Candidate slate is complete for May 5 primary election
Independents face March 10 filing deadline for Aug. election
The candidate list has been set for the May 5 Anderson County primary election. Early voting for the primary will begin on April 15. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Those positions include constables for Districts 1, 3 and 4, who do not run on a party ticket.
This follows the Feb. 19 qualifying deadline for the May 5 Republican and Democratic primaries, and any candidates wanting to run as independents in the partisan positions in the Aug. 6 county general election.
This includes the countywide positions such as mayor, sheriff and others, and the County Commission and county Board of Education.
The May 5 county primary election slate is now set, as nobody who had filed by the Feb. 19 deadline chose to drop out of their races as of the noon Feb. 26 withdrawal deadline, county Elections Administrator Mark Stephens said Monday.
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank and Sheriff Russell Barker each has a single opponent in the GOP primary, but no one is running for either position in the Democratic primary, and there is an independent candidate only in the sheriff’s race – Colt Jennings..
For mayor, Frank is opposed by Third District County Commissioner Joshua Anderson. There are no Democratic or independent candidates.
In the sheriff’s race, incumbent Russell Barker is opposed by David G. Davis in the Republican primary.
Jennings is running as an independent in the Aug. 6 general election, after originally picking up a petition to run in the Republican primary.
Jennings will face the winner of the Republican primary in the Aug. 6 election.
Carl Bailey, one of four people who picked up petitions to run for sheriff, ultimately did not file to run either in the May 5 primary or as an independent on Aug. 6.
Three candidates for County Commission who initially filed to run as Republicans changed their petitions to run instead as independents.
They are Tina Graham Targonski, for District 2; Tracy Wandell for District 1; and Kevin Craig, for District 7.
Candidates began filing for the various county positions when registration officially opened Dec. 22.
Frank was the first candidate for any county office to pick up and file a petition to run, seeking re-election to the post she has held since Sept. 1, 2012.
The county mayor serves a four-year term, but Frank was initially elected to fill out the two years remaining on the term of her predecessor, who resigned mid-term. She was re-elected to four-year terms in 2014, 2018 and 2022.
There are at least two candidates who qualified to run in each of the eight commission districts, for the two available seats in each district. Commissioners serve four-year terms.
Only the incumbents qualified to run for the other five countywide positions in the Republican primary: Rex Lynch for Circuit Court clerk, Regina Copeland for county trustee, Jeff Cole for county clerk, Tim Shelton for register of deeds, and Gary Long for road superintendent.
Property Assessor John Alley’s position is not on this year’s ballot, nor are any of the judgeships.
Four of the eight county School Board district seats are up for election this year, for a four-year term.
The open seats are in School Board Districts,1, 2, 6 and 7.
Candidates have qualified for all four of the open seats, but three candidates – in Districts 1, 6 and 7 – are running as independents and will be only on the general election ballot on Aug. 6.
Districts 1 and 2 have one candidate each running unopposed in the Republican primary May 5.
Candidates who have qualified for County Commission in the primary (two seats open per district) are:
• District 1 – Chad McNabb (R), Raymond Neil Phillips (R).
• District 2 – Michael Y. Foster (R), Denise Palmer (R), Ronald C. Meredith Jr. (R).
• District 3 – Shannon Gray (R), Shelley Vandagriff (R), Rodney Archer (D).
• District 4 – Richard Constanzo (R), Tim Isbel (R), J. Shain Vowell (R), Amy Jones (R).
• District 5 – Martin “Marty” May (D), Robert McKamey (R), Jeff Pack (R), Karin Martin Partin (R), Barbara Vickery (R).
• District 6 – Anthony Allen (R), filed), Aaron Wells (R); Ebony M. Capshaw (D), Derek Guy (D).
• District 7 – Sabra Beauchamp (R), Nathan Mullins (R), Sharon Bourgeois Capshaw (D), Steve Verran (D).
• District 8 – Jawrell Cook (R), Don A. Layton (R); Emily S. Wallace (R), Ashley Craven (D), Elizabeth “Liz” Henry (D).
School Board candidates who have qualified:
• District 1 – Ray Hagan (R), Jo Williams, independent (Aug. 6 ballot only).
• District 2 – Katherine Birkbeck (R).
• District 6 – Scott Gillenwaters, independent (Aug. 6 ballot only).
• District 7 – Don A. Bell, independent (Aug. 6 ballot only).
Early voting for the May 5 primary election will be held April 15-30; early voting Aug. 6 will run from July 17-Aug. 1.
Deadline to register to vote in the May 5 primary is April 6. Absentee ballot request deadline is April 25.
