The results from the Wayne County Election last Thursday started coming in quickly after all precincts closed at 7:00 p.m. The ballot included seats on the Waynesboro City Commission, along with the County General Election and the State & Federal Primary Election.
The two seats on the Waynesboro City Commission were filled by current Commissioner Jeff Davis and newcomer Lynn Warren. Of the total 807 votes cast in this race, Warren captured the most at 316, or 39%. Davis was second with 244 votes (30%). Tracy Martin received 162 votes (20%), and Phillip Carroll received 84 votes (10%). The other vote was a write-in.
Current Wayne County Property Assessor Dustin White ran unopposed, and retained his seat with a complimentary vote of 2,326. The unopposed Chris Sockwell was re-elected as Circuit Court Judge, and also-unopposed Travis Jones was elected as Public Defender District 22. Gregory Hanners was elected as Democratic State Executive Committee Person.
Five seats on the Wayne County School Board were on Thursday’s ballot, with all but one seeing candidates running unopposed. Andy Yarbrough retained his District 1 seat; Charity Horton was re-elected to her District 3 seat; Greg Eaton will remain in the District 7 seat; and newcomer Debbie Brown was elected to the District 4 seat. District 6 had two candidates on the ballot, Camryn Eaton and Kevin Kelley. Eaton was elected with 270, or 69%, of the 394 votes cast. Kelley received 124 votes (31%).
In the Tennessee State Senate District 28 primary race, Republican Joey Hensley ran unopposed for his party. No Democratic candidate qualified to run, so Senator Hensley will be unopposed in the November general election.
Tennessee State Representative for the 71st District, David “Coach” Byrd, was up against two other candidates on the Republican primary ballot, Austin Carroll and Garry Welch. Representative Byrd won the race with 2,027 (83%) of the 2,437 Wayne County votes cast. Carroll received 280 votes (12%), while Welch received 130 votes in Wayne County (5%). As there were no qualifying candidates on the Democratic ticket, Representative Byrd will be unopposed in the November general election.
One candidate from each party ran in the primary for the seat in the United States House of Representatives District 7. Republican Mark Green will face off against Democrat Kiran Sreepada in November.
In the primary race for United States Senate, 15 candidates qualified on the Republican ticket. Two of those candidates, Bill Hagerty and Manny Sethi, accounted for 91% of the votes cast in Wayne County. Bill Hagerty won the Wayne County vote with 1,500 of the 2,378 votes cast, and took the state of Tennessee overall. Sethi came in second in Wayne County with 667 votes. On the Democratic ticket, Gary Davis won Wayne County with 53 of the 155 votes cast, but Marquita Bradshaw, who came in second in Wayne County, won the statewide primary for the seat. Bradshaw and Hagerty will face off against each other in November.
The next chance for Wayne County voters to go to the polls will be in November. Along with Tennessee and United States Senators and Representatives, our nation will elect a President on Tuesday, November 3rd.
