Editing Onslow County, North Carolina (section)

==Government and politics==
Onslow is a typical [[Solid South]] county in its voting patterns. Except for the 1928 election, when anti-Catholic sentiment allowed [[Herbert Hoover]] to carry the county over [[Al Smith]], it was solidly Democratic until 1968, during the [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|FDR]] years by margins of as much as 13 to one in 1936. However, the 1960s onwards had Onslow turn to [[George Wallace]] in 1968 and then overwhelmingly to [[Richard Nixon]] over [[George McGovern]] in 1972. Since then, Onslow has become a strongly Republican county; the last Democrat to carry it was [[Jimmy Carter]] in 1976, and Carter in 1980 remains the last of his party to top 40%. [[Kamala Harris]] received only 31 percent of the county vote in [[2024 United States presidential election|2024]].

{{PresHead|place=Onslow County, North Carolina|whig=no|source1=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=March 16, 2018}}</ref>|source2=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://geoelections.free.fr/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051118120032/http://geoelections.free.fr/|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 18, 2005|title= Géographie électorale|website=geoelections.free.fr|access-date=January 13, 2021|language=fr}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP/Whig vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|54,960|25,684|1,037|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|46,078|24,266|1,891|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|37,122|17,514|2,499|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|32,243|18,490|702|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|30,278|19,499|426|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|25,890|11,250|137|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|19,657|10,269|289|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|13,396|8,685|1,968|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|11,842|8,045|4,431|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|12,253|7,162|73|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|13,928|5,713|46|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|8,861|7,371|504|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|5,953|7,954|63|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|10,343|2,424|154|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1968|American Independent|3,444|3,281|5,542|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|3,771|5,955|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|2,812|5,564|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1956|Democratic|1,626|4,692|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|1,261|4,275|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|316|3,318|165|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|433|2,711|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|271|2,383|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|235|2,758|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|253|2,615|9|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|1,253|1,072|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|423|1,122|31|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|853|1,557|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|785|1,197|4|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1912|Democratic|66|901|550|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1908|Democratic|710|870|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1904|Democratic|451|828|56|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1900|Democratic|618|1,322|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1896|Democratic|589|1,559|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1892|Democratic|379|1,137|436|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1888|Democratic|453|1,177|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1884|Democratic|504|1,292|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresFoot|1880|Democratic|537|1,085|0|North Carolina}}

Onslow County is a member of the regional [[Councils of governments in North Carolina|Eastern Carolina Council of Governments]].

The structure of local government in Onslow County was changed in 2016 to have seven commissioners in 2018 [[County commission|board of commissioners]], all elected [[at-large]] for four-year terms. In contrast to electing members from districts, this structure means that candidates are elected by the majority population in the county, which gives a more accurate view of the entire electorate. On November 8, 2016, citizens voted in favor to alter the number of commissioners from five commissioners with concurrent terms to seven with staggered terms. In 2018, citizens elected two more county commissioners in the general election on November 6, 2018, to four-year terms. The citizens of the county will elect five commissioners in 2020, but the four candidates who receive the highest number of votes in the general election of 2020 will receive a four-year term and the candidate who receives the fifth-highest number of votes in the general election of 2020 to a two-year term. Thereafter, all county commissioners would be elected to serve four-year terms. The board establishes policies and ordinances implemented by the [[County manager (United States)|county manager]] and his staff. Commissioners are Jack Bright (chair), Royce Bennett (vice chair), Paul Buchanan, Robin Knapp, Mark Price, Tim Foster, and William Shanahan.

In the [[North Carolina Senate]], Onslow County is located in the [[North Carolina's 6th Senate district|6th Senate district]], which is represented by [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Michael Lazzara]]. In the [[North Carolina House of Representatives]], Onslow County is split into three House districts with the [[North Carolina's 14th House district|14th]] and [[North Carolina's 15th House district|15th]] house districts completely in Onslow County and the [[North Carolina's 16th House district|16th House district]] in part of Onslow County and all of neighboring Pender County. The 14th district is represented by Republican [[George G. Cleveland|George Cleveland]], the 15th district is represented by Republican [[Phil Shepard]], and the 16th district is represented by Republican [[Carson Smith (politician)|Carson Smith]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=DRA 2020 |url=https://davesredistricting.org/maps |access-date=April 19, 2022 |website=Daves Redistricting}}</ref>

The main law enforcement agency for Onslow County is the County Sheriff's Department. The elected sheriff is Chris Thomas.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sheriff Christopher D. Thomas |url=https://www.onslowcountync.gov/530/Sheriff-Chris-Thomas |access-date=September 2, 2023 |website=www.onslowcountync.gov}}</ref>