The Henry County candidate slates for upcoming local and state elections have been finalized, as qualifying took place last week for three Board of Commissioners seats and two Board of Education seats at the county level in addition to several judicial positions and all General Assembly seats.
The primary is scheduled for May 24 with a runoff June 21. The general election is set for November 8.
Incumbent Dee Anglyn, who was recently appointed to fill the District 3 commission seat after the resignation of Greg Cannon, will face Kevin Anderson and Don Dunlap in the Republican primary. Sarita Dyer is the only Democrat who qualified for that race.
Another incumbent, Vivian Thomas, qualified to run for another term as District 4 commissioner. She has a Democratic primary opponent in Gwendolyn Bailey, while Robert Kolpak is the lone Republican qualifier.
District 5 has been moved from the northern end of the county to a south-central location, making incumbent Bruce Holmes ineligible to run for a fourth term. Only one of the five candidates, Ed Toney, is a Republican. The Democratic primary will have a field of four: Kc M. Krzic, Cletonya LaGrand, Kevin Lewis and Keisha Stubbs.
Board of Education races are nonpartisan and are typically decided during the primary unless a runoff is required. Annette Edwards will keep her District 2 seat since no one else qualified for that race. In District 4, incumbent Sophe Pope will face Erika Hill and Deborah Ann Sykes.
Three judgeships in Henry County State Court are up for re-election and all of them are unopposed. That means David Brown, Vincent Lotti and Chaundra Lewis will all be returning to the bench in 2023. Martin Jones is looking to keep his seat as a Magistrate Court judge, and he will face Andrea Boyd and Bonnie Williamson in the upcoming election.
Although Bruce Holmes is ending his tenure on the Board of Commissioners, he is still campaigning this year since he qualified for the District 10 seat in the State Senate. He will face fellow Democrat Emanuel Jones, the incumbent who has held the seat for more than a decade, and no Republicans qualified for the race.
Brian Strickland is seeking a return to his District 17 seat and will face Brett Mauldin in the Republican primary. Kacy Morgan qualified as a Democrat.
Five Republicans are vying for the District 25 seat which now represents a portion of Henry County: Rick Jeffares, Laland Olinger II, Daniela Sullivan-Marzahl, Rick Williams and Valerie Rodgers. Jeffares is a former state senator as well as a former Henry County commissioner.
Six districts in the Georgia House of Representatives include a portion of Henry County. District 74 incumbent Karen Mathiak will face David Ballard in the Republican primary while William Harris and former Hampton City Council member Errol Mitchell square off in the Democratic primary.
Two seats will be decided in the primary. Incumbent Demetrius Douglas will face fellow Democrat Attania Jean-Funny in the race for District 78, while incumbent Angela Moore is running against Greg Shealey in the Democratic primary race for District 91.
Regina Lewis-Ward, a Democrat, is unopposed and will return to her District 115 seat. The race in District 116 is between incumbent Democrat El-Mahdi Holly and Republican challenger Bruce Bennington.
A field of six is in the race for District 117, none of whom are incumbents. The Democratic challengers are Mya Cullins and Demetrius Rucker. The Republican field includes Clayton Carte, Lester Clark, Lauren Daniel and Noelle Kahaian.
The list of candidates for local races was taken from the county election board’s website. The state legislative candidate list is from the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.
