Former Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer won a hard-fought partisan contest for General Sessions Court clerk in the only countywide race on the Thursday, Aug. 1, ballot.

The race results continued Democratic dominance of countywide offices with voters on each side saying they were reacting to larger issues and differences between the two parties.

Sawyer upset incumbent clerk Joe Brown in the March Democratic primary and defeated Republican nominee Lisa Arnold, a retired clerk’s office employee, in Thursday’s county general election. 

Clift to succeed father as Germantown judge

Sawyer won with 54% of the vote, or 40,383 by the unofficial vote totals, compared to Arnold’s 46%, or 34,563. 

Four newcomers will join the nine-member Memphis-Shelby County Schools board, according to unofficial election results. Stephanie Love, who represents District 3, is the only one of the three incumbents to retain her seat. 

Natalie McKinney (2), Tamarques Porter (4), Sable Otey (5) and Towanna Murphy (7) will join the nonpartisan school board for the first time. 

The new board will oversee Superintendent Marie Feagins, who took the helm in April at the end of a contentious search process that stretched for nearly two years.

What Althea Greene and Natalie McKinney had to say on Election Day

Evaluating Feagins’ leadership will be an early task of the new board. Feagins has pledged to boost student attendance and academic performance, and expects to deliver a new strategic plan for board member approval this fall. This board is also expected to make decisions to close and consolidate school buildings as part of an effort to tackle a growing deferred maintenance bill. 

U.S. Senate primary results

Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn coasted to a primary win in Thursday’s statewide primary with state Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, emerging as her challenger in the Nov. 5 general election.

Blackburn defeated political newcomer Tres Wittum of Nashville.

Johnson, who watched election returns and celebrated in Memphis on Thursday night, won in a four-way race in which Memphis environmental activist Marquita Bradshaw finished second. 

U.S. House primary results, District 8

Republican incumbent David Kustoff was unopposed in Thursday’s primary across the 20-county district including parts of Shelby County. He will face Sarah Freeman of Germantown, winner of a five-way Democratic primary, in the Nov. 5 general election.

The incumbents in every contested Shelby County legislative primary cruised to reelection Thursday, meaning there may not be much change in the local delegation. 

In the only open race, Gabby Salinas narrowly edged out Telisa Franklin and three other challengers to win the District 96 Democratic primary. Salinas finished with 2,168 votes compared to Franklin’s 2,036, according to the unofficial totals.

Salinas is the former Shelby County Democratic Party chairwoman. She will advance to the statehouse as she faces no primary opponent. 

Shelby County has five contested general elections this fall after the Thursday, Aug. 1, primary elections. 

Arlington voters elected four incumbents and two newcomers in Thursday’s election, but school board member Lyle Conley barely held on to her office, turning away challenger Betsy McEntire by a mere 15 votes.

The Conley-McEntire race was by far the closest in the Arlington municipal election, the only suburb deciding on alderman and school board seats on Thursday. And of the six races on Thursday’s ballot, only two races were contested.

In the Position 2 alderman’s race, Dwight Barker defeated Jordan D. Hinders for the open seat after incumbent and former mayor Russell Wiseman decided not to seek reelection.

The other four races on the ballot were uncontested, including Mayor Mike Wissman, who won his fourth four-year term.

Rhea Clift, a prosecutor in Bartlett Municipal Court, will serve as the next Germantown judge after defeating Justin Gee by a large margin in Thursday’s election.

Clift, whose father Ray Clift served as Germantown judge for years, earned nearly 63% of the votes, according to unofficial totals by the Shelby County Election Commission. Totals are unofficial until the commission certifies results.

In Bartlett, Municipal Judge Dan Brown ran unopposed to serve another term on the the suburb’s Division 2 bench.

Clift, whose career has focused on prosecution, won over Gee, a defense attorney. Clift had 1,000 more votes than Gee when early voting totals were calculated. She maintained the lead throughout the evening.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson has won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and will face off against Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn in November, pitting a survivor of a Republican-led expulsion effort over a gun control protest against a close ally of former President Donald Trump.

Johnson defeated three primary opponents, including Marquita Bradshaw, a Memphis community activist and organizer who notably won the Democratic Senate nomination in 2020 then lost to Republican Bill Hagerty by a wide margin.

Blackburn overcame a Republican primary challenge from Tres Wittum, a former Tennessee legislative staffer who placed last in the 5th Congressional District primary in 2022.

Tennessee has solely elected GOP statewide candidates for nearly two decades.

Shelby County’s early voting results show former Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer leading Republican nominee Lisa Arnold in the countywide race for General Sessions Court clerk.

Sawyer won 56% of the early vote compared to Arnold’s 44%.

In the five Memphis-Shelby County Schools races, the early vote shows:

• In District 2, Natalie McKinney leading incumbent and board chairwoman Althea Green with 47% of the vote to Greene’s 36.8%.
• In District 3, incumbent Stephanie Love led three other challengers with 60.6% of the early vote.
• In the District 4 race with no incumbent seeking reelection, Tamarques Porter led the five candidates with 45.7% of the vote. His closest competitor was Eric Harris, with 26.2% of the vote.
• Sable Otey was leading District 5 incumbent Mauricio Calvo with 43.7% of the early vote compared to 31.4% for Calvo.
• Towanna Murphy took the early vote in a five-candidate field in District 7, where incumbent Frank Johnson remained on the ballot even though he withdrew from the race during the 14-day early voting period. Murphy had 33.5% of the vote to 26.2% for Jason Sharif. Sharif was followed closely by Danielle Huggins.

In state House primaries, Telisa Franklin led the Democratic primary for District 96 over Gabby Salinas in a five-way race with no incumbent. The Democratic primary will determine who gets the seat that Democratic incumbent Dwayne Thompson is leaving.

There is such a thing as an afternoon rush at the polls.

But “rush” is a relative term when turnout up to the time when many voters are driving home from work is less than 16,000.

Through 3 p.m. today, the Shelby County Election Commission counted 15,754 voters since the polls opened at 7 a.m. 

“As we get toward the end of the day, many people put it off to the very last moment,” said Shelby County Election Commission chairman Mark Luttrell Thursday afternoon.

As the polls close at 7 p.m., the Shelby County Election Commission’s vote count will be a bit different this time because of a new state law called the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act.

The act requires an audit of absentee ballots — specifically the absentee totals in five random precincts.

Until this election, the election commission didn’t count absentee ballots by precinct.

The change allows for a precinct audit of the mail-in ballots. The count will take some time in advance of an election commission audit to certify the vote. That audit will conclude after Election Day but before certification.

There wasn’t much of a rush Thursday morning, Aug. 1, as far as voting was concerned across Shelby County.

“At 10 a.m., the count was roughly 4,500,” Shelby County elections administrator Linda Phillips said of the drive-time voting.

Phillips delivered her noon update at the elections operations center in Shelby Farms Park.

“I was thinking school board races would bring them out, but I don’t know,” she said. “We do see some slight uptick in the areas where there are contested school board races, but they are still not robust.”

Academic success and student safety were the top concerns of a handful of voters who came to cast their ballots after lunch at New Beginnings Community Church on Kirby Parkway. 

Voters who had passionate opinions about needs for the Memphis education system weren’t as passionate about particular candidates to represent them in the District 4 school board seat, based on interviews with a Daily Memphian reporter.

Families in District 4, which covers a swath of southeast Shelby County, are sure to have a new representative on the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board this year. Longtime incumbent Kevin Woods is not seeking reelection. Five seats of the nine-member board are on the ballot.

Michon Anderson, who brought her 8-year-old daughter to the polls, said she was frustrated to not yet know who her daughter’s teacher would be on Monday, Aug. 5, the first day of school. 

Althea Greene drove away from the polling center at Springdale Baptist Church. A few minutes later, Natalie McKinney arrived. 

It was a busy morning Thursday, Aug. 1, for two of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board candidates vying for the District 2 seat.

“I’ll be glad when 7 p.m. comes,” Greene said. 

In their own words: Meet MSCS District 2 school board candidates

Greene has been on the board since 2019, serving as chair for the last two years. She guided the board through a tumultuous 18-month superintendent search that ultimately selected Marie Feagins to guide Tennessee’s largest district. 

A campaign worker was handing out Corey Strong flyers at around 10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 1, outside of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Strong, Latroy A-Williams and Kasandra L. Smith are the Democratic challengers to incumbent Steve Cohen in the primary for U.S. House of Representatives, District 9.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Charlotte Bergmann in November.

The campaign worker was in compliance with the rules by being more than 100 feet from the entrance. Two signs in the parking lot indicated where that 100 feet began.

At White Station Church of Christ, there are two precincts, one of which is considerably smaller than the other. Poll workers were thrilled to welcome their first voter of the day in the smaller precinct at 10:45 a.m. 

The polling place at 1106 Colonial Road was slow for both precincts — 13-10 and 13-11 — that vote at the same site.

The ballot there covered primary races for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, District 9, and Tennessee House of Representatives, District 97 as well as Shelby County Court Clerk.

On a quiet morning at District 2 polling sites, voters still had plenty to say about the contested school board race between incumbent Althea Greene and Natalie McKinney.

There were no lines at any of the four District 2 polling locations visited by a Daily Memphian reporter. Both candidates for the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board seat visited the polls, speaking to voters and campaign workers. 

Greene is in her second year as board chair after joining the board in 2019. Some voters felt the board needed a new perspective. 

“(McKinney’s) experience, her care, I think they would be a breath of fresh air to the school board,” Jeff Riddle said outside the polling center at Springdale Baptist Church, 1193 Springdale St. “They’ve had a lot of turmoil and change.”

Voters were getting through the entire check-in and voting process in less than five minutes at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 3245 Central Ave., Thursday, Aug. 1. 

There were more poll workers than voters and no lines. If candidates or their representatives planned to work the parking lot, they hadn’t arrived by 7:20 a.m. The quiet lot was dotted with a few campaign signs.

There is no school board race in District 1. 

Inside, poll workers registered voters, checking and rechecking addresses in a perfunctory efficiency, and thanked the citizens for voting. There were insulated urns of coffee, cookies and ice water, condensation dripping down the glass. 

It was no line, no waiting at One City Church in East Memphis Thursday, Aug. 1, and poll workers were in a jovial mood around 8:15 a.m. 

At the polling place, located at 120 N. East Yates Road, voters marked primary ballots for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, District 8, and Tennessee House of Representatives, District 97, races. They also voted for Shelby County Court Clerk. 

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This Election Day — Thursday, Aug. 1 — is an encore to the pandemic version of the same election cycle four years ago.

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused a spike in absentee voting that didn’t repeat itself this year. 

There were 44,647 early and absentee votes cast from Friday, July 12, through Saturday, July 27, slightly more than half of the 81,313 early votes cast in 2020.

The Daily Memphian is making this story free to all readers. Please consider supporting local journalism and this community by subscribing to this site or by donating to our organization. Thank you for your support.

Here’s everything you need to know about voting on Thursday, Aug. 1, an Election Day that includes a mix of state and federal primaries, one countywide race and races for five seats on the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board.

If you are normally an early voter, Election Day is a bit different. You must vote in the precinct where you live.

If you already voted early, do not vote on Election Day. Yes, people do forget they voted early, especially with a lot of familiar names on the ballot. While you can vote early, electronic poll books will likely catch you if you try to vote often.