{"biography":"## Current office and 2026 campaign\n\nStratton Fielding Stokes is the sitting Sheriff of Duplin County, North Carolina, first elected in 2022 [1]. He filed for reelection in 2026 but lost the March 3, 2026 Republican primary to challenger Eric Southerland, receiving 1,823 votes to Southerland's 2,298 and third candidate Tony James's 629, according to North Carolina State Board of Elections precinct-level results [2]. With no Democratic candidate on the ballot, Southerland is unopposed in the November 3, 2026 general election and is set to take office as sheriff on the first Monday in December 2026, ending Stokes's tenure [3].\n\n## Background and education\n\nStokes is a lifelong native of Duplin County, raised in Northeast, a rural farming community [1]. He graduated from Wallace Rose-Hill High School in 2000 and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Campbell University in 2004 [1]. He was accepted to Campbell University School of Law in 2014 and graduated in 2017 [1].\n\n## Career\n\nStokes began his law enforcement career with the Duplin County Sheriff's Office in 2005 as a jailer. In 2006 he completed Basic Law Enforcement Training at Coastal Carolina Community College and moved to the Patrol Division, reaching the rank of sergeant and serving on the Special Response Team and as a field training officer [1]. In 2011 he was accepted into the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation's 40th Academy and was assigned to the Coastal District, covering ten counties including Duplin, where he specialized in major homicide, crime-scene, narcotics, and public-corruption investigations; he received the SBI's \"Sharon Alston Agent of the Year Award\" in 2013 [1]. He continued to serve as a reserve deputy with the Duplin County Sheriff's Office through law school, until his election as sheriff in 2022; after graduating law school in 2017 he opened a general-practice law firm in Kenansville [1].\n\n## Sources\n[1] [Meet The Sheriff -- Duplin County, NC (archived October 30, 2025)](https://web.archive.org/web/20251030192230/https://www.duplinnc.gov/373/Meet-The-Sheriff) -- the county's site no longer hosts this page as of July 2026\n[2] North Carolina State Board of Elections, March 3, 2026 primary precinct-level results, accessed 2026-07-20 (https://s3.amazonaws.com/dl.ncsbe.gov/ENRS/2026_03_03/results_pct_20260303.zip)\n[3] [Southerland speaks after winning Duplin Co. sheriff primary -- WITN](https://www.witn.com/2026/03/05/southerland-speaks-after-winning-duplin-co-sheriff-primary/) -- accessed 2026-07-20","campaigns":[{"contest":"county_sheriff","county":"duplin","county_count":1,"electiondate":"Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT","pgr":"general","state":"NC","title":"Duplin County Sheriff"}],"cf_filings":[],"firstname":"Stratton","fullname":"Stratton Fielding Stokes","lastname":"Stokes","middlename":"Fielding","office_history":[{"campaigns":[{"contest":"county_sheriff","contest_title":"Duplin County Sheriff","county":"duplin","county_count":1,"electiondate":"2026-03-03","office_county":"duplin","office_key":"county_sheriff","office_title":"Sheriff","party":"REP","pgr":"general","state":"NC"}],"county":"duplin","cycles":[{"general":{"contest":"county_sheriff","contest_title":"Duplin County Sheriff","county":"duplin","county_count":1,"electiondate":"2026-03-03","office_county":"duplin","office_key":"county_sheriff","office_title":"Sheriff","party":"REP","pgr":"general","state":"NC"},"party":"REP","primary":null,"term":null,"year":2026}],"office_key":"county_sheriff","office_title":"Sheriff","state":"NC","terms":[]}],"terms":[],"token":"93e499d2f9c6c90d"}