Who’s on the ballot?

Candidates file for office in March 2024 vote

By RALPH HARDIN

ralphhardin@gmail.com

We are just a bit over three months away from the March 5, 2024 elections, which will include a slate of party primaries, nonpartisan judicial races and the local school board contests.

But who is on the ballot? Candidates filed earlier this month here in Crittenden County and in Little Rock, as everything from President of the United States to local municipal offices will be up for grabs next month.

It all starts at the top, as President Joe Biden will be seeking re-election in 2024. While Biden is all but guaranteed to win the Democratic Party nomination, there are a number of candidates who have filed to challenge him in the March Arkansas Primary.

Joining Biden on the ballot will be Frankie Lozada, Armando Perez-Serrato, Dean Phillips, Cenk Uygur, Marianne Williamson, and Stephen P. Lyons. While all of Biden’s challengers are political unknowns, they did complete the necessary paperwork to have their names placed on the ballot.

Of course, the Republican Party will be attempting to unseat Biden, and the GOP will be holding its own primaries to choose a candidate. Former president Donald Trump is running again. Opposing him for the nomination is a familiar face in former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson. Other candidates for president who filed for the Arkansas primary vote are Chris Christie, David Stuckenberg, Doug Burgum, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Ryan Binkley and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Two positions in particular

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have drawn a lot of interest among the local citizenry. Both of the Arkansas House of Representative seats that include Crittenden County are up for grabs, as both incumbents have elected not to seek another term in 2024.

Earlier this year, within weeks of each other, State Rep. Milton Nicks (D-Marion, Dist. 35) and State Rep. Deborah Ferguson (D-West Memphis, Dist. 63) both declared they would be stepping down at the end of their current terms.

With both seats coming open, a number of local current, former and aspiring politicians have filed to seek a seat in the Arkansas General Assembly, and the field of candidates looking to fill the vacancies Nicks and Ferguson will leave come January 2025 is quite crowded.

Seeking the District 35 seat, which includes Marion, Earle and most of rural Crittenden County, are four Democratic candidates and two Republican candidates.

For the Democrats, a pair of political veterans, former Marion City Councilwoman, Sherry Hollilman and Earle City Councilman Demetris Johnson Jr., are joined by Rayond Whiteside, who has recently taken up a leadership role in the Crittenden County Democratic party and political newcomer Jessie McGruder, the head football coach at Wonder Junior High School in West Memphis.

The Republican contenders in the District 35 seat are Quorum Court Justice Robert Thorne Jr. and Gary Tobar, who a familiar name on the ballot to local voters following several unsuccessful office bids going back to 2010.

In the race to replace Ferguson, there is only one Republican who filed for the primary, Tammi Northcutt Bell. Though bell has never run for public office, her status as the lone GOP filer means she will be on the November ballot next year for the Republicans.

Running for the Democrats are Hughes Mayor Lincoln Barnett, as well as Billy Thomen, who is both a County Constable and a member of the West Memphis School Board. Rounding out the field is businessman Fred Leonard, who ran for mayor of West Memphis in 2018 and has set the Arkansas House as his next foray into politics.

U.S. Congressman Rick Crawford (R-AR1) has filed for re-election. No other Republican candidate filed to challenge him for his seat in the House of Representatives, but Cabot businessman Rodney Govens has filed to run as a Democrat for that seat. As both are unopposed, they will meet in the Nov. 5, 2025 General Election.

Outside of District 1, Arkansas’s three other Congressmen filed for re-election as well. In District 2, Rep. French Hill, a Republican, is unopposed, as is his challenger Democrat Marcus Jones. In District 3, a pair of Democrats, Caitlin Draper and State Senator Clint Penzo will square of in the primary to determine who will face GOP incumbent Rep. Steve Womack next November. And in District 4, Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman is unopposed in his own party, but a pair of Democrats, Risie Howard and John White will vie for votes in the Democratic primary for the right to challenge him.

In the nonpartisan judicial races: Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Karen Baker, Jay Martin, Supreme Court Justice Barbara Womack Webb and Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood will be vying for votes in the race for State Supreme Court Chief Justice Position 1.

Judge Carlton D. Jones and State Supreme Court Justice Courtney Hudson are contending for the State Supreme Court Associate Justice Position 2, while Supreme Court Justice Shawn A. Womack is the lone candidate for State Supreme Court Associate Justice Position 5.

Closer to home, all 11 seats on the Crittenden County Quorum Court are up for grabs once again. In Justice of the Peace District 1, Justice Vickie Robertson is unopposed. In JP District 2, a pair of Republicans, JP Albert Marconi and challenger Otis Rushing will face off in the primary (there is no Democratic candidate). In JP District 2, it’s the opposite. With no Republican filing to run, Democrat and incumbent JP Stacy Allen will face Patsy Hull in the primary vote.

In JP District 4, two Democrats filed to run: incumbent JP Tamara Hood and her challenger Patricia Ann Lane. A familiar name appears in the JP District 5 race alongside JP Tyrone McWright. He will be challenged in the Democratic Primary by West Memphis Mayor Marco Mc-Clendon.

Justice Thomas Dill is unopposed in his bid to return to his JP District 6 seat on the Quorum Court. In the District 7 race, Justice Ronnie Marconi and fellow Democrat Rickey McCauley will face off. Two newcomers to the Quorum Court scene will vie for the JP District 8 seat. Republican Glen Sidney Hardin and Democrat Thula Thomas are both the lone candidate for their party and will meet in November.

Justice Kenneth Cross is unopposed for his JP District 9 seat. While in the District 10 race, Democratic incumbent JP James Fraley will be challenged by former Turrell mayor Dorothy Cooper. The winner of that race will be challenged by GOP candidate Bradly Moore in November. And in the District 11 race, Justice Lisa O’Neal is unopposed.

Of the local school board races, there is only one contested race. For the West Memphis School Board’s At-Large Position 1 seat, incumbent Anthony Hampton will be challenged by Jack Poff Jr. Zone 3 school board member Dr. Kimberly Wolfe is unopposed, as is Marion School Board Zone 2 incumbent John E. Minton.

The winners of the March 5 primary next year will face off in the General Election on Nov. 5, 2024. Candidates for the various local municipal offices will file for those elections later next year.

Register to Vote

Have you turned 18 years of age since the last election? New to Crittenden County or even to the State of Arkansas? Just never got around to registering to vote?

Now is the perfect time to go ahead and register to have your voice heard in the upcoming elections. To qualify to vote in Arkansas, you must:

■ ■ Be a U.S. citizen

■ ■ Be an Arkansas resident

■ ■ Be 18 or will turn 18 before

March 5, 2024.

■ ■ Not be a convicted felon, or have you sentence discharged or pardoned.

■ ■ Not be presently judged as mentally incompetent as to your ability to vote.

To register to vote, you can visit the Crittenden County Clerk’s Office, visit the Marion or West Memphis Revenue Office, or download an application from the Arkansas Secretary of State’s web site.

Ballot Draw

The Crittenden County Election Commission will conduct the ballot draw for the March primary on Thursday, Dec. 7, at 12 noon, in the Election Commission office in the County Courthouse Administration Building next to the Crittenden County Courthouse. The public is welcome to attend.