July is the month in city election years that tests the mettle of those who want to be mayor and serve on the Memphis City Council.

It tests their mental and physical stamina during the hottest part of summer.

For county election years, July is a sprint, with early voting by mid-month and election day in the first week of August.

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City candidates and their supporters have to make it to early voting in mid-September and election day in the first week of October. July 20 is the deadline to get on the fall ballot.

Seven mayoral and seven city council contenders found comfort Saturday, July 1, at Southland Mall in Whitehaven. The meet-and-greet forum hosted by the People’s Convention was the latest in a series and the second at the mall in a part of town crucial to any citywide race.

The air conditioning in the city’s first shopping mall struggled to keep up with the heat outside. And many of the candidates were scheduled for outdoor campaigning later in the day.

“I needed to lose a couple of pounds,” said mayoral contender J.W. Gibson. “I’m going to be at all of them, all of them I can possibly be at.”

People’s Convention co-founder Rev. Earle Fisher says including council candidates with mayoral contenders is important because of changes the next council could make to the ground rules for winning a citywide election.

The city has no runoff requirement for the mayor’s race and the Super District council seats. Each super district has three council representatives and covers half of the city.

Efforts to allow for partisan primaries, which would require city voters to pass a charter change, fell short last year. The Tennessee legislature outlawed instant-runoff voting, where a voter makes multiple choices in a single race and then ranks those choices.

Fisher says his group plans to ask council candidates about the options.

“I don’t think any of us would be served well if anybody ends up in office with less than 25% of the electorate,” he said. “It protects the integrity of the election process, as far as it not being able to be easily manipulated and the Black vote not being able to be diluted.”

Fisher hopes some prominent no-shows among the mayoral candidates, Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. and former Mayor Willie Herenton, will eventually participate in the People’s Convention events.

“We are still trying to provide space for those candidates who haven’t been willing to engage in this yet,” Fisher said. “We think that that signifies what might happen if they ultimately end up in office.”

The convention has moved from tentative dates in mid-July to Aug. 10-12 at the Memphis Sports and Event Center at Liberty Park.

Jennings Bernard was the newest mayoral contender to participate in the meet-and-greets; Bernard was issued a petition at the end of May adding another bid to a lengthy list of city and county offices he’s sought.

“I decided one more time,” he said as he talked of crime as the dominant issue in the race for mayor. “The only person who can lead us out of this is a leader, not a politician.”

Mayoral contender Paul Young says crime is the “No. 1 challenge” for those on the city ballot.

“I don’t think any of us would be served well if anybody ends up in office with less than 25% of the electorate. It protects the integrity of the election process, as far as it not being able to be easily manipulated and the Black vote not being able to be diluted.”

Rev. Earle Fisher
People’s Convention co-founder

“It started off being the biggest issue … and today it’s an even bigger issue,” he told The Daily Memphian. “Every candidate, it’s incumbent upon us to articulate how we are going to have an impact on the youth and the crime we are seeing in our communities.”

Young said his pace of campaign stops will become more challenging as his calendar expands.

“The stops have to be a little shorter than I would like because I like to stay and engage with as many people as possible,” he said.

Mayoral candidate Karen Camper adopted a mall strategy of “talking and walking and fanning.”

She is already mapping a door-to-door summer campaign schedule that won’t include every door in a specific neighborhood. Like most candidates, she’s using the miniVAN app that identifies doors to knock on based on voter activity.

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“I talk to R(epublican)s. I talk to D(emocrat)s. A lot of them are leaning a lot toward what is the economic future. We can talk about that,” she said. “We can agree on some things and they can work with me on that. Others are concerned about what is Memphis going to do about crime. I think that ain’t a partisan issue.”

Mayoral and council candidates were cordial with one another, often sitting side-by-side at tables in the mall's center as shoppers walked by in clusters.

A voter who got a yard sign from Young’s campaign stopped a few feet away at Camper’s booth to talk with her. Brian Harris, who’s running for City Council Super District 8 Position 3, noticed and asked, “You got mine?”

Mayor’s race

Justina Ragland is the fifth contender to officially file a petition in the Mayor’s race, joining Bonner, Gibson, Herenton and Derek Winn.

That’s as of the latest Shelby County Election Commission listing through June 30.

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Meanwhile, David Winston has been issued a petition to join a potential field of 16 mayoral hopefuls.

Winston, managing partner of Memphis-based Film Capital Strategies, previously ran for the Super District 9 special election in 2018 to fill the vacancy created by Philip Spinosa’s resignation.

Winston finished last in the field of seven. Ford Canale claimed the seat and went on to win a full four-year term in 2019 and is seeking a second term on the October ballot.

The District 3 council race is so far the busiest of the 13.

With the filing deadline two weeks away, the four official contenders are retired Memphis police Col. James Kirkwood, Kaye McNeary, talk show host and broadcaster Towanna Murphy and Whitehaven activist Pearl Walker.

Green enters council race

Attorney Jerri Green has joined the race for City Council District 2, currently held by Frank Colvett, who is running for mayor. The district is one of four council seats with no incumbent seeking reelection.

Green, a special policy adviser to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, has been issued her qualifying petition to get on the October ballot.

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Green also ran for the District 83 state House seat in 2020 as the Democratic nominee, challenging Republican incumbent Mark White.

Green lost, getting 46% of the total votes.

Former Probate Court Clerk Paul Boyd was issued his petition to run for council District 2 the same week as Green.

None of the 10 contenders with petitions have filed those positions with the required signatures as of June 30.

Other council races

Former Councilman Berlin Boyd has narrowed the number of council races he is considering to two: Super District 8 Positions 2 and 3.

Boyd withdrew his previous petition for Super District 8 Position 1, which is held by incumbent JB Smiley Jr., who is seeking reelection.

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Boyd’s name also is no longer on the list for District 7, where incumbent Michalyn Easter-Thomas is seeking reelection. Easter-Thomas defeated Boyd in 2019.

The Super District 8 Position 2 seat is held by incumbent Cheyenne Johnson, who is seeking reelection.

Boyd, along with would-be challengers Davin Clemons, Rod Ford and Jerred Price, all have petitions issued for other council races, including Super District 8 Position 3 – an open seat where incumbent Martavius Jones is term-limited from seeking a third consecutive term.

In that race of nine potential contenders, Yolanda Cooper-Sutton is the only candidate who has filed so far.

Kymberly Kelley has been issued a petition to challenge District 1 council member Rhonda Logan. General Sessions Court Clerk administrator Michael Williams also plans to get into the race.

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Benjamin R. Smith III has a petition out to challenge Super District 9 Position 1 Councilman Chase Carlisle.

Councilman Jeff Warren has filed his petition to seek another term in Super District 9 Position 3.

Warren is the fourth of the nine council members seeking reelection to file for their spot on the ballot, joining Jana Swearengen-Washington, Smiley and Canale.