December 5, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
Six of the twelve petitions issued by the DeKalb County Election Commission have been returned and approved for the March 5th DeKalb County Republican Primary with the qualifying deadline drawing near.
Names of the candidates or potential candidates are as follows:
Property Assessor: Shannon Cantrell (Incumbent) and challenger Amy Clare Lockhart. Both Cantrell and Lockhart have returned their qualifying petitions and are qualified candidates.
Board of Education: Tom Walkup & Megan Moore (5th District) and Jason Miller (Incumbent) (6th District)
Constable:
Tyler Cripps (1st District)
Danny Adamson (2nd District). He has returned his petition and is a qualified candidate.
Travis Bryant (3rd District) (Incumbent)
Lane Ball (4th District) (Incumbent). He has returned his petition and is a qualified candidate.
Mark Milam (5th District) (Incumbent). He has returned his petition and is a qualified candidate.
Jason Brown (6th District) (Incumbent)
Jeremy Neal (7th District)
Recently governor appointed judge Shawn Fry of Cookeville has also filed his petition in the six counties including DeKalb that make up the 13th Judicial District to seek a full eight-year term to the newly created criminal court judgeship.
Both the DeKalb County Republican and Democratic Parties will be holding primaries simultaneously on Tuesday, March 5th for the offices of Property Assessor, Constable (districts 1-7), and Board of Education (5th & 6th) districts along with the newly created position of criminal court judge-Part III in the 13th judicial district. The primaries will be held in conjunction with the Tennessee Presidential Preference Primary.
The qualifying deadline is Thursday, December 14 at 12 noon. The voter registration deadline for the March 5th primaries is February 5 and the early voting period will be Wednesday, February 14 through Tuesday, February 27. The Absentee ballot request deadline is Tuesday, February 27, 2024.
Independents wishing to run for Assessor of Property or Constable (districts 1-7), Board of Education (5th & 6th) districts, or for criminal court judge-Part III in the August 2024 County General Elections must also qualify by noon on Thursday, December 14.
Party nominees and independents for these offices will run in the DeKalb County General Election on Thursday, August 1, 2024 and those elected will take office September 1, 2024.
The incumbents in these offices are Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell and Constables- 1st District: Waylon Kyle, 2nd District: Darrell Johnson, 3rd District: Travis Bryant, 4th District: Lane Ball, 5th District: Mark Milam, 6th District: Jason Brown, and 7th District: Johnny King.
The school board seats up for election in 2024 are currently held by Jamie Cripps in the 5th district and Jason Miller in the 6th district.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Tre Hargett has certified the names of nine Republicans and one Democratic presidential candidate for the March 5, 2024, Super Tuesday Presidential Preference Primary and County Primary Election. On Super Tuesday, 15 other states will join Tennessee in helping decide each party’s presidential nominee.
The following candidates will be on Tennessee’s March 5, 2024, ballot:
Republican Primary Ballot:
Ryan Binkley
Doug Burgum
Chris Christie
Ron DeSantis
Nikki Haley
Asa Hutchinson
Vivek Ramaswamy
David Stuckenberg
Donald J. Trump
Democratic Primary Ballot:
Joseph R. Biden