Sarah Taber

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Sarah Taber

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Brigham Young University, 2005

Graduate

University of Florida, 2011

Personal

Profession

Agriculture

Contact

Campaign website

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Sarah Taber (Democratic Party) ran for election for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Taber completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Sarah Taber lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Taber earned a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and a doctoral degree in plant medicine from the University of Florida. Her career experience includes helping launch vegetable greenhouses and indoor farms, working as a postdoctoral researcher in beekeeping, auditing safety in food and agriculture systems, working as a farm and food systems trainer, and writing and producing the podcast Farm to Taber.

Elections

2024

See also: North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner election, 2024

General election

General election for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture

Incumbent Steve Troxler defeated Sarah Taber and Sean Haugh in the general election for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Steve Troxler (R)	52.6	2,922,483
		Sarah Taber (D)	44.9	2,496,474
		Sean Haugh (L)	2.4	135,513

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 5,554,470
= 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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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Sarah Taber advanced from the Democratic primary for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture

Incumbent Steve Troxler defeated Colby Hammonds in the Republican primary for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Steve Troxler	69.1	644,720
		Colby Hammonds	30.9	288,347

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 933,067
= 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.

Libertarian primary election

The Libertarian primary election was canceled. Sean Haugh advanced from the Libertarian primary for North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Taber in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Sarah Taber completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Taber's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I’m a crop scientist, a farm operations specialist, an expert in food safety and supply chains, and a successful agricultural businessperson. I’ve helped my clients grow food and farm businesses worth $4 billion. I'm running to revive North Carolina’s rural and agricultural economy so it works for everyone.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• North Carolina's farmland is rich. There's no reason for our rural areas to be poor. We’re ideal for high-value food crops and we’re close to huge markets that are hungry for them. But our farmers make as little as half the income per acre as farmers in neighboring states. That’s a failure of leadership. Now North Carolina farmers are in a bad spot. Our Commissioner of Agriculture doesn’t provide basic services that farmers in other states take for granted, like encouraging investment in food processing infrastructure that would allow farmers to try new, more profitable crops. That failure of leadership from our 20-year incumbent Commissioner is why, once you account for inflation, our farm sector is shrinking.
• Of the major agricultural states, North Carolina is the most at risk of losing farmland. The way to turn that around is to help farms succeed as food businesses—we grow a lot of crops and raise a lot of livestock, but we don't make many groceries here in NC. We need to invest in the processing facilities and supply chains that help our state's farmers make money from the wide variety of things we can, and already do, grow here. We also need to make sure people can get the loans and insurance they need on fair terms so people with the skills can build the businesses that will carry our agricultural economy into the future.
• Agriculture Commissioner is crucial for the whole state, not just farmers. Three examples: -54% of NC is forest. We’ve got a fast-growing problem with wildfires, but the staffing of our forest service and firefighting units hasn't kept up, putting us all at risk. -Understaffing in the department also means fewer inspectors to make sure grocery store scales and gas pumps are accurate and less support for bringing new crop varieties on line. -The Department has an important role to play in public health and monitoring for potential outbreaks, such as H5N1.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Helping businesses succeed by fostering success strategies that benefit workers, protect the air, soil, and water, and help food and farm operations thrive.

What qualities does this office possess that makes it a unique and important part of the state government and legal system?

This office is called "the Governor of Rural North Carolina" because of the grant funds that flow through it and the important inspection and enforcement practices it oversees. The staff in the Department are dedicated professionals, but the funding of the Department itself has too-long been neglected by the state legislature. We need more funding to be able to hire enough firefighters and forestry professionals, inspectors, extension agents, and researchers to support the safety and prosperity of all of North Carolina.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The person in this office has to be able to bring people together around a forward-looking vision for our state and what will help farmers—and all of North Carolina—not just this year but across the next 20 years. Too many of our rural counties are either dropping in population or are being carved up into suburbs. Instead of someone who makes excuses, this office needs a leader who will advocate for agriculture's future and invest in business development, bringing additional crops to market, and helping new people enter farming on fair and manageable terms.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

In a way, I still have it! I grew up working my family’s small holdings and my family eats crops we grew on our Fayetteville property today. My first paying job was detasseling corn at 14 and I worked field, garment shop, and factory jobs to pay for crop school. After school I became a farm operations specialist. I discovered that I could help working farmers make more money–a lot more money–and my past clients are now worth a total of $4 billion.

I've also written and podcasted about our food systems and how to improve them.

What responsibilities of this office do you personally consider the most important?

it’s easy to say “We just should do things differently.” Lots of North Carolina farmers are already doing that—experimenting with crops like hemp, upland rice, chestnuts, and more. But there’s more to it than that! Building markets for those crops and infrastructure to move it to the cities is a bigger problem than individual farms can solve. That’s what a Commissioner of Agriculture’s supposed to do: build the operations and markets so whole communities can make a living from this variety. It won’t be one crop or one idea that will pull North Carolina agriculture out of a long, slow slide. But having a change in leadership will make a difference.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

NC AFL-CIO, Sierra Club, Lillian's List, Communication Workers of America

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.

Campaign website

Taber’s campaign website stated the following:

“	Here's How We Put Our Countryside To Work For Everyone North Carolina can grow a wide range of crops nearly year-round, thanks to our warm coastal plain and cooler mountains. And we’re a day’s drive from major markets in the northeastern corridor. With these advantages, we can double or triple how much North Carolina’s farms earn from agriculture. But we need to invest in our countryside to get there. Sarah’s three-part plan to attract new investment will strengthen our agricultural sector by growing three key areas. What We Grow North Carolina is ideal for high-value crops like berries, carrots, celery, sweet corn, tree nuts, pumpkins, and orchard fruit. These crops can bring 10-100x more revenue than North Carolina’s current standbys like corn, soy, and tobacco. California and Florida are the traditional powerhouses for fruit and vegetables. But they can’t keep up with demand due to limited space and water. This opens a multi-billion-dollar opportunity for rural North Carolina. Hemp and cannabis are also key opportunities that North Carolina must stop passing over. Higher revenues will bring more income and jobs to North Carolina, and stop farms from closing and being lost to real estate development. Don't just take our word for it—read the case studies. By updating the way we do agriculture to include more produce, we have an amazing opportunity to grow our economy by as much as seven billion dollars over the next decade. Who Makes A Living In Agriculture We need on-ramps for new people to become farmers. We need fair funding for Black and other marginalized farmers, who are on the leading edge of farm loss in North Carolina. And, farmers aren’t all! Strong farm economies need more than just farms. We need facilities to turn high-value crops into the foods people use like nut butters, sauces, noodles, frozen vegetables, and more. Both farms and food plants need skilled workers- and skilled workers need a living wage, or they’ll leave and take their skills elsewhere. By investing in rural infrastructure and workforces, North Carolina can keep farm revenues in our communities and multiply their impact by up to 10x. How We Do Business As we invest in rural North Carolina, we should make sure investments provide on-ramps to ownership. This keeps revenue in the state and anchors rural communities. We already have models: Mt. Olive Pickle Company has run a profit-sharing plan for its employees since 1943. This has allowed residents of Mt. Olive to build their own wealth, rather than just export it somewhere else. Profit-sharing, ESOPs, cooperatives, and other on-ramps to ownership are tax-advantaged; proven to increase profitability; and are a common-sense tool to strengthen rural economies.	”
—Sarah Taber's campaign website (2024)

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Sarah Taber campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture	Lost general	$581,530	$456,698
Grand total			$581,530	$456,698
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

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