Dublin’s Brisson wins eighth term in state House of Representatives

DUBLIN — Rep. William Brisson is headed back to Raleigh for an eighth term.

The Republican farmer earned another two years by easily outdistancing Clinton’s Albert D. Kirby Jr., the Superior Court judge and former Wake Forest football player. Brisson, with 35 of 35 precincts reporting, unofficially earned 21,454 votes (57.8 percent) to Kirby’s 15,688 (42.2 percent).

“I love the people. My campaign has always been about the people,” Brisson said in an interview with the Bladen Journal on Wednesday. “I appreciate their suppport. They’ve stood behind me pretty strongly for 16 years, and then eight years in the county board. People have been good to me, and I try to look after them.”

Brisson won his first six terms as a Democrat, then won as a Republican in the 2018 midterms. He’s served Bladen County as chairman of its commissioners and been chairman of the Bladen County Hospital Board of Trustees.

He’s been recognized as a “jobs champion” by the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce. His social media campaign said “family and quality of life are very important to me.”

“My priorities are getting people back to work and kids back in schools,” Brisson said. “We’ll respect the COVID, but people can’t keep operating with the kids at home, not in school, and the folks not working. We’ve got to get the people back to work. We can’t let this COVID just make us completely lay down and stop.”

Kirby is a former commissioner in Sampson County, has a law degree from Campbell and is pursuing a degree from its divinity school. He campaigned on education, health care, and economic development in Bladen and Sampson counties.

Kirby is a former all-state high school football player at Clinton High School who went on to play at Wake Forest, where he became a Hall of Famer.