Lauderdale primary voters make their candidate choices known
Aug. 9—Lauderdale County voters headed to the polls on Tuesday to cast their votes in the 2023 primary elections. On the ballot were many county positions such as sheriff, supervisor and justice court judges, as well as state positions such as governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and more.
On the Democrat ticket, voters had limited options as just six of the 22 elected positions had more than one Democrat candidate.
Unofficial results released by the Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk's office Wednesday morning show voters overwhelmingly chose Rita Jack, a former Meridian police officer, for coroner with 2,056 of the 3,342 votes cast.
Democrat voters also choose Craig Houston to be the nominee for District 2 supervisor with 651 of 1,029 votes cast; Tyrone Johnson for supervisor District 1 with 321 of 542 votes cast; and Keith Jackson for state representative for District 45 with 402 of 501 votes cast.
The District 1 Justice Court judge race on the Democrat ticket is likely to head to a runoff as neither candidate reached the 50% plus one vote needed to nab the nomination. Jessie 'Coach' Hill Jr. and Gary 'G Lamar Chic' Johnson received 412 votes and 358 votes respectively, but both were short of the 439 votes needed to avoid a runoff.
On the Republican side, Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun beat former Justice Court Judge Ricky Roberts with 7,175 of the 12,822 votes cast. Roberts received 5,579.
Calhoun will move onto the general election in November, where he will face Democrat nominee Gerald Leon Johnson. Johnson was unopposed on the Democrat ticket.
For District 1 Justice Court judge, voters overwhelmingly chose Nick Lisi as the Republican nominee with 2,096 of the 3,234 votes cast. The candidate with the second highest number of votes was Merritt Barry at 425.
Two Republican races are expected to head to a runoff, with candidates in both the District 1 supervisor and Coroner races failing to reach the 50% plus one threshold.
In the supervisor race, Justin 'JJ' Anders and Chris Bullock received the highest number of votes at 1,772 and 1,258 respectively and will head to the runoff election.
A total of 12,822 votes were cast in the Republican coroner's race, and Stella McMahan received the most with 3,653. Kenneth Graham came in second with 3,128, and Kevin Smith followed in third with 3,079. None of the candidates, however, received the 6,412 votes needed to avoid a runoff.
Once affidavit ballots are counted and any mail-in absentees have been received, final election results will decide the top two coroner candidates to move forward to the runoff.
Runoff elections are scheduled for Aug. 29.
In statewide races, Gov. Tate Reeves breezed through the primary election and will go on to face Democrat Brandon Presley in November, the Associated Press reported. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann also won his primary, beating challenger state Sen. Chris McDaniel, and will face Democrat D. Ryan Grover in the general election.
According to the Associated Press, the Democrat race for agriculture commissioner was still too close to call as of Wednesday morning as three candidates vie for the spot. Robert "Brad" Bradford, Terry Rodgers and Bethany Hill are all looking to take on Republican incumbent Andy Gipson in the fall.
Contact Thomas Howard on Twitter @tmhoward
