November 14, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
With the qualifying deadline only one month away, two more people have obtained petitions for the March 5th DeKalb County Republican Primary including Jason Brown for Constable-District 6, and Jason Miller, Incumbent School Board Member-District 6.
Brown, an incumbent constable, was elected to the office in 2020 as a Democrat and Miller won the 6th district school board seat in 2020 as a non-partisan or independent candidate.
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.
Six others had already obtained petitions for the GOP Primary. Two of them plan to be in the race for Property Assessor including incumbent Shannon Cantrell and challenger Amy Clare Lockhart. Fourth district constable Lane Ball will be seeking a full four-year term as constable and Incumbent Fifth district constable Mark Milam has picked up and returned his petition for re-election with the required number of signatures to be a qualified constable candidate for the primary. Incumbent Third district constable Travis Bryant will be seeking re-election as constable and newcomer Danny Adamson has picked up and returned his petition with the required number of signatures to be a qualified candidate for constable in District-2.
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.