December 4, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County Republican Party Executive Committee met on Monday, November 29 and voted to hold a DeKalb County School Board Republican Primary election for districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and any other vacancies that may occur, on Tuesday May 3, 2022.
Party leaders have until December 10 to notify the election commission of their decision in time for the 2022 elections.
The DeKalb County Democratic Party Executive Committee will meet Monday, December 6 to decide on whether to have a primary for school board races in 2022.
Under a new state law, candidates for local school boards in Tennessee can now run-in partisan races.
For many years local school board elections have been nonpartisan in Tennessee and candidates were barred from campaigning as a nominee or representative of a political party when running for school board.
Now, local political parties are allowed to direct county election officials to hold a party primary for the seats.
In a letter to chairs of both the DeKalb County Democratic and Republican Parties, Administrator of Elections Dennis Stanley explained that the district offices for school board up for election in 2022 can be added to local party primary ballots in May 2022.
“The General Assembly passed legislation during their recent special session that allows parties to nominate candidates for any school board office. Because you have called a primary in May, you have the option to add school board offices that will appear on the August ballot to the primary. This includes county school districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 7,” said Stanley.
“If you would like to supplement your existing call for a primary to add school board offices, you must file an original written notice with our office no later than the close of business on Friday, December 10, 2021. Like any call for a primary, we request that it be signed by two members of the county executive committee,” Stanley said.
The election commission will begin issuing candidate petitions for the May 3, 2022, primaries on December 20, 2021.