How this Black woman managed to break up ‘old boys’ network’ on Mint Hill town board
Sure, on the one hand, Twanna Henderson was thrilled last week to have been elected — as a woman, and as a person of color — to a seat on the Mint Hill town Board of Commissioners, which is currently populated entirely by white men.
But she also had a mixed feeling or two in the wake of her historic (and narrow) victory.
“It’s just very disappointing that we’re still talking about firsts in 2021,” said Henderson, a Black woman who is the co-founder of New Beginnings Church in Matthews and who was a civil magistrate judge for the Mecklenburg County courts in the ’80s and ’90s. “I mean, that we’re talking about the first person of color ever to be on the town board is mind-blowing. That in 2021, it’s newsworthy. That we’re still here.”
Last Tuesday in Mint Hill, incumbents Dale Dalton, Patrick Holton and Tony Long all were re-elected to the board, joining mayor Brad Simmons, who gets a seat on the board automatically. Henderson defeated Scott Fandel — who like the other four men is white — for the final open spot by just 60 votes, 1,383 to 1,323.
Henderson had never run for public office before.
Another Black woman, Rhonda Walker, finished seventh with 1,136 votes, and a third woman, Beverly Blake Cannaday, was last, with 842.
As of the most recent U.S. Census, in 2020, Mint Hill’s population of 26,450 was 74.5% white, 17.8% Black and 53% female.
“I think we still have a long way to go. We just do,” Henderson said. “But this is what I’m hopeful about: The fact that I got elected in Mint Hill is major, because it speaks to the fact that the citizens of this town are open. So some of that quote-unquote old boys’ network was cracked through, and I think everybody’s kind of tired of that. I spoke to a lot of people — particularly white women — who were kind of tired of that.”
Another way Henderson said she is adding diversity: While the commissioners are elected at large in a non-partisan municipal election, she is the only Democrat on the board.
According to Mecklenburg County Board of Elections data, 36% of Mint Hill voters are Republicans and 28% are Democrats.
Here are five other notable things we learned about Mint Hill’s newest town commissioner, a native Charlottean who attended Olympic High School, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University in Durham, where she earned her law degree.
Henderson will be sworn into office on Dec. 9. She will replace outgoing Commissioner Mike Cochrane, who did not seek reelection.
1. She and her husband of nearly 24 years, Michael Henderson, founded New Beginnings Church in October 1999 with 12 members in a room at the Albemarle Road Recreation Center. They’ve been equal partners in running the place ever since, with Michael serving as senior pastor and Twanna as executive minister overseeing leaders and ministry projects.
Though New Beginnings has earned a reputation as the “free gas giveaway church” over the years, having become famous for handing free gas cards to people in long lines of cars at the church every Good Friday, its more impressive claim to fame is its massive growth.
Today, Twanna Henderson said, the church has 5,000 to 6,000 people on its rolls.
“That was one of the things that I shared with people as I was talking to them about why they should vote for me,” she said, “is because I understand change management. Because Mint Hill is changing, and you cannot grow a church from 12 people to thousands of people without understanding change management.”
2. She is still licensed to practice law in North Carolina, but does not. The only thing she currently is involved with that relates to the legal profession is through the church, for which she started a legal ministry.
Henderson doesn’t provide specific legal advice, she said, “but just helps direct people how to navigate through legal matters, because when you’ve never had to go to the courthouse or whatever, it’s foreign. I mean, people have no idea what to do or how to do things. Just like with (navigating the health-care system), it can be very intimidating. And unfortunately lawyers don’t always have the best reputation, so making that less intimidating for people was something that we wanted to be able to do.”
3. During the pandemic, she decided she wanted to do more to help others than what she was doing with the church. So — as “a big fitness person,” one who “really like(s) seeing people get healthy and strong” — she became a personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise, one of the country’s most respected certification programs.
She also decided to run for office.
“Ministry is about serving people, and being available for people,” said Henderson, who moved to Mint Hill from Matthews six years ago with her husband and their autistic son MJ (short for Michael Jr.), now 18. “And I think during the pandemic, everybody kind of reevaluated their next (move).
“This was something that had been on my radar, but I think in the midst of slowing down to some degree I really got to think about what are some of the things that you feel like you’re really purposed to do? And this is something that I’ve always felt like I was purposed to do. I just had not taken that leap. I just had not paused enough to consider it and weigh it fully, and I think it gave me the opportunity to be able to fully weigh it, and determine is this what you want to do, and do you think you can actually make a difference? I determined that I did, and that I could.
“I like this town. I think it’s a great place to live. But I do think that there are some things that can be better.”
4. She had a prayer team as part of her campaign team.
Prayer, Henderson said, got her through the two biggest challenges of her life — the first being her son’s struggle to survive after being born extremely prematurely at 1 pound 1 ounce and spending 193 days in the hospital before going home; the second being her battle with breast cancer four years ago.
“At the end of the day, I have to draw from something stronger than myself. Even with my campaign team, you know, I didn’t know anything about having a team, but I had enough sense to know I need some people around me who have some skill sets and things that I don’t have. ... I knew that there were some things that I needed to do in terms of beating the pavement, but there were some things that needed to be done in the spirit realm as well, in terms of people praying on a regular basis for me, and for the campaign, and that things be done well, and that ultimately God’s purpose be done.”
5. She thinks the tide started turning for her — and started turning against some of her fellow candidates — during a forum that was live-streamed on YouTube in October.
The question presented to the group was: “How do you address Mint Hill’s diverse population to ensure there’s inclusion?”
Candidate Richard “Fig” Newton replied: “I do think Mint Hill has a decent amount of Black people, if you want to say that. In nice homes, in smaller homes, in all kinds of homes, and I don’t know how we as a board — without putting something else up in town, apartments or whatever — that we could make it to where we would have any more than we have now.”
Candidate Scott Fandel’s answer was: “The town promotes everything we do very well through their website and other organizations. I mean, you can see the Mint Hill Madness banners already up for the event coming in a couple of weeks, so inclusion is by coming to the events, meeting, having the community come together and operating as one community and not a segregated population.”
Henderson’s answer, meanwhile, was much more blunt: “By electing me to the board. Having all — with due respect — all white men does not represent diversity at all.”
Newton and Fandel would go on to lose.
“I think they thought, ‘Oh, that’s cute, she’s running.’ Then I think after the forum, they thought, ‘Oh, she might actually be somebody that we need to worry about.’”
“That was very eye-opening to people,” Henderson said last week. “Now I think we need to — starting with the board — really look at, do we understand what diversity is? Because at the end of the day, Mint Hill has individuals who live here who are African American, who are Asian, who are Indian. They are part of the town and we represent all of them. We’re here to serve all of them.”
“And I’m ready,” she continued. “I mean, I’m not scared of them (the other board members). I’m not afraid to jump in there.”
