American Aquarium's BJ Barham is running for office in Wendell

BJ Barham of the Raleigh based band American Aquarium has never been shy about his politics on stage or in his lyrics. Now he's taking things one step further by running for one of three vacant seats on the Wendell Board of Commissioners.

"It's fun to yell at each other about red team, blue team national politics, but what really affects us is, are we approving money for road systems? Are we approving money for another school to be built?" Barham said. "That's not the president, that's not the governor. That's right here in your own backyard. So while everybody else is yelling at the sky, complaining about blue team, red team, I really hope that more people are turning their eyes to local politics and realizing that this is where we can make changes that we visibly get to see pretty quickly."

In addition to Barham, there are seven others running for the three vacant seats, all of which are nonpartisan; the race includes only one incumbent. Voters can vote for up to three of the eight candidates. The other candidates are: Kate Benson, Jorge Cordova, Christopher M. Critzer, Deans Eatman (incumbent), Dustin Ingalls, Wes Jones, and Philip Tarnaski.

Barham grew up in Reidsville, North Carolina and has been a Triangle resident for 23 years. He went to North Carolina State University where he double majored in Political Science and History. After some time in Raleigh, Barham and his wife moved to Wendell in 2014 looking for a quieter life to raise a family not too far from the city. He's also been a touring musician for the past 20 years.

"After a couple years of going to meetings and having my voice heard and also having my voice ignored and my neighbor's voice ignored, I finally decided to try to talk some of my neighbors into running," Barham said.

However, he found he couldn't talk anyone into taking the plunge. So, he decided to do it himself.

"My mother always told me that if you see something wrong, say something about it. And if that doesn't work, do something about it. This is me doing something about it. I have a 7-year-old daughter and I can't expect her to grow up to be a loud, opinionated, independent and outspoken young woman without setting the right example."

Barham says that like many small cities, growth is a big issue in Wendell. In 2010, Wendell had fewer than 6,000 residents, according to the Census Bureau. One decade later, the population increased to nearly 9,800 residents, a whopping 68% increase in just 10 years. In 2023, the most recent year for which Census publishes estimates, the Wendell population stood at 11,585.

All those people need places to live. Wendell saw a 63% increase in housing units, from 2,704 in 2010 to 4,406 in 2023.

"It's all high density housing that's paving over centennial farming land," said Barham. "Affordable housing is a great thing, but the problem here is a lot of these apartments and town homes are starting at $350,000 or $400,000 in Wendell. It's operating under the guise of affordable housing and people aren't buying them. The people that are buying them are renting them out and charging $3,000 a month in rent. That's not helping the affordable housing problem. The only people benefitting here are the developers."

Barham says that on top of this there are infrastructure issues that are also being ignored.

"The roads have not been widened. We haven't built a new school. There's no medical facilities being built," he said. "My worry at this juncture is that … Wendell has already kind of outgrown its resources. Five years from now, when (the population) creeps up to 25,000 or 30,000 what are we going to do? As someone that has toured this country for the last 20 years, I've watched what happens when you choose growth for the sake of growth."

Barham says that the American Aquarium fanbase has rallied around his decision to run for office.

"It's been really neat to see our fan base kind of rally behind it. Apparently I'm the only one that was surprised by this decision," he said.

When asked about how landing this role could affect the future of the band, he said it won't change things.

"That's the beauty of being a small business owner, I'm also the guy who makes the schedule," he said. "In 2012 and 2013 we were playing 300 shows a year. Once I got married in 2014 we scaled that back a bit and then once I had a kid in 2018 it scaled back even further to about 70 shows a year. So that means I'm home about 300 days a year."

"I've also been telling people that there is this beautiful thing that comes from right here in North Carolina called flight," he continued. "If I need to, I can easily be back in town for a meeting on Monday and then back out on the road with the boys being a rock n' roller on Tuesday. All that being said, I've assured everybody that I am 100% committed to be here for every meeting. I'm really excited, it's not just talk. I've been knocking on doors and putting up signs and taking out Facebook ads."

Election Day is November 4, but early voting starts on October 22.