly in need of cash infusions to upgrade them without residential displacement. Finally, our platform calls for the establishment of a land bank through the purchasing and preservation of land for the development of affordable housing according to the evolving needs of the city." |
| OUR JOBS |
|---|
| "The Ready Durham Initiative The Ready Durham initiative is the Middleton plan to ground the discussion of job creation in reality. The economic boom Durham is experiencing has indeed created employment opportunities. However, in many cases our citizens are not in a position to apply for or hold these jobs for a myriad of reasons including educational attainment and minor drug related offenses. The fact is that 'job creation' in Durham all too often translates into low paying positions in areas such as housekeeping, food service, and other unskilled tasks. Our campaign is proposing that the city partners with North Carolina Central University, Durham Technical Community College, identified vocational training programs, and exceptional corporate and not for profit citizens. The Ready Durham initiative will incentivize low paid, educationally challenged, and unemployed citizens to ready themselves for higher paying jobs and entrepreneurialism through participation in the initiative. Recognizing that our efforts must be strategic and sustained, we are also proposing that every public housing complex in Durham have a computer lab on its premises as part of the city’s effort to combat the achievement gap in American education. Finally, we recognize that readiness often requires another chance. Therefore, the RDI also proposes that our city supports any and all efforts to give our citizens a 'clean slate' and to ban the box that requires disclosure of past criminal history that has been satisfied according to the dictates of the law." |
| OUR TRANSIT |
|---|
| "Durham is a city on the rise. One of the hallmarks of a truly great metropolis is the ability of its residents to access the cultural, recreational, educational, medical, and economical resources the city has to offer whether they own a car or not. Our Voice Our Durham believes that the Bull City is deserving of a safe, affordable, accessible, and wide-reaching transportation system that integrates light rail and bus service worthy of our ascendance. Not only do we deserve it, we need it.
As a city councilor, Mark-Anthony will work with GoDurham and GoTriangle to explore the feasibility of bus route expansion, fleet modernization, and ridership diversification. Additionally, any future light rail development must serve low-income residents, provide employment opportunities for Durham residents, and include plans for significant clusters of affordable housing within close proximity to proposed light rail stations. Finally, we propose a study of the feasibility of ultimately moving to free bus service based upon innovative and creative streams of municipal revenue." |
| THE FRONT-END-INITIATIVE |
|---|
| "The Front-End Initiative is the Middleton plan to establish a municipal budgetary culture that commits to spending no less than a fixed percentage of any public safety budget amount on the types of services and interventions that many in our community believe lessen the likelihood of contact with law enforcement and the criminal justice system. This may involve a combination of the increased support of programs that are already funded by the city, and the identifying and funding of innovative and effective programs that have not traditionally received city funds." |
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Friends of Durham, "Friends of Durham Endorsements 2017," accessed October 4, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mark-Anthony Middleton, "Home," accessed October 4, 2017
- ↑ Durham County Board of Elections, "2017 Election Schedule," accessed July 5, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Durham Board of Elections, "Candidate Detail List," accessed July 21, 2017
| |||||||||
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Durham City Council Ward 2 2017-Present |
Succeeded by Shanetta Burris |
