A line added to a page on the Shelby County Election Commission’s website the last day of February has turned this year’s race for Memphis mayor upside down.

The Shelby County Election Commission released a legal opinion Feb. 28 that said Memphis’ five-year residency requirement for mayoral candidates should be enforced in the upcoming Memphis municipal election. 

The business and philanthropic leader kicked off his mayoral bid Monday, March 6, in South Memphis straddling the issues of crime and police reform.

Southaven alderman Charlie Hoots would like to add state representative to his resume.

The Mississippi state GOP leaders ruled Thursday that despite living in D.C. during the Trump Administration, Mandy Gunasekara meets the residency requirements to run for Public Service Commission in the Northern District.

The measure would not apply to this year’s mayoral election. 

The time Mandy Gunasekara spent in D.C. working for the Trump administration has called her residency into question, and her ability to run for the office.

Bonner moves back within the Memphis city limits ahead of his bid for city mayor later this year. 

Several city council races start to take shape with familiar names from the past, and the local Democratic party will have a new leader this spring. Former New York Congressman Lee Zelden talks to Memphis Republicans about competing.

Name recognition could give Herenton an edge, observers say.

Three contenders reported raising $300,000 or better in the first financial report of the mayor’s race. J.W. Gibson talked on The Daily Memphian’s “On The Record” podcast about his mix of contributions with self financing and why he wants to depart from outgoing Mayor Jim Strickland’s “brilliant at the basics” theme.

Candidates file for a number of party primaries in DeSoto County. Two supervisor races are among the contested elections.

Memphis City Council member Frank Colvett formally announced his candidacy Thursday, Feb. 2.

The DMC president raised $347,482 since September compared to the $311,719 raised by Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner and $300,000 by businessman and philanthropist J.W. Gibson. 

Environmental activist Justin J. Pearson followed up his Tuesday victory in the District 86 Democratic primary with a 9-0 county commission vote Wednesday, appointing him to the open seat in the Shelby County delegation.

In his first race for elected office, Pearson easily beat attorney and former Shelby County Commissioner Julian Bolton in the Democratic primary. Pearson will be running uncontested in the general election.

Van Turner and Paul Young talked about returning to Memphis after college and the role that’s played in their campaigns at separate fundraisers Saturday, Jan. 14.

With a new set of election days looming in DeSoto County, officials are looking at new equipment, new voting locations and hoping to increase pay for poll workers.

The co-founder of the People’s Convention said on The Daily Memphian’s “On The Record” podcast a 2023 edition of the gathering could serve to whittle down the field in this year’s race for Memphis mayor. Meanwhile state House District 86 contenders clashed Tuesday, Jan. 3, at a community forum.

Seventeen candidates filed qualifying papers on Tuesday as the DeSoto County election season kicked off for a variety of offices later this year.

Here is all of the information you need to participate in the first local election of 2023. 

Gibson is a former Shelby County Commissioner who founded Gibson Companies, which has been involved in several economic development projects.

The 11 who made the noon Thursday, Dec. 15, filing deadline are all in the Jan. 24 Democratic primary in the predominantly Democratic district. No one filed in the companion Republican primary.

The certified vote totals from the November election show an increase in the number of provisional ballots cast and counted compared to the August elections. The votes added didn’t change any of the outcomes on the November ballot, but they did boost the turnout to 34.4%.

The 2023 election year will begin in Memphis with a set of January primaries for the late Barbara Cooper’s state House seat.