Moody to announce decision on county mayor’s race
Ken Moody, special assistant to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, in September of 2021 when he first spoke about a possible challenge of county mayor Lee Harris in the May Democratic primary. (Bill Dries/Daily Memphian file)
Four months after he announced he was exploring a run for Shelby County mayor, Ken Moody is expected to formally kick off his challenge of incumbent Mayor Lee Harris Thursday, Jan. 5.
His campaign booked Hattiloo Theatre in Overton Square for the Thursday announcement by Moody, a former University of Memphis basketball player and assistant to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. Moody pulled his qualifying petition Dec. 21 to get in the May Democratic primary race.
Moody said in September that his decision on getting into the race would not depend on whether Harris sought a second term.
Harris appointed a campaign treasurer for this year’s re-election effort in 2019 — about a year into his current four-year term.
He formally opened his re-election campaign last month and has been aggressively fundraising to post an end-of-year dollar figure that will signal he is ready to take on all challengers.
Memphis City Council member Worth Morgan is actively campaigning in the Republican mayoral primary, although he has not yet pulled a qualifying petition.
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2022 county mayor's race Ken MoodyBill Dries on demand
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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