Cantrell re-elected by a landslide
By angie meadows
Carrying all 15 precincts, and the majority of the absentee/early votes, DeKalb County Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell won his bid for re-election by a landslide during Thursday’s General Election against Tom R. Duggin. This will be Cantrell’s second term.
A total of 3,266 ballots were casts in the election including 1,665 on Election Day, 1,270 walk-ins during early-voting and 331 paper absentees.
In the Assessor of Property race, Cantrell, a Republican, received 2,166 votes while Democratic challenger Tom R. Duggin received 933 votes.
The Board of Education has two new members, Jason Miller and Jamie Cripps, who will serve the four-year term.
Miller won the 6th District seat beating Shawn Washer. Miller received a total of 189 while Washer received 146. Two-term incumbent Doug Stephens did not seek re-election for the seat.
Jamie Cripps will represent the 5th District. She ran unopposed for the seat and received 370 complimentary votes. Cripps will take over from long time school board member W.J. (Dub) Evins, III who chose not to seek re-election.
Evins’ has served two stints on the Board of Education. His first tenure began in 1978 and covered 18 years. He was re-elected in 1984 and 1990 which in those days were for 6 year terms. After his mother passed away, Evins’ chose not to seek re-election to a fourth term in 1996 but Evins returned to the Board after he was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2004. Evins was elected to a full term later that year and he was re-elected in 2008, 2012, and 2016. Evins also served several years as Chairman of the Board
The Smithville Board of Aldermen also has a new member, Jessica Higgins. She, along with veteran aldermen Shawn Jacobs and Danny Washer won their bids for the four-year term.
The constable race candidates all ran unopposed. They are as follows: Waylon Kyle 1st District, Darrell Johnson, 2nd District, Travis Bryant 3rd District, Paul Cantrell 4th District, Mark Milam 5th District, Jason Brown 6th District, and Johnny King 7th District.
In the Dowelltown city election Mayor Pamela Redmon, Aldermen Phillip D. Byford and Chris Walker were elected without opposition. Mayor Redmon received 48 complimentary votes, Byford had 42 votes and Walker had 27 for Alderman
In the Alexandria city election Lynne K. Dickerson ran unopposed for Alderman and received 55 votes.
Republican Criminal Court Judge Wesley Bray was unopposed in the 13th Judicial District special election Thursday to serve out the last two years of former Judge David Patterson’s unexpired term. Patterson stepped down from the bench last year and Bray was appointed by the Governor to succeed him until the August 6th, 2020 election. In DeKalb County, Bray received 2,017 votes.
State Representatives Terri Lynn Weaver of Lancaster in District 40 and Clark Boyd of Lebanon in District 46 were unopposed for re-nomination in the Tennessee Republican Primary on Thursday. No candidates qualified for these offices in the Tennessee Democratic Primary. Weaver will face opposition from Independent candidate Paddy Sizemore of Smith County in the November Tennessee General Election. The terms are for two years. In DeKalb County Weaver received 1,524 votes on Thursday while Boyd had 484 votes.
Suanne Bone of Lebanon qualified for the Tennessee Democratic Primary on Thursday to fill a vacancy as State Executive Committeewoman in District 17. In DeKalb County Bone received 546 votes.
Republican Congressman John Rose of Cookeville was unopposed in the Tennessee GOP Primary for re-nomination on Thursday but he will have challengers in the November Tennessee General Election. Christopher Martin Finley of Sparta was unopposed for the Democratic Nomination for Congressman on Thursday and will be in the November race. Christopher B. Monday of Cookeville is an independent candidate for the office in November. The term is two years. In the primaries Thursday Congressman Rose received 1,769 votes in DeKalb County while Finley had 523 votes
Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty and Black activist Marquita Bradshaw will face off in November to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.
Hagerty defeated Nashville trauma surgeon Dr. Manny Sethi in the Republican primary, while Bradshaw scored an upset win over former Army helicopter pilot James Mackler in the Democratic contest, despite being far outraised by Mackler, who was endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and others.
In DeKalb County Hagerty had 1,165 votes and Sethi received 894 votes. In the State Democratic Primary James Mackler led locally with 206 votes. Bradshaw recieved 151 votes.
Independent candidates for the U.S. Senate in the November Tennessee General Election are: Yomi “Fapas” Faparusi Sr., Jeffrey Alan Grunau, Ronnie Henley, G. Dean Hill, Steven J. Hooper, Aaron James, Elizabeth McLeod, Kacey Morgan, and Eric William Stansberry.
On the Judicial Retention question for the Court of Appeals Western Division, DeKalb County voters elected to retain Carma Dennis McGee as a Judge of the Court of Appeals, Western Division the vote locally was 1,419 to retain and 624 to replace.
